Parkway Drive: The Only Way Is Onwards and Upwards
It’s never been a better time to be a fan of Parkway Drive. The Byron Bay metal titans have been non-stop since their 20th anniversary in 2024 brought them to Australian arenas in a powerful way.
Words Sosefina Fuamoli // Image supplied
Add in their landmark orchestral show at the Sydney Opera House and their venture into Avengers territory, with drummer Ben Gordon teaching Chris Hemsworth how to play for the latter’s Disney+ show, Limitless… Parkway Drive is seemingly everywhere.
For frontman Winston McCall, there’s hardly been a moment to pause, but he’s thrilled to be riding Parkway Drive’s current wave of momentum.
“It’s been psychotic,” he laughs. “We’re almost running into territory of where our 20 years shows were a year ago – things have been relentless.
“There is still a whole bunch of stuff that is about to drop on people, which is going to blow people’s minds. It’s just been nonstop, in a really awesome way.”
Even though the band has climbed to heights of success many Australian acts, especially in the heavy genre, could only aspire to, Parkway Drive remain committed to ensuring all their crowds – whether it be at home in Australia, or arena crowds in Europe – walk away with an experience to remember.
Summer 2026 sees the band launching their curated travelling festival – Park Waves – in regional centres around the country. The concept, first debuted by Parkway Drive in Germany back in 2024, arrives in Australia with a much larger production behind it, featuring heavyweights including The Amity Affliction, Northlane and Alpha Wolf.
It will be the first time Parkway Drive and The Amity Affliction have toured together on home soil, presenting an opportunity to show off a top calibre of heavy music.
The all-ages, 16+ tour means a lot to McCall, who remembers what it was like coming up in a regional town as a teenager – ultimately looking for that sense of connection with other music fans.
“It’s the story we know as a band. We know what it means to start out here, to be inspired by experiencing something firsthand,” he explains. “For us, Warped Tour was so influential when it first rolled through in the ‘90s. It was like, ‘Holy crap – I’m seeing these bands I’d always listened to…’ it’s so different to see something in real life and actually be able to see yourself doing it. To be able to go, ‘That’s what I want to do, I’m going to start a band.’
“Regional touring has always been part of our DNA, we’ve always done it; it’s just at a point now, if you go to a regional centre, you have to bring the show with you. You can’t just do it in a hall. Ticket sales alone means that a tonne of people miss out, so we know it just has to be festival-sized now.”
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Inspired by Silverchair and Powderfinger’s joint Across The Great Divide tour in 2007, Park Waves has taken the idea of joining two massive Australian music forces together, and boosting it to radars across Australia.
“We’re of a size now where, if you combine Parkway and Amity together, we’re kinda equal to what they were doing,” McCall says. “The [streaming and ticket] numbers speak to it being ‘mainstream’, it’s just the actual perception [of heavy music].”
“This is just another piece of the puzzle of us continuing to break down the walls of perception. It’s not that I’m saying this needs to be mainstream, but there’s always this little chip on my shoulder,” he explains.
“It’s very hard to know the amount of people who love this music and this culture – it’s so vast. It still does carry a stigma that makes people not want to engage properly, because there is that slight turning up of the nose. I love the fact that it takes some understanding to get into, but I want people to have pride in this music; have pride in this being the music they love.”
Still, enthusiasm for the concept aside; a venture like this comes with risks. The touring climate in Australia still navigating post-COVID has meant that the sheer cost of putting any large-scale production on the road is far more extreme, let alone banking on a full festival being able to tour successfully in smaller areas.
The dedication of the Australian heavy and alternative music communities is one main reason something like this can, and will work. Fans consistently supporting artists at a grassroots level is why a musician like McCall can make his dreams – no matter how hectic – some kind of reality.
“We want it to be a formative experience,” he smiles. “We want the people who regularly go to gigs to be able to go, ‘Sick, I went to that and it wasn’t just a normal gig.’ I think we’ve played a handful of shows under big top tents in our history in this country, full stop. It’s completely different to a Knotfest or a Good Things Festival stage; it’s a different vibe than being in an arena, or in a small club. To be able to bring that unique feel to it and have it be weatherproof is fucking fantastic.”
“We’re lucky that we’ve been able to experience a lot over our years of touring, especially through Europe, so to bring it here and have that be something I don’t think we have access to in this current capacity in a lot of places, is going to be so fun,” he adds.
“At the end of the day, I want people to be able to create a memory where they’re like, ‘Fuck! Remember when that happened?’ That’s what counts in your life.”
Catch Parkway Drive at Park Waves Festival at Adelaide Showgrounds on Friday 20 February 2026. Tickets on sale now via parkwavesfestival.com.
