Birdsville's Big Red Bash will return for its final festival on 6–8 July 2027, organisers have announced, ending a Queensland outback event that has drawn thousands of music fans and travellers. The Donovan family, who founded and run the festival, has decided to close it after the farewell edition, citing weather, rising costs and the logistical demands of its remote setting.
In the organisers' announcement, Outback Music Festival Group founder and managing director Greg Donovan said the Big Red Bash had been successful and financially viable. He said outside pressures were making continued operation at the Birdsville site difficult to sustain over the long term. The decision follows the cancellation of the 2026 event after an early-year rain event inundated the site, when tickets were 90 per cent sold.
The farewell line-up includes Missy Higgins, Hoodoo Gurus, Leo Sayer, Kate Ceberano, The Living End, Birds of Tokyo, Jessica Mauboy and Shannon Noll, Rolling Stone reported. Donovan said the family was grateful to be able to stage a final celebration and finish on its own terms, rather than have the event disappear without a farewell.
The festival site remains flooded. Organisers say their model, using Bureau of Meteorology evaporation data for Birdsville, predicts the water will be gone by late February 2027 and the ground will dry before the July event. The model uses long-term averages: the organisers note that a hot, dry summer would dry the site faster, while a wet summer would slow it down.
Tickets will go on sale on 12 November 2026. The organisers are offering full payment or a deposit, with further instalments from March 2027, and say full refunds will be made if the event cannot proceed. Their confidence in the site drying is therefore accompanied by a stated refund arrangement for ticket buyers.
The closure will be felt beyond the concert grounds. ABC News reported on Wednesday (7 October) that previous festivals had attracted between 8,000 and 12,000 people. Visitors also stop in small towns around western Queensland, supporting businesses along the way. Diamantina Shire Council Mayor Francis Murray told the ABC that losing the event would affect local businesses already facing difficult conditions.
Birdsville business owner Jenna Brook told the ABC the Bash brought people to the town and surrounding communities who would otherwise not visit. She said its loss would be a substantial hit to businesses and urged continued travel to Birdsville for the other experiences it offers. Donovan also told the broadcaster that, although costs had risen, expense was not the main challenge of staging the remote event.
The organisers trace the festival's beginnings to John Williamson's acoustic performance at Big Red for Big Red Run participants in 2013. The group will continue running the Mundi Mundi Bash in Broken Hill, which it says will become its sole focus after 2027. For Birdsville, the July farewell is intended as one last celebration of the event and the people who built it.