Paul Kelly, Bernard Fanning and Missy Higgins lead 2023 Red Hot Summer festival line-up

Aussie music stars including Bernard Fanning, Paul Kelly and Missy Higgins are attracting Gen X fans to their next festival tour.

Generation X grew up on the Big Day Out through the 90s and are now returning to outdoor shows in droves as the destination festival market explodes in Australia.

One of the annual events driving the spike in older festival goers is the Red Hot Summer tour, whose 2023 line-up features Paul Kelly, Bernard Fanning, Missy Higgins, Mark Seymour, Vika and Linda and Ian Moss and Troy Cassar-Daley.

Fanning said he couldn’t have imagined as a 25-year-old singer performing with Powderfinger at the Big Day Out for the first time in 1994 that almost three decades later he would still be getting booked for the big festivals.

“I don’t think so. I probably would have thought I’d be an architect or running a landscaping business,” he joked.

Not only is he still a headlining act whose Powderfinger and solo back catalogues keep bringing in the diehard fans, but he is connecting with younger audiences, most recently combining with First Nations pop star Baker Boy on a reinvention of his 2005 debut solo single smash Wish You Well.

Bernard Fanning and his peers are still festival drawcards. Picture: Supplied.

Fanning said some of the Red Hot Summer’s stops throughout regional Australia are towns he has never played in over his long career.

The tour’s audience stretches from 30 to 55 years depending on each year’s line-up.

“There’s obviously a shift in the demographics of festivals where people our age, they don’t have babies anymore., we’ve got teenagers who can stay at home. Or come to the festival (with their parents),” he says.

“I imagine there will be an element of that with this tour because Paul (Kelly) is like a god in Australian music and there will be a lot of people who want their kids to see him play.”

Missy Higgins believes festivals are important to boost Australia’s regions. Picture: Supplied.

Kelly was involved in the curation of the line-up with promoter Duane McDonald who created the regional festival showcasing the best of Australian music 12 years ago.

Not only has it become a hot ticket for city dwellers keen for a weekend away, the festival has provided an economic boost to regional hubs from Ballarat to Toowoomba, from Mannum to Bateman’s Bay with headliners including John Farnham, Jimmy Barnes, Hunters and Collectors to Icehouse.

Paul Kelly curated the 2023 Red Hot Summer line-up with the promoter. Picture: Supplied.

“I think the regions have just gone through so much over the past couple of years with Covid and these horrible weather events that they need live music now more than ever. They need these festivals now more than ever,” Higgins said.

Kelly isn’t giving anything away but his wishlist of artists for the 2023 season offers myriad opportunities for collaboration during the shows.

“The reality has been because of Covid precautions at festivals people have been turning up, doing their set and then taking off,” he said.

“We’re hoping things will be back to normal early next year but we don’t know that yet.”

While the backstage of the Big Day Out in its heyday was more of a drinking competition between artists, the 2023 Red Hot Summer line-up, led by Kelly, features a bunch of cricket tragics keen for some pre-gig match play.

Missy Higgins and Paul Kelly will be facing each other on the backstage cricket pitch. Picture: AAP.

Fanning joked his good mate Higgins should be prepared for a bouncer or two. But it turns out she is very handy with a bat.

“I grew up playing beach cricket and was very handy with the plastic bat,” she said.

“I’m actually famous for putting a hole in the wall on the Kev Carmody tour when I tried to give my bowling chops a go in Paul Kelly’s hotel room during an after-party one night.

“I’m totally up for backstage cricket, that sounds awesome.”

The 2023 Red Hot Summer tour kicks off at the Mornington Racecourse on January 14 and finishes at the Sandstone Point Hotel on Bribie Island on April 29. Tickets go on sale from September 1, with all venue and ticketing details via redhotsummer.com.au