BRISBANE, Australia — The site of the Big Red Bash has taken a mighty big splash, a situation that has forced organizers to look for an alternative site.
Presented mid-winter in Birdsville, about 1,000 miles west of Brisbane, the Bash is said to be the world’s most remote music festival.
When it rains in the outback, it pours. That happened earlier this month, as a tropical low system caused widespread flooding across the region.
Birdsville recorded more than its annual average rainfall in just a few days, reads a statement from organizers, and stations north have received up to four times their annual rainfall, with many locals comparing the situation to the record floods of 1974. The roads to Birdsville, as they are right now, are cut off.
“What wasn’t anticipated was the extent of the inundation at the Big Red Bash festival site,” the update continues. “Based on current conditions and local advice, the site will not dry sufficiently by July to allow the event to be held safely in this location.”
Australia’s network of music festivals is constantly at the mercy of Mother Nature, as bushfires, extreme heat, wind and flooding have been known to ruin best-made plans.
Despite the obstacles, the team at Big Red Bash 2026 isn’t fazed. The show will go on, and its staff are “assessing options” by working with stakeholders and local authorities to secure a dry site nearby
It’s been an eventful stretch for the fest, which took a year off in 2025 — a break to “refresh and recharge after 11 years of delivering such a logistically challenging festival,” Greg Donovan, managing director of Outback Music Festival Group told this reporter last year.
Big Red Bash got underway in 2013 with a solo performance by John Williamson and has operated continuously, until the pandemic forced a hiatus in 2020. Now, it’s a three-day concert and campsite, on grounds known as “Bashville,” located on the organic cattle station Adria Downs. Cattle still graze there, when 11,000 party-goers aren’t in town.
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees Missy Higgins and Hoodoo Gurus are headliners for this year’s show, set for July 7-9, leading a bill that features The Teskey Brothers, The Living End, Birds of Tokyo, Kate Ceberano, The Whitlams, Jessica Mauboy and many more.
