Laneway Festival is back at Centennial Park for its 2026 edition, and with the iconic event celebrating its 21st year, a seriously big party is in order.
In 2025, 200,000 fans turned up to Laneway Festival’s sold-out shows across Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth. This made last year the most successful in its 20-year history, and there’s no doubt that they have British Brat queen Charli XCX to thank for that.
After last year’s blockbuster run, Laneway Festival is looking to keep up the momentum and has ordered in a group of huge, international icons to form its lineup. Most notably, Chappell Roan will be headlining the star-studded program, which also includes Role Model, Pink Pantheress, The Dare, Wet Leg and Wolf Alice.
We’ve created the ultimate Laneway Festival Sydney guide to consult before you head off to the festival, filled with insider tips (straight from the Festival Director’s mouth), lineup and set time information, plus what to do if you didn’t manage to secure a ticket. Good Luck, Babe!
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Top tips from Festival Director Jessie Parker
After a long and successful stint as General Manager of Laneway Festival, Jessie Parker was promoted to Festival Director for the 2026 edition of Laneway Festival. Parker has been working for Laneway Festival for 13 years, beginning as a Volunteer Coordinator and General Assistant in 2013 and steadily rising through the ranks since.
Let’s be honest, when it comes to making your Laneway Festival day run as smoothly as possible, she’s the ultimate expert.
Here are her top five tips for having a great time at Laneway Festival:
1. Arrive early, just in case…
Parker says, “Arrive early in the day, and you might just discover your next favourite artist- Olivia Dean played at 2pm last year.”
Laneway Festival is known for inviting some of the greatest up-and-coming artists to its stages. Olivia Dean won a Grammy a few days ago, yet she played one of the least desirable set times at Laneway Festival 2025. Make sure you plan your schedule accordingly, arrive early and don’t turn your nose up at the smaller sets, as they could be next year’s next big thing.
2. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint”
Parker encourages festival goers to “pace yourself: drink water, take breaks, and listen to your body. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.” Luckily, the weather forecast for Sunday doesn’t look too concerning (cloudy and 26 degrees Celcius), but don’t be fooled. Wear sunscreen, drink plenty of water, and take regular breaks- you don’t want to be too tired for Chappell Roan’s set!
3. “Stay curious”
Sometimes, when your favourite artist is headlining, it’s easy to overlook everything else the festival has to offer. Parker tells us to “stay curious: wander between stages and explore everything on offer. That sense of discovery is what makes festivals so special.”
4. Bring these essential items
It “sounds obvious”, Parker says, “but it’s worth saying: a fully charged phone with your ticket downloaded to your digital wallet, plus a portable charger if you have one. Sunscreen and a hat are essential, too. It makes the whole day smoother, from meeting friends to checking set times and getting home. And not to sound like your mum, but a good pair of insoles can be a real game-changer for a long day on your feet.”
We’ll also remind you: everyone needs a valid photo ID to show at the entrance gate with your ticket (even 16-plus festivalgoers). Don’t be that one friend who forgets and has to rush home!
5. Check out this year’s site layout
We’ve included the Laneway Festival Sydney site layout below, so that you can familiarise yourself with it before heading to Centennial Park. Parker tells us, “The Good Better Best Stage and Never Let It Rest Stage are right next to each other, which makes it really easy to bounce between sets, but make sure you take the time to explore the rest of the festival too!”
Set times and clashes
There are four stages at Laneway Festival Sydney: Good Better Best Stage, Never Let It Rest Stage, Everything Ecstatic Stage and Hope Spring Stage.
Although no clash this year is as big as last year’s Charli XCX vs BICEP debacle, fans are pretty disappointed about the clash of Wet Leg (who are on from 6:25pm to 7:15pm) and PinkPatheress (6:10pm-7pm).
Good Better Best Stage
- Cavetown: 1:15pm to 2:00pm
- Mt. Joy: 3:00pm to 3:45pm
- Lucy Dacus: 4:40pm to 5:25pm
- Wet Leg: 6:25pm to 7:15pm
- Chappell Roan: 8:25pm to 9:55pm
Never Let It Rest Stage
- Charli Lucas: 11:50pm to 12:20pm
- Blusher: 12:40pm to 1:20pm
- Welcome To Country: 2:00pm to 2:10pm
- Gigi Perez: 2:10pm to 2:55pm
- Alex G: 3:50pm to 4:35pm
- Role Model: 5:30pm to 6:20pm
- Wolf Alice: 7:20pm to 8:20pm
Everything Ecstatic Stage
- Violet Harbour: 11:30am to 12:00pm
- Djanaba: 12:25pm to 1:05pm
- Shady Nasty: 1:30pm to 2:15pm
- Wisp: 2:40pm to 3:25pm
- Oklou: 3:50pm to 4:35pm
- The Dare: 5:00pm to 5:45pm
- PinkPantheress: 6:10pm to 7:00pm
- Yung Lean & Bladee: 7:25pm to 8:25pm
- Mina Galan: 8:50pm to 9:50pm
Hope Springs Stage
- Armlock: 12:00pm to 12:30pm
- The Belair Lip Bombs: 12:55pm to 1:40pm
- Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers: 2:05pm to 2:50pm
- Jensen McRae: 3:20pm to 4:05pm
- Benee: 4:35pm to 5:20pm
- Geese: 5:50pm to 6:35pm
- Malcolm Todd: 7:15pm to 8:00pm
Banned items you might not expect
While Laneway Festival Sydney does have a lengthy list of banned items, most of them are common sense. That said, here are a few prohibited items that you might be unaware of:
- Glass and breakable containers are banned, meaning no makeup in glass bottles, no perfume and no mirrors
- Hard metal/ ceramic waterbottles (leave that frank green at home). There are water refill areas, but only for soft, plastic bottles
- Chairs (folding, portable or camping)
- Alcohol
- Vapes and E-Cigs with more than 110ml of liquid
- Sound or video recorders or professional cameras (with removable lens) (small still cameras are allowed)
- Eskies, coolers or chilly bins
- Umbrellas (bring a plastic poncho or raincoat instead)
- Clothing with sharp studs or accessories that could cause injury (i.e. belts, wristbands, long chains)
Can I still get tickets?
Unfortunately, tickets for Laneway Festival Sydney sold out in under an hour, so unless you were on top of it, you probably didn’t manage to get tickets.
For those still desperate to go, you can purchase a ticket using Ticketek Marketplace, which is the only authorised resale platform for Laneway 2026.
18-plus tickets and 16-17 youth tickets started at $229.90, going up to $259.90 for the fourth release. VIP 18-plus tickets went for $359.99. Our advice? Remember this when scanning Ticketek, and don’t spend an exorbitant amount of money.
For more information on Laneway Festival, click here
(Cover Image Credit: Destination NSW).
