Hilltop Hoods to Headline Castaway Festival Across Three Australian Cities in 2026–2027 Summer
Hilltop Hoods will headline the Castaway Festival across three Australian cities this coming summer, leading a seven-act bill that spans the country's west, southeast and east coasts.
The trio — Suffa, MC Pressure and DJ Debris — top a line-up that also includes Violent Soho and Amy Shark, with supporting acts Playlunch, Trials, Lyric and Birdland rounding out the roster. The tour was announced on 24 August 2026, with Australian music outlets and the festival's own website confirming dates, venues and artists Billboard.
Castaway opens at Whitfords Nodes Park in Hillarys, Western Australia, on Saturday, 21 November 2026. The festival then moves to Mornington Racecourse in Victoria on Saturday, 12 December 2026, before wrapping at Wollongong, New South Wales, on Saturday, 20 March 2027. The three-city run continues the festival's format of pairing major national headliners with rotating supporting bills across different coastal regions Castaway Festival.
General tickets go on sale Friday, 28 August, with artist, promoter and Telstra Plus presales opening two days earlier on Wednesday, 26 August. A mailing-list signup on the festival's website offers early access to pre-sale codes and future event announcements.
Hilltop Hoods bring a chart record that no other Australian act has matched. They hold seven No. 1 albums on the ARIA Albums Chart — the standard weekly ranking of Australia's best-selling albums — more than AC/DC, Powderfinger, Cold Chisel or Silverchair. Their most recent, 2025's Fall From the Light, was their sixth consecutive album to debut at the top spot in Australia. That run of dominance stretches back to 2006's The Hard Road and runs through State of the Art (2009), Drinking From the Sun (2012), Walking Under Stars (2014), a 2016 remix compilation, The Great Expanse (2019) and Fall From the Light (2025). Along the way, the group have logged 23 entries in Triple J's Hottest 100 — the public-voted annual countdown run by the national youth broadcaster — and won 10 ARIA Awards, the Australian recording industry's flagship prize.
Violent Soho, the Queensland guitar-rock four-piece known for anthemic festival sets, have also topped the ARIA Albums Chart, with albums including WACO and Everything Is A-OK. Amy Shark broke through with 2018's Love Monster, which reached No. 1 in Australia. Shark said in a statement: "I'm a huge fan of Hilltop Hoods and Violent Soho, I was more than happy to join the boys on the road!"
The 2026–2027 national run is presented in partnership with Face To Face Touring Castaway Festival. For fans across the three host cities, it pairs three acts with recent No. 1 records on one stage — a billing that ties together Australian hip-hop, rock and pop without leaning on international imports.
