Leo Sayer makes outback festival offer it can’t refuse

By Suzanne Simonot 

“When Leo Sayer gets you in a verbal headlock, it’s not easy to say no.”

So says Marc Christowski, the man responsible for locking in the artists who perform at Australia’s largest outback music festival, the Mundi Mundi Bash.

Grammy-winning hitmaker Sayer is a unicorn in Mundi Mundi terms.

After performing at the festival for the first time in 2025, the contagiously enthusiastic 78-year-old is back again this year – a rare exception to the event’s golden rule of not booking the same artists in consecutive years.

“He’s had a massive 50-plus year career and he felt Mundi Mundi Bash was pretty much up there with the best festival he’s ever played,” Christowski said.

“He insisted on coming back this year, and it was impossible to say no to him.”

Born Gerard Sayer in Sussex, England, Sayer became an Australian citizen in 2009 and lives in NSW’s southern highlands.

“It was a lot of fun. I love performing at these big outdoor events, always have,” he said of his 2025 show as the gates opened on this year’s bash at Mundiville, a pop-up festival site 40km from Broken Hill.

With an enviable 50-year catalogue of hits to draw on – from You Make Me Feel Like Dancing and When I Need You to Thunder in My Heart and Moonlighting – Sayer is happy to serve audiences what they want to hear.

“I have so many hits that the folks expect to hear, and I can’t disappoint them,” he said.

“These songs are so much fun to perform, as everyone sings and dances along and has such a good time.

“I think of these songs as my kids. I brought them into the world and I love singing them.”

Sayer, who will return to the UK in October and November for a near-sold-out run of shows to coincide with the release of a career-spanning 18 CD box set, said he still felt driven to prove himself.

“I just try and keep myself hungry. I’m ambitious still,” he said.

“It’s also very important to not take yourself too seriously, and I think I’ve found a nice balance between pushing to create even better songs and not worrying if they don’t work out.”

A human dynamo as wild as his curls, with a knack for storytelling and a library of names to drop – think Elvis, Keith Moon and Raquel Welch – Sayer has been working on an autobiography, Just A Boy, and a biopic.

“It’ll be me, taking you through the crazy events that have happened in my life,” he said of the film.

“What we’ve filmed so far looks great but there’s a lot more to come.”

Sayer will have to make fans feel like dancing in the rain at Mundi Mundi, with wet weather forecast on Thursday before skies clear on Friday and Saturday.

Significant rainfall this week has created what organisers call “extremely challenging conditions”, forcing them to pause the massive days-long roll-in of campers on Wednesday.

Festival founder Greg Donovan said late downpours had made 30 per cent of the site unsuitable for camping.

Patrons with two- or three-day early entry passes were being granted access but one-day early pass and standard vehicle entry ticketholders would be offered a refund.

Overflow camping was in place at Broken Hill Racecourse as the town swung into action on Wednesday night to accommodate and entertain campers unable to access the festival.

The Mundi Mundi Bash runs from Thursday to Saturday, with artists including Jessica Mauboy, The Teskey Brothers, Boy and Bear and John Butler.