A wave of international Bluesfest 2026 artists have confirmed headline dates across Australia for March and April next year, in addition to their festival sets at Byron Bay’s Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm.
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Among them are The Black Crowes, Sublime, Buddy Guy, The Pogues, Marcus King Band, Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band, and Talking Heads’ Jerry Harrison and King Crimson’s Adrian Belew, who will perform their Remain In Light show with special guest Robert Randolph.
The announcement arrives days after Bluesfest confirmed its first artist lineup for 2026. While Split Enz and Counting Crows have already rolled out separate tour itineraries, the new additions round out a larger national offering, giving fans beyond Byron Bay a chance to catch exclusive one-night-only shows in capital cities and select regional centres.
Sublime will appear at Melbourne’s Festival Hall on April 1, followed by Bluesfest on April 2 and a final stop at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion on April 4. The Black Crowes will tour extensively, performing at The Forum in Melbourne, Fortitude Music Hall in Brisbane, Newcastle Entertainment Centre, and Sydney’s Enmore Theatre, either side of their Byron Bay date.
Buddy Guy, who turns 90 in July 2026, will play the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne’s Palais Theatre. His appearances at Bluesfest mark what could be his final Australian performances. The Pogues, commemorating the 40th anniversary of their 1985 album Rum, Sodomy & the Lash, will headline shows in Fremantle, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, with multiple performances also scheduled at the festival.
Additional sideshows include Marcus King Band touring Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide; Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band marking 30 years of Ledbetter Heights; and Jerry Harrison & Adrian Belew performing their Remain in Light collaboration in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
Presale access opens Tuesday, Nov. 11 at 11 a.m. AEDT via the Bluesfest Touring website, with general public tickets available from Thursday, Nov. 13. Tickets and full information are available via bluesfesttouring.com.au.
The Bluesfest sideshow rollout underscores the event’s growing national footprint as it continues to rebound from the pandemic era. Bluesfest 2025 welcomed more than 109,000 attendees — its biggest turnout since 2019 — and was described by festival director Peter Noble as “the third-biggest event we’ve done in the history of the festival.”
“We’ve worked hard to get here,” Noble said in April. “We’ve had the highest attendance of any Australian festival since pre-COVID… Festivals are back.”
