SYDNEY, Australia — Olly Arkins, chief executive officer of the Australian Festival Association, will depart from the trade body later this month.

AFA chair Adelle Robinson pays tribute to Arkins for leading the AFA through “one of the most consequential periods for the festival industry,” a chapter than included the fallout from the pandemic, the effects of which are still being felt by festival organizers.

Under Arkins’ leadership, the AFA has worked with members, governments and industry partners “to secure greater recognition of festivals as an essential part of Australia’s cultural infrastructure,” Robinson comments in a statement.

Arkins’ last day with the AFA is next Friday, Aug. 21. Speaking with Billboard, Arkins points to the opportunity to rewrite the Music Festivals Act in New South Wales, resulting in significant reforms passed by the state parliament in September 2024, as her “biggest achievement” in five years with the AFA.

Also, Arkins advocated for the federal government to establish and then increase Revive Live funding, including dedicated support for music festivals; helped secure the introduction of drug-checking services at music festivals in both Victoria and New South Wales; renegotiated the OneMusic licence scheme to secure improved terms for music festivals; and more.

“Olly arrived at a time when festivals were still trying to work out whether we had a future. She leaves the AFA with governments listening to our industry and festivals firmly at the table in music industry-wide advocacy,” Robinson remarks.

“She has taken the needs and aspirations of festival promoters directly to decision-makers and turned advocacy into increased funding, legislative reform and stronger working relationships with the agencies that regulate festivals.

“On behalf of the AFA board and our members, I want to thank Olly for her relentless commitment to ensuring Australia has a thriving and sustainable music festival sector.”

The AFA was unveiled in December 2018, representing festival organizers, suppliers and stakeholders across Australia’s music festival sector. Its mission, to advocate the festival industry, promoting best-practice safety and operational standards, providing a unified voice, and facilitate policy reform and investment.

Today, its members include Fuzzy, CMC Rocks, Live Nation, Hardware, Laneway, Groovin’ The Moo, Lost Paradise and many others.

“I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity the AFA board gave me to advocate for our members and this remarkable industry. It has been the experience of a lifetime,” Arkins comments in a statement.

“I will always cherish the support I received from Adelle and the entire team, including the support they gave me as I transitioned during my time at the AFA.

“Together, we all made the case that festivals are major employers and tourism drivers. Importantly for me, they also give Australian artists some of their first opportunities to perform on a major stage and allow more fans to discover them.

“Festivals provide formative cultural experiences and help create lifelong music fans, benefiting the entire industry. I know this because I am one.

“I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved over the past four years. Our association is stronger, the industry has an influential voice with government and in the media, and there is now a much deeper understanding of the cultural and economic value of festivals.”

NCT 127 is officially kicking off its next chapter as a quintet.

On Tuesday (Aug. 11), the Seoul-based group released an energetic and upbeat video for their track “Piñata.” With this, the group is giving fans a first taste of their seventh studio album, BLINGY, out Aug. 24. The project will feature nine tracks and marks the group’s first full-length album in two years. 

“Piñata,” released via SM Entertainment and Virgin Music Group, brings NCT’s experimental edge, where sounds of heavy rock guitars, a funky bass groove and breakbeat percussion fuse together and end up in a unique and catchy hip-hop sound. The video shows a cinematic take of NCT 127 in the heart of Seoul during a late-night outing, depicting the members as “streetwise fixers,” according to a press release, navigating the city and fearlessly taking on anything that crosses their path. 

To celebrate their upcoming album, the group is bringing their new music directly to fans by headlining KCON LA on Friday, so listeners can get an early preview of BLINGY before it hits streaming platforms. That’s not all: The official “NCT 127 7th Album [BLINGY] Comeback Live Party” will take place on Aug 25, where the group will perform all the songs of the album, as well as sharing behind-the-scenes stories from the making of the album. 

The album marks a transformative era for Johnny, Taeyong, Yuta, Jaehyun and Haechan, as it’s their first release as a five-member group — for the time being — since Doyoung and Jungwoo are currently serving in the military.

In 2024, after Tael was removed from the group, the septet spoke to Billboard following the release of their album WALK., which debuted at No. 117 on the Billboard 200. They opened up about working and collaborating together as a smaller group. “We were in a different mindset, for obvious reasons,” Mark told Tetris Kelly. “We’re not all together with nine members. From that point on, picking out the songs for the entire track list, we were very prudent with each and every decision.”

In April 2026, Mark parted ways with SM Entertainment and in July 2025, Winwin also exited the group after concluding his contract.

Watch the video for “Piñata.”

As part of Billboard China and QQ Music’s recent global campaign, Chinese singer Liu Yuning reached a new milestone with his latest single “JUMP,” earning a series of featured promotional opportunities.

The track sees Liu Yuning teaming up with J Balvin on a cross-cultural collaboration that blends rock with traditional Chinese instruments, including the pipa, guzheng, erhu and Tang-style drums. Combined with Ning’s energetic rap delivery, “JUMP” — which interpolates Van Halen’s Billboard Hot 100-topping hit from 1983 — creates a seamless meeting point between Eastern and Western musical influences.

At the same time, Ning is steadily unveiling his long-awaited second solo album, Liu Yuning’s, his first full-length project in five years. Rather than releasing the album all at once, he has chosen a track-by-track rollout, with nine songs available so far.

Among them is “Not Too Late,” released earlier this year, which offers one of the album’s most intimate moments. Written and produced by singer/songwriter Penny Tai, the warm rock ballad reflects on the emotional weight that comes with life in the spotlight. Its lyrics capture feelings of exhaustion, misunderstanding and self-doubt, while ultimately delivering a message of resilience and hope. Instead of dwelling on hardship, the song becomes an invitation to rediscover inner strength.

The album’s more recent releases, “Door” and “I Want,” showcase two contrasting emotional landscapes. “Door” turns inward, pairing restrained vocals with an enveloping arrangement to convey isolation, uncertainty and quiet introspection. In contrast, “I Want” opens outward. Driven by bright guitar lines and soaring vocals, the song releases the emotional tension built throughout its companion track, highlighting Ning’s dynamic vocal control and expressive range as it moves from vulnerability toward clarity and liberation.

Beyond his solo work, Ning continues to establish himself as one of China’s most in-demand OST vocalists. He has recently contributed songs to several popular television dramas, demonstrating remarkable versatility across genres and storytelling.

For Yu Ting Yao, “Seeing Mountains and Rivers” balances epic grandeur with emotional depth, echoing the series’ sweeping historical narrative. In The Road to Splendor, his song “A Promise” takes the idea of keeping one’s word as its emotional core. Backed by his deeply expressive vocals, the track captures the resilience and sense of responsibility of people trying to hold on to their principles in turbulent times. Meanwhile, “Borrow a Little Light From Ordinary Days” feels like a bedside lamp in a complicated world, using understated musical language to celebrate the quiet heroism found in everyday life.

From the deeply personal reflections of his second album to his emotionally resonant work for film and television, Liu Yuning continues to expand the scope of his artistry. With each new release, he is building a musical universe that is unmistakably his own.

When Landon Barker was offered a spot on The Voice, his dad, Travis Barker, didn’t think it was time to jump at the opportunity.

Instead, the Blink-182 drummer asked his 22-year-old son to consider what kind of artist he wants to be and whether the opportunity actually fits into that vision.

“My son called me the other day and he’s like, ‘Hey, they offered me to go on The Voice,’” Travis said during an Aug. 8 appearance on The New York Times’ Popcast. “And I was like, ‘Dude, you’re way too cool for that.’”

For Travis, the decision came down to authenticity. He encouraged Landon to look toward the musicians who have influenced him and consider whether they would have pursued the same route.

“You got to think about your idols,” he said. “If your idol is Kurt Cobain, would he ever do The Voice? No.”

This advice comes as Landon is pursuing his own musical career, aiming to establish himself as a singer and songwriter in his own right. Instead of just rushing into trying to capitalize on every available platform, Travis said his son should give himself time to develop the music he actually wants to make.

“I’m in the studio, I hear the songs that he’s creating,” Travis said. “There’s no rush, you know?”

That doesn’t mean Travis is against televised music opportunities across the board. The drummer has appeared on American Idol several times himself, a distinction he pointed out while acknowledging that his advice to Landon could sound contradictory.

“I’m different,” Travis said. “I’m doing fun sh– that’s just fun for me ’cause I’m a drummer and I’m not in the forefront. It’d be different if I was singing with all these people.”

In other words, Travis sees a difference between making a guest appearance as a member of a band and putting yourself into a competition designed to introduce a singer to a mass audience. For Landon, he wants the focus to remain on developing his own sound and identity. “Stay on your own trajectory,” Travis advised his son.

Landon has already had some notable moments in his young career, including joining The Fray on tour. Now, according to his father, there’s no reason to let the pressure to move quickly dictate what comes next.

Travis also reflected on how his own relationship with fame has changed over the years. He recalled once having a much more confrontational attitude toward paparazzi, admitting that he “used to almost get in fights with paparazzi” and “used to have a temper.”

“Nowadays, I’ve realized it’s just all noise,” he said.

His approach now is considerably simpler: “Be happy. Try not to harm anybody and just be a good person.”

Travis has spent decades navigating the music industry himself, from Blink-182’s late-1990s, early 2000s Billboard 200 dominance to the band’s return to No. 1 with California in 2016.

Watch Barker’s full Popcast interview below:

Limp Bizkit will headline the 2026 edition of Good Things Festival, the Australian travelling heavy-music event announced Tuesday (Aug. 11), atop a bill of more than 30 acts across nu-metal, pop-punk, metalcore and hardcore.

The lineup also features Simple Plan, Spiritbox, Polaris, The All-American Rejects, Bad Religion, Alexisonfire, Grinspoon, Millencolin, Ministry, MxPx, Neck Deep, P.O.D. and The Devil Wears Prada. The festival runs Dec. 4 at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Dec. 5 at Sydney Showground and Dec. 6 at Brisbane Showgrounds, with all dates 16-and-over. Presale tickets go on sale Aug. 18.

Limp Bizkit headline after appearing at the 2023 festival and playing sold-out sideshows. Formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1994 and fronted by Fred Durst, the band’s 1999 album Significant Other debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, earned two Grammy nominations and was certified seven-times platinum on the strength of “Nookie” and “Break Stuff.”

Its 2000 follow-up Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water also debuted at No. 1, opening with more than one million U.S. copies — at the time a record for the fastest-selling rock album of the SoundScan era. The band has sold more than 40 million records worldwide.

Elsewhere on the bill, Spiritbox’s 2021 debut Eternal Blue reached No. 13 on the Billboard 200, and its 2025 follow-up Tsunami Sea hit No. 26 while topping the U.K. Independent Albums chart; the Canadian band has earned three Grammy nominations for Best Metal Performance. Simple Plan return for the first time since the 2019 festival, while Australian metalcore band Polaris topped the ARIA Albums Chart with 2023’s Fatalism.

Several acts are marking milestones. Alexisonfire will play their 2006 album Crisis in full for its 20th anniversary, Millencolin will perform 2000’s Pennybridge Pioneers in full, and Bad Religion mark their 45th year. Ministry’s dates have been billed as the industrial band’s final Australian shows. Grinspoon also feature, weeks after frontman Phil Jamieson cancelled a solo tour following a fractured vertebra, alongside a card that includes Speed, Slowly Slowly, Neck Deep, MxPx, Bilmuri and Voice of Baceprot.

Good Things Festival 2026

Dec. 4 — Melbourne — Flemington Racecourse (16+)

Dec. 5 — Sydney — Sydney Showground (16+)

Dec. 6 — Brisbane — Brisbane Showgrounds (16+)