After 13 years, the organisers of the Birdsville Big Red Bash have announced the festival will hold its final weekend.
The festival’s farewell will take place at the edge of the Simpson Desert in Queensland, from Tuesday, July 6th – Thursday, July 8th, 2027, with a line-up including Missy Higgins, Hoodoo Gurus, Leo Sayer, Kate Ceberano, The Living End, Birds of Tokyo, Jessica Mauboy, Shannon Noll, The Whitlams, Tim Finn, Troy Cassar-Daley, and many more.
The Donovan family, who founded and run the festival, decided to end it after the 2026 event was cancelled in March when rainfall flooded the site. The 2026 festival was 90% sold out at the time. Ticketholders could take a refund or keep their tickets for 2027.
However, rising costs, recent weather and the logistics of running a festival in a remote location also factored into the decision.
Outback Music Festival Group founder and managing director Greg Donovan said the decision was necessary to protect the family-run business and its team.
“The Big Red Bash has been successful and financially viable – and we feel privileged that both our Bash events have consistently sold out since 2015. But the ongoing outside pressures have ultimately led us to the conclusion that continuing at the remote Birdsville site is becoming difficult to sustain for the long term,” said Donovan.
“It breaks my heart to have to walk away from an event that was founded on something so deeply personal to our family – fundraising for juvenile diabetes when our son was first diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes – but sadly it’s where we’re at. We’re 100% committed to our Mundi Mundi Plains site, where remote and Outback comes with a side of infrastructure, sealed roads and a town the size of Broken Hill that is well equipped to support us with accommodation and flights.”
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Around six feet of floodwater remains across parts of the event site, but organisers and Birdsville locals are confident the water will evaporate by February 2027, and the ground will dry up well before the final festival is staged in July 2027.
Donovan said that the decision to make 2027 the final Big Red Bash event was made all the more difficult by the importance of the Bash to Birdsville, surrounding communities, suppliers, local businesses and charity partners.
“As a family, we feel very sad and emotional that the Big Red Bash chapter is coming to an end,” he said.
“It’s something that we took a leap of faith with and poured our hearts and souls into building from scratch, based on a crazy idea in a remote and challenging location. A lot of our blood, sweat, and tears have been spilled on that land. I gambled our family house and all my redundancy payout to make the event happen, and it has been an unexpected but magical journey.
“It will probably sound like a crude analogy, but I feel like it conveys the depth of emotion and how torn we feel to say that calling time on the Big Red Bash feels like having to put down the family dog at the end of its life. It’s something that you love unconditionally, and which has been a loyal companion and a major part of the family for such a long time – but you know the decision is the right one.”
Despite the sadness, Donovan said the family was grateful to have the chance to give the Big Red Bash the farewell it deserved. “Many great music festivals have disappeared over the last few years without the opportunity to say goodbye properly by staging a final farewell event,” he said.
“We are very fortunate to be in a position to do that – to go out on our own terms rather than being forced out.”
The final event will also mark the end of an era for the festival’s dedicated team, the Brook family, whose organic farmland has hosted the event, traditional land owner Don Rowland and the many Birdsville locals, as well as the event crew, volunteers, contractors, artists, volunteers and suppliers who have helped bring the Bash to life.
“We’re incredibly proud of what the Big Red Bash has achieved and deeply appreciate everyone who has worked together to help make it possible,” Greg Donovan said. “Our focus now is on making 2027 a very special final celebration with everyone who has been part of its story.”
Tickets will go on sale on November 12th, with the option of paying in full or paying a deposit, with instalments due from March 2027. Full refunds will be issued if the event cannot proceed.
For complete festival and ticket information, see here.
2027 Birdsville Big Red Bash – Final Edition
Tuesday, July 6th – Thursday, July 8th, 2027
Big Red Sand Dune, 35 km West of Birdsville, QLD
