Entertainment

Laneway Festival Director Jessie Parker Steps Down After 16 Years

Kiran MachadoPublished 2w ago2 min readBased on 1 source
Laneway Festival Director Jessie Parker Steps Down After 16 Years
Image by thekaleidoscope from Pixabay

Jessie Parker, the festival director of Australia and New Zealand's Laneway Festival, is stepping down after 16 years with the touring event. She announced her departure in a LinkedIn post on Monday, August 17, and will leave the role at the end of this month. Billboard

Parker did not name a next move, and Laneway has not yet named a successor.

She spent six years at the helm as general manager and festival director, having joined the event as an event assistant and risen through the ranks. She became festival director for Australia and New Zealand in May 2025. Laneway is part of the TEG group, one of Australasia's largest live-entertainment and ticketing companies, and was co-founded by Danny Rogers and Jerome Borazio.

Her tenure coincided with some of the festival's biggest years. The 2025 run drew 200,000 attendees across sold-out shows in Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, with a bill led by Charli XCX, Clairo, BICEP and Olivia Dean. Laneway won the inaugural ARIA Award for Best Festival and was named Music Event of the Year in New Zealand. The festival marked its 21st year in 2026 with a lineup headlined by Chappell Roan, alongside Wet Leg, Wolf Alice, PinkPantheress, Geese and Lucy Dacus.

Parker pointed to her work beyond the festival itself as her proudest contribution — specifically her roles on the Australian Festivals Association board and the NSW Music Festivals Roundtable, bodies that shape policy and advocacy for the live-music sector.

Her departure comes amid a shift in the festival's footprint. Laneway has announced it will not visit Adelaide or Perth in 2027, scaling back to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland. The contraction leaves two cities without a stop on a tour that has been a summer fixture for two decades.

For fans in South Australia and Western Australia, the 2027 cutback is the more immediately tangible piece of news. For the broader industry, Parker's exit removes a figure who sat at the intersection of festival operations and sector-wide advocacy — a dual role that fewer people hold as the live-music business consolidates.

Laneway's 2027 dates and lineup have not yet been announced.

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