Festivals in the mainstream circuit may be dying far and wide, but in alternative/heavy world, things are anything but. With Good Things Festival set to kick off the Australian festival season in just over a month, heavy music fans are in for a scorching summer of live music. Earlier this year, New Bloom Festival crashed the live music scene with an onslaught of alternative/indie and emo/punk bands who catered to a range of tastes.
Thanks to a hugely successful first run that included the likes of Citizen, Movements and Softcult, New Bloom returns in March 2025, maintaining its 3-city run across Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. With the lineup set to drop in just under a week’s time, we thought we’d round up our wishlist for the country’s coolest new festival on the scene.
The Story So Far
We wouldn’t be mad at all if The Story So Far made their live return to Australia early next year. Given frontman Parker Cannon was on the festival’s inaugural edition with his other project, No Pressure and TSSF having just released one of our favourite pop punk records of 2024, this choice sounds too easy to predict.
State Champs
If not The Story So Far, then fellow US pop punkers State Champs would be our next guess for a New Bloom headliner. The band are no strangers to Australia and haven’t played for us since their nationwide tour with The Maine back in 2022. With a fifth album out this month, it sounds like it’s the best time for one of the genre’s most well-loved bands to make an explosive comeback in 2025. Heck — we would not be mad at all if New Bloom 2025 was a double pop punk header.
Honey Revenge
One of our favourite aspects about this carefully curated festival in 2024 was that it allowed music fans to uncover new and under-the-fly music acts that are on the verge of becoming musical breakthroughs. Similarly to Canadian alt/grunge duo Softcult who blew us away this year, we fully believe LA alt/pop duo Honey Revenge will make their debut in Australia in 2025 and New Bloom Festival sounds like the best introduction for them. Fronted by Devin Papadol, this fresh, fiery act is riding a wave of musical breakthroughs worldwide with their refined blend of explosive pop that begs to live rent free in your head.
Balance and Composure
Similarly to what Touche Amore brought to fans on New Bloom’s inaugural edition, Pennsylvania alternative/emo outfit Balance and Composure would complement this event perfectly. The boys have recently returned to form with a new record just last month titled with you in spirit and haven’t been back in our neck of the woods in a hot minute. Maybe 2025 is the year they make their epitomous return?
Yours Truly
Sydney’s Yours Truly are having an exemplary year with sophomore LP, TOXIC out in the open. While this act have recently gone through somewhat of a metamorphosis with lineup changes and nurturing a mature new sound, Mikaila Delgado and Teddie Haron are still turning heads across the world supporting the likes of You Me At Six. We reckon a slot on New Bloom Festival will be the homecoming tour fans will queue up all day for — and we’ll be here for it!
NEW BLOOM FESTIVAL 2025
Saturday 8 March – Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane
Sunday 9 March – UNSW Roundhouse, Sydney
Monday 10 March – The Timberyard, Melbourne
LINEUP TBA – Sign up here to hear it first
