Bluesfest Byron Bay will take its final bow next year.
In a bombshell announcement that dropped early today (August 14th), the popular music festival will call it a day following its forthcoming 36th anniversary event.
Festival director Peter Noble confirms the end with a statement. “To my Dear Bluesfest Family, and after more than 50 years in the music business, Bluesfest has been a labour of love, a celebration of music, community, and the resilient spirit of our fans,” he explains.
“But after the 2025 festival, as much as it pains me to say this, it’s time to close this chapter.”
The countdown is now on for the final show, set for April 17th-20th at the 300-acre Byron Events Farm, with the first of “many” artist announcements set to be issued in one week from now.
“As I said earlier this year at Bluesfest 2024,” Noble continues, “next year’s festival will be happening and it definitely is, but it will be our last. To my dear Bluesfest family, I want to make it the most unforgettable experience yet. If you’ve been thinking about it, now is your last chance to experience our beloved festival.”
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The end of Bluesfest will come as a shock, but no surprise, to industry and punters.
This year has been nothing short of a bloodbath for festival-land, as the cost-of-living crisis, rising artist fees, changing ticket-buying behaviour, and other factors have put profits, for many organisers, out of reach.
It was Noble who, during the Variety Live Biz Breakfast in Sydney on June 13th, declared the festivals market was facing an “extinction event,” one that has already seen Splendour in the Grass, Groovin the Moo, Caloundra Music Festival, Spilt Milk and more wiped out in 2024.
Bluesfest hasn’t escaped the cold wins of this frosty economy. Bluesfest this year counted close to 65,000 attendees, down from the 102,000 that gathered in 2022, the first after several shows were scrapped due to the pandemic.
During its “great days,” he remarked, Bluesfest averaged 85,000.
“We’ve really got to be as one as an industry,” Noble said as he collected the best festival award, one of seven winners presented at 12-Micron. “We need to speak to government. We need to say this is the time you support our industry because we are facing an extinction event and that event can be looked at during the times of COVID, government delivered a lot of funding…come on government. Give us a hand up, we don’t want a handout. We can get through this because our industry is worth it.”
The multiple-award winning fest has, for so many years, owned a special piece of the live events calendar – the Easter holiday timeslot, the last of the summer festivals before the colder months, and drawing music fans from around the country to the picturesque beach town of Byron Bay.
Over time, a who’s who of legendary artists have graced the Bluesfest stages, including Bob Dylan, BB King, Buddy Guy, Santana, Paul Simon, Bonnie Rait and Robert Plant, Kendrick Lamar and a slew of homegrown icons, including Cold Chisel, Midnight Oil and Crowded House.
According to reps, a “lineup worthy of this momentous occasion” – the final Bluesfest – is coming soon.
