‘It’s a clarion call’: Bluesfest boss delivers update on festival’s future

Byron Bay Bluesfest will return after all, bucking a global industry trend and despite its director’s claim that the 2025 edition was its last.

More than 40 music festivals across Australia have been cancelled since 2022 after the COVID-19 pandemic decimated the live music sector.

Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, one of the headliners at the 2025 Bluesfest, in action in Byron Bay.Credit: Edwina Pickles

Bluesfest appeared set to join the list when it announced its artist line-up in August, with bombastic festival director Peter Noble declaring the 2025 event would be the “last ever”.

That announcement proved marketing gold, with 97 per cent of tickets snapped up – and Saturday entry sold out – before gates opened on Thursday afternoon, April 17.

“We’ve had the highest attendance of any Australian festival since pre-COVID at 109,000 attendances – the third-biggest event we’ve done in the history of the festival ... festivals are back,” Noble said in a statement on Tuesday.

This year’s event saw 97 per cent of tickets sold and the Saturday allocation sold out.Credit: WireImage

“Bluesfest fans have kept this dream alive. It’s a clarion call for me. People want this event. People want it to continue.”

Bluesfest is among festivals to benefit from the NSW government’s $2.25 million contemporary music festival viability fund.

“The festival circuit is a vital part of the live music industry which employs almost 15,000 people,” Arts Minister John Graham said on Sunday.

“It’s too important to lose, that’s why we’re backing festivals with emergency funding and reforms that bring down their costs.”

The festival funding will also go to Lost Paradise on the Central Coast, Your and Owls in Wollongong and Listen Out and Field Day in Sydney.

Australian Festival Association managing director Olly Arkins said the financial shot in the arm could not have come at a better time.

“At a time when costs are up and ticket sales are down, there was a huge risk we wouldn’t see some festivals continue in NSW,” they told AAP.

“This funding package is really about trying to keep as many of our favourite and loved festivals going but ... hopefully that provides an environment for new and upcoming festivals where the regulatory burden will be lower.”

A report from the Bluesfest organisers estimated that the 2024 festival alone contributed more than $230 million to the NSW economy.

The crowd on day one of the 2025 Bluesfest, which was said to have been its last ever. Credit: WireImage

Credited with breaking artists including Jack Johnson, Ben Harper and Michael Franti’s Spearhead in Australia, Bluesfest moved from the centre of Byron Bay to a permanent home at Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm in 2010.

This year’s line-up featured headliners including Crowded House, Tones and I, Gary Clark Jr, Tom Morello, Hilltop Hoods, Missy Higgins and Rag’n’Bone Man.