Sticky Fingers have floated the idea of launching their own Australian festival, with the band saying they have been talking “for a while” about putting on a homegrown event with acts they love.
The comment came during the band’s Reddit AMA, where Sticky Fingers used a lengthy Q&A with fans to talk about Dylan Frost’s future, Claude Bailey’s role as singer, new music, touring plans and what the next era of the band might look like.
Asked by a fan whether they should start their own Australian festival instead of waiting for festival organisers to book them, Seamus Coyle said the band would be keen.
“We would love to put on a festival in AUS with all our mates,” Seamus wrote, adding that the band had “so many bands” they would love to “throw a party with.”
He also made it sound like the idea has been floating around the band for a while.
“We’ve been talking about it for a while,” he added. “Time to get it going i guess eh.”
Elsewhere in the AMA, the band gave the idea a possible name, floating “Westway presents” as a way to showcase “all the acts we love and believe in.”
The timing matters. In the same AMA, Sticky Fingers confirmed they are recording a new album with Claude Bailey on vocals, said Dylan Frost will not be in the lineup for the foreseeable future, and laid out plans for an Australian tour next year around the new record.
So the festival talk does not feel completely random. Sticky Fingers are clearly thinking about the shape of the band’s next chapter, and that includes more than just releasing a record and playing the usual rooms.
There is also plenty of history sitting underneath the comment. Sticky Fingers have had a complicated relationship with Australian festivals since their 2016 controversy and 2018 return. In 2018, the band withdrew from This That after public backlash around their place on the lineup.
In 2023, Bluesfest removed Sticky Fingers from its lineup after backlash and artist withdrawals, including Sampa The Great and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard.
So when a fan asks whether the band should build their own festival instead of waiting for the existing circuit to fully embrace them, it gets to the obvious question around Sticky Fingers now: if the usual gates are still half-closed, do they just build their own?
They would not be the first artist to think that way. Tyler, The Creator turned Camp Flog Gnaw into a long-running artist-led carnival and festival, while Yungblud launched BLUDFEST as a cheaper, fan-first alternative to the rising cost of major festivals. Olivia Rodrigo has also reportedly moved into the space with Daisy Chain Fields, a women-led festival built around artists she admires. The common thread is simple: artists with strong communities are increasingly realising they do not have to wait for the festival circuit to define their world for them.
For fans, the idea makes sense. Sticky Fingers still have one of the more obsessive live followings in Australian guitar music, and their world naturally overlaps with a lane of artists that sit between pub rock, reggae, psych, indie, hip-hop and festival chaos.
To be clear, the band have not announced a festival. There are no dates, cities, lineups or formal plans yet. At this stage, it is an idea they say they have been talking about.
But it is still notable. Sticky Fingers are no longer talking like a band waiting around to see who will take the risk on them. Between a new album with Bailey, an Australian tour planned for next year, and the idea of a self-built festival under the “Westway presents” banner, the band seem to be thinking bigger than a normal comeback cycle.
Whether it actually happens is another question. But if Sticky Fingers do end up launching their own Australian festival, it would say a lot about where the band is now: still messy, still polarising, still followed by a massive fanbase, and still more likely to try and build around the industry than wait politely for the door to open.
How Sticky Fingers Got Here
The Reddit AMA did not land in a vacuum. It arrived after a decade of huge highs, public ruptures, attempted comebacks, internal strain and unanswered questions around Dylan Frost’s future with the band.
The peak before the rupture
Sticky Fingers were not a marginal band when the public rupture began. In 2016, Westway (The Glitter & The Slums) became their first No. 1 album in Australia, landing them at the top of the ARIA Albums Chart just before the band’s internal and public issues became impossible to separate from the music.
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The public fallout begins
By December 2016, allegations involving Frost had become part of wider public discussion, and Sticky Fingers announced an indefinite hiatus amid what the band described as internal issues. The public record around that period later became fractured, with reporting, statements, apologies and online discussion all shaping competing versions of what happened.
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The comeback and the Hack interview
When the band returned in 2018, the comeback was immediately tied to unresolved questions around Frost’s behaviour, addiction, mental health and accountability. Their full-band interview on triple j’s Hack became another defining moment after Frost responded to questioning with “boys will be boys” and “Shit happens, man,” before saying he did care but found the subject difficult to talk about.
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Internal strain becomes public
The volatility was not only external. In 2021, Frost entered rehab following a court case centred on an altercation with Paddy Cornwall, while Cornwall was separately reported to have pleaded guilty to affray over the incident. That context matters now because the band’s latest AMA references “on stage and off stage incidents” and years of trying to make the lineup work.
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The band keeps moving, but the question remains
The Lekkerboy era carried its own signs of instability, and by 2023 the controversy around the band again spilled into the festival world. Bluesfest removed Sticky Fingers from its lineup after backlash and artist withdrawals, including Sampa The Great and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard.
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The band say they chose to move forward without him
That is what makes the Reddit AMA significant. Sticky Fingers did not frame Frost’s absence as a clean resignation. They said he “won’t be in the line up for the foreseeable future,” that he had been unable to commit to the demands of recording, rehearsing and touring, and that members of the band made the decision to continue without him.
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