Bluesfest unveils the first artists to play at the Byron Bay festival’s last hurrah
With the annual Byron Bay festival coming to a close next year, these are all the artists who have been booked — so far — to perform at the last Bluesfest.
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Crowded House has been secured as one of the headliners of Bluesfest’s last hurrah in 2025, returning to Australia just four months after their November headlining tour.
The first line-up of 20 artists also includes global singer songwriter superstar Vance Joy, festival kings Ocean Alley and Tones and I returning to Byron Bay where she kicked off career as a busker.
Blues rock guitar god Gary Clark Jr, a regular attendee of the festival with his Australian model wife Nicole Trunfio, will be back for the Easter four-day event as is acclaimed English singer Rag’n’Bone Man.
Other artists secured for the last-ever Bluesfest from April 17 to 20 include Australian country queen Fanny Lumsden, Grammy-winning Canadian folk singer songwriter Alison Russell and blues and roots siblings Pierce Brothers.
Bluesfest promoter Peter Noble on August 14 that the 2025 Bluesfest would be its last, prompting one of the biggest one-week ticket sales in the event’s history.
“As we prepare for the final chapter of Bluesfest in 2025, I am profoundly moved by the outpouring of support from thousands in our community, along with the many artists and their management eager to be part of our farewell edition,” he said in the line-up announcement.
The Bluesfest social channels signalled on Monday that early bird tickets would cease to be available at 6.59am on August 21, a minute before the first edition of the line-up was scheduled to be revealed.
The rush for tickets after Noble said he was calling time on Bluesfest will fund his efforts to secure other big Australian and international artists to “make the final Bluesfest one for the ages.”
It will be the first show in Australia for Vance Joy since November 2022 as his 10-year-old breakthrough hit Riptide remains a fixture in ARIA and UK charts more than a decade after its release.
Tones and I will make an emotional return to the Byron Bay event having competed at the star-making Bluesfest Busking Competition several years ago before Dance Monkey made her a global household name.
The full first line-up reveal is Crowded House, Vance Joy, Ocean Alley, Tones and I, Gary Clark Jr, Rag’n’Bone Man, RY X, Allison Russell, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Brad Cox, Here Come The Mummies, The California Honeydrops, Marc Broussard, Pierce Brothers, Taj Farrant, Fanny Lumsden, 19-Twenty, WILSN, Cimafunk and Neal Francis.
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