NYE on the Hill will welcome the new year one last time. Organisers have confirmed that the South Gippsland event running from 30 December 2026 to 1 January 2027 will be the final gathering, bringing an end to a small-scale festival tradition built around a deliberately limited crowd and an unusually loyal community.
The event’s closing edition is being called The Last Hill. Ball Park Music leads a line-up that includes The Rions, Old Mervs, Pacific Avenue, Boy Soda, Sleepazoid, Mid Drift, REDD. and The Tullamarines. More than 30 acts and performers appear across the program, with further dance and late-night DJs still to be announced.
For returning punters, the loss is specific: there will be no familiar trip back to the farm once this New Year’s weekend is over. NYE on the Hill has never tried to become a giant destination event. The site is capped at 3,000 people, with camping, bands and a New Year’s countdown at the centre of its appeal. The limits helped define what the organisers were selling: familiarity rather than scale.
The broader Hill tradition began in 2009 as an invite-only party for Melbourne musicians and friends. Organisers say the final celebration will be the 23rd Party on the Hill, across the related events that grew from those early gatherings. More than 600 bands and 2,500 musicians and performers have appeared over the years, with some taking their first festival stage there.
In a statement reported by The Music, the team framed the decision as a chance to finish while the festival still feels like itself. They called for everyone connected to The Hills Are Alive and NYE on the Hill to return for the farewell.
Importantly, organisers have not announced a specific reason for closing the event. It would be easy to place it in the wider narrative of Australian festivals struggling with costs, competition and changing habits, especially with Big Red Bash also confirming its final run this week. But no such explanation has been given for NYE on the Hill, and the two announcements should not be treated as identical stories.
The event had also taken a break from the 2025/26 season, which organisers described at the time as a chance to rest and repair. Its return this December will now also be its goodbye.
The current festival line-up keeps a mix of established Australian names and emerging artists on the same bill. That combination has long been one of the Hill’s strengths. In a national live-music scene often measured by headline acts and capacity, the festival made its smaller footprint part of its character.
For returning punters, the decision is immediate: the last edition is no longer a distant tradition they can assume will still be there next year.
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