The Birdsville Big Red Bash is going out with a bang, with tickets to the iconic outback music festival’s final edition selling out in under an hour.
Tickets for the 2027 event, fittingly dubbed ‘The Last Hurrah’, went on sale at 10am AEDT on Thursday (November 12th), with fans wasting no time securing their place at the festival’s historic farewell.
“We’re lost for words. The Last Hurrah SOLD OUT in under an hour!!” organisers shared on social media.
“From all of us at the Big Red Bash, THANK YOU.”
The extraordinary demand follows last month’s announcement that the 2027 event would be the festival’s last, bringing an end to 13 years of live music beneath the towering Big Red sand dune on the edge of Queensland’s Simpson Desert.
Set to take place from July 6th-8th, the final festival will feature a star-studded Australian lineup led by Missy Higgins, Hoodoo Gurus, The Living End, Birds of Tokyo, Leo Sayer, Kate Ceberano, Jessica Mauboy, The Whitlams, Tim Finn, Troy Cassar-Daley, and Shannon Noll, among others.
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Festival founder and Outback Music Festival Group managing director Greg Donovan said the farewell would be an emotional occasion.
“There will be plenty of music, plenty of memories and, no doubt, a few tears,” Donovan said.
“But most importantly, we want people to get out there, enjoy themselves and help us give the Big Red Bash the send-off it deserves.”
The sellout comes after a challenging year for the family-run festival, which was forced to cancel its 2026 edition after widespread flooding left the remote event site underwater. At the time of cancellation, the festival had already sold 90 per cent of its tickets.
The Donovan family subsequently announced that rising costs, unpredictable weather conditions, and the logistical challenges of staging one of the world’s most remote music festivals had made its long-term future increasingly difficult to sustain.
Despite the decision, Donovan previously emphasised that the festival remained financially viable, with the family choosing to farewell the event on its own terms rather than risk circumstances beyond its control bringing it to an abrupt end.
The Big Red Bash has become a uniquely Australian live music institution, drawing thousands of music lovers into the desert each year and delivering significant tourism benefits to Birdsville and surrounding outback communities.
While the Birdsville event will take its final bow in July, the Donovan family’s Mundi Mundi Bash, held near Broken Hill in New South Wales, will continue.
