Spilt Milk 2026 brings Lewis Capaldi and RAYE to four Australian festival stops
Australia's travelling festival Spilt Milk is preparing a major edition for December 2026, with Lewis Capaldi and RAYE at the top of the bill. Organisers have confirmed four one-day editions scheduled in Canberra, the Gold Coast, Geelong and Perth, with both British artists billed as exclusive Australian performances as part of the festival. This gives Spilt Milk two very different but globally recognised pop names for the finale of the Australian festival year: Capaldi, known for major ballads and his return to the stage after an extended break, and RAYE, the songwriter and singer whose career has accelerated sharply in recent years through international success, awards and major tours.
According to the festival's official website, the programme will take place over two consecutive weekends in December. The first stop will be Exhibition Park in Canberra on 12 December, followed by Gold Coast Sports Precinct on 13 December, while the second weekend is reserved for Kardinia Park Precinct in Geelong on 19 December and Claremont Showground in Perth on 20 December. Alongside the city names, organisers also use the names of traditional First Nations areas: Ngunnawal for Canberra, Kombumerri for the Gold Coast, Wadawurrung for Geelong and Whadjuk for Perth.
Four cities across two festival weekends
Spilt Milk's schedule retains the travelling one-day festival model, in which the same main programme moves between several Australian cities. This format gives audiences from different parts of the country an opportunity to see an almost identical package of artists without requiring the festival to be concentrated in one major urban centre. The following dates and locations have been confirmed for 2026:
- 12 December 2026. - Exhibition Park, Canberra / Ngunnawal
- 13 December 2026. - Gold Coast Sports Precinct, Gold Coast / Kombumerri
- 19 December 2026. - Kardinia Park Precinct, Geelong / Wadawurrung
- 20 December 2026. - Claremont Showground, Perth / Whadjuk
Live Nation states in its event announcement that Lewis Capaldi and RAYE will appear on all four dates and describes their performances as exclusive Australian concerts. Spilt Milk's official communication uses the wording that both will "perform only at Spilt Milk", meaning the festival tour is currently the main confirmed way for Australian audiences to see them in December. This is a particularly important part of the programme because, alongside a strong domestic line-up, the festival is also trying to offer international names that will not simultaneously be part of a series of competing festival programmes.
Lewis Capaldi arrives after a major return to the stage
For Lewis Capaldi, the Australian festival dates come during a period of intensive return to live activity. The Scottish singer-songwriter took an extended break from touring, and during 2025 he returned with new music and a series of performances. According to data from the UK's Official Charts Company, his single "Survive", released in June 2025, reached number one on the UK singles chart and achieved the biggest opening week of sales and streaming of his career up to that point. The song also marked a new chapter after a two-year break from a more intensive public concert schedule.
Capaldi therefore comes to Australia with a catalogue that already includes globally recognised songs such as "Someone You Loved", "Before You Go" and "Wish You the Best", as well as newer material from the period following his return. Official Charts states that "Someone You Loved" became one of the most important streaming successes of his generation in the United Kingdom, while Capaldi himself has accumulated several number-one singles on the UK chart during his career. For Spilt Milk, this means a headliner whose repertoire has an exceptionally broad reach beyond festival audiences, from pop radio listeners to audiences following singer-songwriter and ballad-oriented music.
RAYE arrives as one of the most awarded British songwriters of the new generation
RAYE enters the festival programme with a different profile. In recent years, the British singer, songwriter and producer has built a reputation as an artist who combines pop, R&B, soul, jazz and electronic elements, while the album "My 21st Century Blues" brought her a global breakthrough as a solo artist. At the 2024 BRIT Awards, she won a record six awards in a single year, including honours for album, artist, song and songwriter of the year. The BRIT Awards organisers state in their official records that this broke the previous record for the number of wins at a single ceremony.
Further recognition came in 2026, when the Recording Academy named "Ice Cream Man." the winner of the Harry Belafonte Best Song for Social Change award. It is a special honour for writers of music with a socially relevant message, and the award was presented to RAYE, BloodPop and Mike Sabath. This context further explains why her name is positioned equally alongside Capaldi's at the top of the poster: at this point, RAYE is not only a festival pop artist, but also one of the most internationally visible British songwriters of her generation.
The programme combines pop, hip-hop, electronic music and the Australian scene
Behind the two main names is a broad programme that deliberately crosses genre boundaries. Among the most prominent artists are Irish producer and DJ KETTAMA, American rapper Baby Keem, British pop singer-songwriter Maisie Peters, American singer Remi Wolf and Australian rock band DMA’S. STÜM and TOBIAHS also appear in the upper section of the poster, giving the festival's electronic component significant space alongside pop and hip-hop.
The official festival programme also lists Aleksiah, Becca Hatch, Borderline, F3MIII, Fat Papi, Harry Hayes, Jigitz, Leyla Ebrahimi, Miss Kaninna, PASH, Samara Cyn, The Moving Stills, The Terrys and Yes Boone. This combination of established international artists, Australian names and emerging acts continues the model through which Spilt Milk has positioned itself as a festival with major headliners but also with a sufficiently broad daytime programme to attract audiences from several musical circles. Previous editions of the festival have featured, among others, Kendrick Lamar, Doechii, Post Malone, Lorde, Childish Gambino, Flume, Khalid, Dom Dolla and Steve Lacy.
Spilt Milk is also not limited exclusively to music stages. On the official website for 2026, Ryan Crotty, Studio A and Vic Park Arts are listed among the artistic collaborators. In this way, organisers continue the practice of incorporating visual art into the festival space, so the one-day format includes installations and creative collaborations connected with the festival locations in addition to concerts.
Geelong becomes the festival's new Victorian base
The biggest organisational change compared with previous years concerns the state of Victoria. After four editions in Ballarat, Spilt Milk is moving to Geelong, where Kardinia Park Stadium & Precinct will serve as its Victorian location at least until 2030. The City of Greater Geelong announced that this is a five-year partnership with Kicks Entertainment, the festival's producer and curator, with support from city bodies, Geelong Major Events and the tourism organisation Visit Victoria.
Local authorities also view the move as a tourism and economic project. According to estimates published by the City of Greater Geelong, the venue can accommodate up to 55,000 visitors, while the 2026 edition is expected to generate more than 30,000 visitor nights and around 15.5 million Australian dollars in local economic impact. The city also estimates that over the entire partnership period the festival could contribute 94.3 million Australian dollars to the local economy and generate 187,579 visitor nights. These are local-government projections rather than results already achieved, so the actual impact will depend on attendance, spending and the conditions under which individual editions are held.
Kardinia Park Stadium Trust separately states that Spilt Milk generated more than 46.7 million Australian dollars for the state economy across four Victorian editions from 2019. According to data published by the Trust, the 2025 edition alone generated an estimated 17.2 million dollars in Victoria, with 34,100 visitors travelling from outside the local region. These figures show why the move to Geelong is being viewed as a long-term decision rather than a one-off change of location.
Tickets are on sale, and the festival is intended for adults
Ticket sales began in late July, and the official festival and Moshtix pages continue to direct visitors to purchases for individual cities. Moshtix states that attendees must be at least 18 years old and that prices are expressed in Australian dollars and include tax and service fees. On the pages for Geelong, Perth and the Gold Coast, the first pricing allocations are already marked as exhausted, while later sales phases and additional VIP upgrades are listed as options subject to availability.
Prices differ according to the sales phase. For example, Moshtix displays several general-admission levels for Geelong and Perth, ranging from earlier allocations around 225 Australian dollars to later tiers approaching 275 dollars with basic fees included, while special collectible and VIP options are charged additionally. Because individual allocations may sell out without prior notice, the most important thing for buyers is to check the current status through official sales channels, especially as December approaches.
Organisers also experienced strong demand in 2025, and official and partner pages are promoting this year's edition following the sold-out previous tour. For that reason, the exclusive performances by Capaldi and RAYE also have a clear commercial function: they create a shared reason to travel to one of the four cities, while the rest of the programme allows the festival to retain its all-day character instead of being reduced to two major evening concerts.
Spilt Milk heads into December with one of the strongest line-ups in its recent history
Since launching in 2016, Spilt Milk has grown into one of Australia's most recognisable travelling music festivals. The four-city model across two weekends allows it to bring the same large-scale production and most of the artists to audiences on both the eastern and western sides of the country while retaining the identity of a one-day event. In 2026, it gains additional significance through the relocation of the Victorian stop to Geelong, where the festival has already been contracted as a long-term event.
The announcement of Lewis Capaldi and RAYE as exclusive headliners is therefore more than just another name on the summer festival calendar. Capaldi arrives during a successful comeback period with new material and major concerts, while RAYE continues a run of international recognition that began with her record-breaking night at the BRIT Awards. Alongside Baby Keem, KETTAMA, Maisie Peters, Remi Wolf, DMA’S and a broad Australian line-up, Spilt Milk in December offers a programme simultaneously aimed at mainstream pop audiences, hip-hop fans, the electronic scene and visitors who follow the festival as an all-day cultural event.
Sources:
- Spilt Milk - official programme, artists, cities, dates and artistic collaborations for the 2026 edition. (link)
- Live Nation Australia - confirmation of dates, locations and exclusive Australian performances by Lewis Capaldi and RAYE. (link)
- City of Greater Geelong - five-year partnership, venue capacity and estimates of the festival's economic and tourism impact in Geelong. (link)
- Kardinia Park Stadium Trust - information on the move from Ballarat, the period through 2030 and the previous economic impact of Spilt Milk in Victoria. (link)
- Moshtix - current information on sales, age requirements, pricing tiers and ticket availability for Geelong. (link)
- Moshtix - current information on sales phases and ticket availability for the Gold Coast. (link)
- Moshtix - current information on sales phases and ticket availability for Perth. (link)
- Official Charts Company - information on the single "Survive", Capaldi's comeback and its result on the UK chart. (link)
- BRIT Awards - official information on the record six awards won by RAYE in 2024. (link)
- Recording Academy / Grammy.com - confirmation of the 2026 Harry Belafonte Best Song for Social Change award for "Ice Cream Man.". (link)