Birdsville Big Red Bash 2021 takes over the Simpson Desert

Despite parts of NSW being in lockdown amid a growing outbreak of Covid-19, one part of the country is in full pre-pandemic party mode.

Parts of the country may be facing Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions, but a festival in outback Queensland looks about as pre-pandemic as you can get.

Record numbers of music lovers have flocked to Birdsville for the Big Red Bash music festival in outback Queensland this year, although hundreds were forced to cancel their attendance due to Covid-19 restrictions locking some people out of the state.

Wild scenes at the world’s most remote music festival. Picture: Marc Grimwade/Getty Images.

The Birdsville Big Red Bash had record crowds this year. Picture: Marc Grimwade/Getty Images.

The Big Red Bash in Birdsville is in full swing.

Close to 10,000 festival-goers ventured to the red sand dunes just outside the township of Birdsville for the three-day event.

According to event organiser Greg Donovan, 2021 has seen the biggest crowd in the event’s history, despite the festival being threatened by Covid-19 outbreaks in parts of Queensland and NSW.

As a result, some of the original line-up artists were forced to cancel their performance at the event, including a set by Kate Ceberano and Shannon Noll.

The Big Red Bash in Birdsville had some colourful costumes.

The Big Red Bash in Birdsville attracted around 10,000 guests.

The Big Red Bash in Birdsville gave patrons a taste of pre-pandemic life.

But on Wednesday, main act Paul Kelly entertained thousands while in between sets, crowds hit up the Big Red sand dune for sandboarding and more than 400 festival-goers took part in Bashville Drags showcasing their costume creations.

Dripping in sequins, satin and sass – all entrants raised funds for the festival’s charity partner, the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

The Big Red Bash in Birdsville is in full swing.

It’s the wildest party in Australia right now.

The enormous size of the concert venue allows 6.3sq m for each ticket holder – with widened walkways and large 90sq m campsites also part of the plans that allow the event organisers to easily accommodate covid safe rules and social distancing.

About the Birdsville Big Red Bash

The Birdsville Big Red Bash is the most remote music festival in the world – located on the edge of the Simpson Desert against a backdrop of rolling red sand dunes.

The Simpson Desert is the world’s largest parallel sand dune desert covering more than 176,000sq km, an area larger than Belgium.

With 10,000 concert goers undertaking an average trip of 4300km, a combined 40 million km are accrued by those travelling to and from the Big Red Bash. This is over 100 times the distance to the moon and is the highest number of kilometres travelled to attend any event in Australia.

Around 10,000 made the trip out to Birdsville for the festival. Picture: Marc Grimwade/Getty Images.

The Big Red Bash in Birdsville is in full swing.

The Big Red Bash event site is 35km from the small outback township of Birdsville, Queensland. Outside of event times, Birdsville is home to around 115 residents. Birdsville sits at either the start or finish of the famous Birdsville Track.

The majestic desert landscape is coated in red dust that comes from the small pieces of gibber rock present throughout the region. Each year, the weather and natural erosion add a little more of this unique red dust to the world’s largest sand dune desert.