Last year, Australian pop-rock band Killing Heidi planned to celebrate their multi-platinum 2000 debut album Reflector by performing it in full on the Good Things festival tour, but technical issues got in the way. So when the festival’s promoter pitched a 25th anniversary tour of the album for this year, the band jumped at the chance. The gambit was rewarded with a string of sold-out dates in June.
“I think it was my favourite thing we’ve done since Killing Heidi slipped back into being [in 2016],” says frontwoman Ella Hooper. “The atmosphere was so full of anticipation for these songs we wrote when we were kids. I think we went back into full-body reliving mode – except for a few crow’s feet on me and the front row.”
Killing Heidi is one of many Australian acts tapping into nostalgia with anniversary tours, with artists including End of Fashion, Grinspoon, Jimmy Barnes, Little Birdy, Jebediah, Parkway Drive, Ben Lee and Cloud Control all hitting the road this year.
While looking back is hardly new in the music industry, tours marking anniversaries from 10 to 50 years have recently accelerated. It’s part of a broader trend, reflected locally by festivals such as Good Things and Fridayz Live, which lean on 1990s and 2000s pedigree in their lineups; dance events such as Ministry of Sound’s popular throwback parties; and tours from international artists including Everclear, Bloc Party, the Fray and the Used this year alone.
Though clearly marketed to capitalise on the ticket-buying power of an older generation inclined to revisit the past (a Spotify-backed study unsurprisingly found “people listen to nostalgic music more often as they age”), the steady drumbeat of anniversary tours also reflects deeper, and more ambivalent, trends in the Australian music landscape.
The lure of legacy
For Killing Heidi, revisiting their 25-year-old debut was particularly emotional. Sibling bandmates Ella and Jesse Hooper lost both parents in 2022, and performing Reflector live in the aftermath “was super nostalgic, and more emotional than I expected,” Jesse says. “We definitely felt our parents’ energy – they would’ve loved to see that celebration of an album they were so proud of.”
But the tour also allowed them to fully understand their legacy. Performing the album in its entirety, after years of resisting looking back, Ella was able to fully embrace what Killing Heidi represented to fans in 2000: a band who “looked like we were from space, with that little bit of bogan Australiana”, fronted by “unhinged, feisty female energy” rare at the time – a lineage she now sees in artists such as Paramore’s Hayley Williams and Amyl and the Sniffers’ Amy Taylor. “That’s one good thing about starting when you’re 13,” she adds. “You get a nostalgia wave while you can still enjoy it.”
Last month, indie-pop veteran Ben Lee kicked off a 20th anniversary tour for his fifth album, Awake Is the New Sleep. He says he’s generally “quite anti-nostalgia”, adding, “I guess the fear of most artists is becoming like a Vegas act where you just crank out the hits.” But when his teenage daughter stumbled across the album’s gentle closer, I’m Willing, in the video game Life Is Strange 2, Lee saw that “even in my life, this moment is coming full circle. I’m ready to kind of pay tribute to that.”
He’s also conscious of the significance the album still holds for fans. “Falling in love, falling out of love, going to uni, dropping out, moving across the world – these songs become part of the tapestry of people’s actual lives.”
Serotonin hits and history repeating
While there’s no definitive research placing anniversary tours within broader ticket-buying trends, theories abound on what’s driving the boom. “Big picture, I think the world is pretty cooked,” says Select Music chief executive officer, Stephen Wade, whose agency has booked a number of these tours, including Josh Pyke’s upcoming 20th anniversary shows. “Seeing an artist play your favourite album takes you back to another time, and you leave with a euphoric flood of serotonin.”
Fiona Duncan, chief executive officer for Music Victoria and Spiderbait’s longtime manager, noticed the same alchemy on the band’s anniversary tour last year. “It’s like a reunion,” she says. “You’re not just celebrating the band; you’re celebrating the whole community around that music.”
Streaming has made it easier for albums to reach new generations, as parents pass down their passions and algorithms uncover new connections. “Why are all these twentysomethings at a Killing Heidi show?” Ella Hooper recalls wondering. “Our millennium look, which we winced about a few years later, is right on trend again. The coolest kids in Melbourne are dressing exactly like me in 2001.”
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Anniversary tours are a dependable financial bet in an era of “squeezed margins”, says Duncan, citing Music Australia’s findings that 48% of artist income comes from live performance, an industry which is facing increasing challenges. “Our whole industry is based on artists, and artists are kind of getting the rawest deal,” she says.
Following an exhaustive regional run last year, Ben Lee took six months off the road to market his anniversary tour and drive ticket sales. “These tours are victory laps for those of us who came about in a better time in the music industry,” he says. “And look, we also have bills to pay.”
‘That is not a thriving live music industry’
This wave of anniversary tours also raises questions about where the next generation of Australian artists fits. This year, Killing Heidi’s reissue of Reflector reached No 1 on the Australian album and vinyl charts, while landmark albums by Little Birdy, Sarah Blasko and Grinspoon also made a comeback, highlighting a tension in an industry where new Australian music is struggling to cut through.
A survey by the Australia Institute and youth music organisation The Push found 59% of Australians aged 16 to 25 cite cost as a barrier to attending more live music.
“What does it say about the health of Australian music if the most in-demand acts were at the height of their popularity decades ago?” asks Australia Institute research manager Morgan Harrington. “We should be investing in policies that will allow new Australian artists to make a go of it, and give young audiences the opportunity to go to a show they might otherwise skip.” He points to the European model of youth cultural passes – vouchers or stipends for young people to spend on events – as a practical first step.
Similar discussions are taking place within the industry. Wade says he actively seeks to book ascendant Australian artists in high-profile support slots, citing Ball Park Music who are supporting Oasis’s upcoming Australian shows.
Duncan points to the reduced investment in contemporary music in the 2025-26 Victorian state budget as a telling backwards step. “I think it’s really important to remember the role that music plays in our lives and culture,” she says. “We need to find ways to help artists build audience connections and communities to sustain long, flourishing careers.”
“One of the challenges at the moment, as far as live music goes, is figuring out where it fits into people’s lives,” Lee says, noting it’s “mildly depressing” if “the only way you can get people to see live music is to go on a nostalgia trip”.
“That is not a thriving live music industry,” he adds. “It’s part of the story that should be told, but I’d love to see equal or greater excitement about going out to see a band you know nothing about, simply because you’ve heard good things.”