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News February 5, 2025

Birdsville’s Big Red Bash Will Be Back In 2026

Birdsville’s Big Red Bash Will Be Back In 2026

After sitting out 2025, Birdsville’s iconic Big Red Bash will be back next year.

The team behind the popular festival just needed time out to refresh, recharge, and regroup, explains Greg Donovan, Managing Director of Outback Music Festival Group and producer of the event.

Australia’s once thriving festivals market is currently enduring a tough run, perhaps the most difficult economic climate in a generation.

A reminder of those troubles came with the recent cancellations of Splendour In The Grass and Groovin the Moo, both popular brands now watching from the sidelines for two successive years.

While festivals around the country struggle to stay afloat, Donovan figured the prudent plan was to take a breather.

Consider it a sabbatical year.

“It wasn’t really the current situation or environment that led to us having a break,” Donovan tells Tone Deaf. “It was more that we felt we needed the break to refresh and recharge after 11 years of delivering such a logistically challenging festival.”

Big Red Bash faces its own set of unusual obstacles. The greatest of which is also its point of difference – its remote location, at Big Red Dune, some 35km west of Birdsville in the Simpson Desert. The middle of nowhere.

The fest has operated continuously since 2013, other than a COVID-enforced break in 2020, and was the first to return in its multi-day format following the pandemic, with a show in July 2021 which hosted over 9,000 party-goers.

The most recent edition in July 2024 boasted a line-up led by Tina Arena and Jon Stevens, along with homegrown heroes Ian Moss, Colin Hay, Tim Finn, Diesel, Baby Animals, Vanessa Amorosi, Fanny Lumdsen, Sarah McLeod and many more. Upwards of 11,000 punters watched on.

Since 2016, the “Bash” events (including Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash) have raised more than $1 million for the Royal Flying Doctors.

The business of live music and festivals “is quite challenging” with a downturn in ticket sales reported across many shows, Donovan notes. “In general people are being more selective where they spend their money and are not going to as many events as previously,” he continues, “and also leaving ticket purchasing fairly late which makes it difficult for planning.

The fest should spring to life once again from July 7-9, 2026.

In the meantime, ARIA Hall of Famer John Williamson will play the Big Red, with back-to-back concerts on July 8th and 9th, 2025

“Yes, we are still planning ahead to hold Big Red Bash next year,” Donovan confirms. “Hopefully the market dynamics will be on the improve by then.”

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