Spilt Milk Comes Home to Canberra With Capaldi, RAYE and a Very Deep Bill

Spilt Milk is back, and it is doing the sensible thing by starting where it belongs. The single-day festival returns to Canberra on Saturday 12 December 2026, opening its national run at Exhibition Park before the rest of the country gets a look in. Lewis Capaldi and RAYE lead a bill deep enough that the "and many more" at the bottom is doing real work. Tickets go on sale 31 July, so consider this your heads-up, not your last-minute panic.

When, where and how to get in

The facts, up top:

• What: Spilt Milk 2026, a single-day music festival.
• Where: Exhibition Park, Canberra (the ACT locals call it EPIC, and for one Saturday in December the acronym finally earns it).
• When: Saturday 12 December 2026.
• On-sale: 31 July, through the official Spilt Milk site.

The headliners

Leading the bill is Lewis Capaldi, the Scottish chart-dominator, in his first Australian festival run since his 2025 Glastonbury performance. His return to touring saw more than a million tickets sold worldwide, on top of a sold-out multi-arena run across Australia last year. If you have ever accidentally sung 'Someone You Loved' at a volume that concerned your neighbours, this is the reunion tour for both of you.

Sharing top billing is RAYE, the four-time Grammy-nominated South London artist, bringing 'This Music May Contain Hope' to Australia off the back of the UK #1 'Where Is My Husband'. Her catalogue swings from jazz-inflected pop to full rave cuts, which is a polite way of saying you do not get to sit down. Ten billion cumulative streams and a 2024 BRIT Awards sweep suggest a lot of people agree.

Here is a taste of what is coming.

The rest of a genuinely stacked undercard

The names keep coming. Galway's Kettama brings the crushing-bass electronic set, Baby Keem is on the bill, and there is UK songwriter Maisie Peters, whose chart hooks come wrapped in confessional detail, plus Remi Wolf and her boundary-pushing pop. Sydney trio DMA'S return to Spilt Milk for the first time since the very first edition back in 2016, which makes them the closest thing this festival has to alumni.

There is real Australian depth too. SA's Aleksiah brings tongue-in-cheek indie-pop, Kamilaroi and Samoan artist Becca Hatch fuses R&B with club-ready bangers, Brooklyn's jigitz turns up with a 71-million-stream hit, and Miss Kaninna, a Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung, Kalkadoon and Yirendali sovereign woman billed as the "blak Britney Spears", brings the party. Rounding out the announced lineup are Stüm, Tobiahs, Borderline, F3mii, Fat Papi, Harry Hayes, Leyla Ebrahimi, Pash, Samara Cyn, The Moving Stills, The Terrys and Yes Boone. Still to come are the local triple j Unearthed winners opening each show, plus art exhibitions curated with socially conscious studios.

The full national run

Canberra goes first, then the festival heads up and across the country. Here is the whole run.

How to actually get a ticket

Spilt Milk in Canberra has form for selling well, and a bill this size with Capaldi and RAYE on top is not going to hang around. So the plan is the boring one that works: put a reminder in your phone for the 31 July on-sale, have your details and your card ready before it opens, and buy from the official Spilt Milk site, not a resale page charging double for a ticket that only went live that morning.

My one honest opinion, from watching plenty of festival on-sales: a big single-day bill going live is exactly the sort of scramble where a fair queue beats everyone hammering refresh and hoping. If you want to know why the good on-sales put you in an orderly line rather than a free-for-all, we wrote about how fair queuing actually works for Australian events. Up on the Gold Coast leg instead? The Spilt Milk Gold Coast rundown has that date, and the Canberra what's on hub and Ticketted's discover page have more you can book today.

The takeaway

A festival that started in Canberra, coming home to Canberra to launch its biggest bill in years, on a Saturday in December when the city genuinely becomes the place to be. Set the 31 July reminder, wear shoes you can stand up in for eight hours, and let Capaldi ruin you gently around sunset. I will be the one who arrived at 7 for a 7:45 door, out of habit.