There’s a moment, just before the sun dips behind the Big Red sand dune near Birdsville, when the desert turns gold – the sky blazes with colour and a thousand campers fall silent, waiting for the first chord to ring out.
After a year off to catch its breath, the Birdsville Big Red Bash will return in July 2026, reclaiming its place as the world’s most remote music festival. A few weeks later, its sister event, the Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash, will fire up the plains again in August.
Two festivals. Two extraordinary horizons. And, as always, one big Australian heart beating out there in the dust.
The Big Red Bash: A return to glory
“Stoked” is the word organiser Greg Donovan uses to describe his mood – and you can hear the relief. “We’re recharged and ready,” he says. “There’s nothing like watching families dance in the shadow of that giant sand dune as the sun sets behind it. It’s pure magic.”
For its comeback year, the Birdsville Big Red Bash (July 7–9, 2026) has assembled a line-up that reads like a who’s who of Australian music. Missy Higgins, Hoodoo Gurus, The Teskey Brothers, The Living End, Birds of Tokyo, and Jessica Mauboy lead the bill, with Kate Ceberano, Shannon Noll, Tim Finn, Troy Cassar-Daley, Ross Wilson, Chocolate Starfish, and a tribute show celebrating 50 Years of Fleetwood Mac.
In true Bash tradition, there’s a thread of family running through it all. Gypsy Lee Ceberano will share the stage with her mother Kate for the first time, while Jem Cassar-Daley joins her dad Troy for another desert family moment.
Missy Higgins, who’s no stranger to the Big Red stage, says there’s something elemental about playing in the desert. “You look out and see this sea of people who’ve driven thousands of kilometres, caravans coated in red dust, and you realise you’re part of something that only happens here,” she says. “It’s so Australian. So beautiful.”
And from there, the music rolls on — under stars that look close enough to touch, with the warm scent of campfire smoke and red dust in the air.
Mundi Mundi Bash: The plains on fire
Just over a month later, on August 20–22, the Mundi Mundi Bash will bring the music to the shimmering plains outside Broken Hill, where 15,000 revellers are expected to camp beneath that enormous sky.
The line-up? Equally stacked. The Teskey Brothers again headline, alongside Jon Stevens, John Butler, Boy & Bear, Baby Animals, Jessica Mauboy, The Whitlams, Tim Finn, Richard Clapton, Leo Sayer, and Troy Cassar-Daley.
Jon Stevens says he can already picture it – “the heat, the horizon, and 10,000 people singing ‘Take Me Back’ into the wind.”
And for the Teskey Brothers, it’ll be their first time out there in the dust. “We’ve heard a lot about these desert shows from our mates,” says frontman Josh Teskey. “We can’t wait to see it for ourselves – to feel that energy. It’s like a pilgrimage for music lovers.”
Dust, Distance and Devotion
It takes a certain kind of madness to haul yourself across the country for a gig – and an even wilder kind to organise one in the middle of nowhere. But that’s what makes these festivals so singular.
They’re not just concerts. They’re acts of devotion – to music, to mateship, to the great Australian outback.
At Birdsville, the stage rises from the desert like a mirage, 35 kilometres west of town, at the foot of the 40-metre-high Big Red dune. The roads are long but manageable, the campsites stretch for miles, and when night falls, there’s nothing between you and the Milky Way.
Mundi Mundi, near Broken Hill, offers a different kind of beauty – wide, rolling plains where the horizon curves like the rim of the earth. You can drive there on sealed roads, pitch your tent, and wake to sunrises that could stop your heart.
Both are BYO, all-ages and dog-friendly, with food stalls, comedy, fun runs, and the kind of shared joy you can only find when the nearest city is a day’s drive away.
Over the years, festival-goers have danced their way into the record books with the world’s biggest Nutbush. This year, organisers promise a new activity to replace it – something just as joyful (and probably just as silly).
A different kind of rhythm
For the artists, playing the Bash is unlike any other gig. There’s no green room, no five-star hotel, no quick getaway. There’s just the dust, the silence, the wind, and a crowd who’ve earned every note.
Hoodoo Gurus frontman Dave Faulkner still remembers their 2023 show: “It was one of the most memorable gigs of our lives. What an insane idea – gather a bunch of musos and misfits, head to the back of beyond, and turn it into the happiest place in Australia. Whoever thought of that is a genius.”
The Gurus will be back in 2026, ready to set the desert alight once more.
The Outback’s biggest stage
In an age of digital everything, there’s something defiant about thousands of people driving hundreds of kilometres just to camp out and listen to music. The Outback Bashes are reminders of what live music used to mean – a communal experience, a temporary tribe bound by dust, heat, and harmony.
Families, grey nomads, road-trippers, first-timers – they all make the pilgrimage. Some stay for a week, others for a month. They swap stories, share food, lend jumper leads. When the music starts, the entire desert becomes a single choir.
And as the last chord fades and the stars reclaim the sky, you can almost hear the country breathe.
Tickets and Travel
The Birdsville Big Red Bash runs July 7–9, 2026, with tickets on sale October 23, 2025 at bigredbash.com.au.
The Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash follows on August 20–22, 2026, with tickets available October 24, 2025 at mundimundibash.com.au.
Both events offer volunteer opportunities (applications open from October 18–22) and welcome self-drivers, caravanners and bus-tour travellers alike.
If you’ve ever dreamed of hearing Missy Higgins’ Scar drift over red sand, or seeing The Teskey Brothers’ Pain and Misery melt into the desert dusk – this is your year.
Because out there, beyond the bitumen, the music sounds different. It’s bigger. It’s braver. And for a few nights each winter, the Outback itself keeps the beat.