It’s billed as the most remote music festival in the world and each year it is getting bigger and bigger.
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This year over 6500 festivalgoers camped out in a pop-up town in the dry lakebed on the edge of the Simpson Desert for the fifth annual Birdsville Big Red Bash.
They came from across Australia gathered to rock out at Big Red sanddune with headline acts Missy Higgins, James Reyne, Mark Seymour and Lee Kernaghan celebrating his 25th career anniversary.
Missy Higgins kicked off the three-day outback music festival saying she had an amazing time at the Bash.
“It’s by far the most remote place I’ve ever played, and such a stunning location. It’s a powerful experience playing in the desert amongst the giant red sand dunes and the crowd were wonderful, ” Higgins said.
Russell Morris and Troy Cassar-Daley returned to the Bash for a second straight year while Ian Moss, Ray Ryder and Kate Ceberano kept the crowd entertained over the three days including
The event welcomed people of all ages and this year dogs were also invited to enjoy the festival with their owners in a popular pet camping area as part of the 8kms surveyed area mapped into temporary streets with names like Burke and Wills Way and Nappanerica Pathway.
The village was built in three days with 30 truckloads of gear and supplies and 350 volunteers working with crew for 8000 hours to deliver the Festival. Over 120,000 litres of water was supplied to the site and a similar amount of waste plus five semi-trailers of garbage removed.
The final day of the festival was a 7-hour, one-of-a-kind celebration of country star Lee Kernaghan’s career. 2017 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of Lee’s ground breaking debut album The Outback Club, and to help him celebrate he was joined by Christie Lamb, James Blundell, The McClymonts, Tania Kernaghan, Troy Cassar-Daley and The Wolfe Brothers for an epic finale.
Event Founder Greg Donovan was delighted with the event.
“The atmosphere over the three days has been electric, the performances have been spectacular and put huge smiles on the faces of the audience,” he said.
See our photo gallery here.
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
