The Big Red Bash is an annual music festival held in the Simpson Desert, 35 kilometres west of Birdsville in Queensland, Australia. The music is mostly Australian Rock. The festival emphasizes fundraising. The first Big Red Bash occurred in 2013. In 2023, the event drew more than 11,000 visitors to the red centre. [1] The Big Red Bash was founded by Greg Donovan who continues to organise the event today. It is marketed as the world's most remote music festival. [2]
The festival site is a 1.3 million-hectare organic cattle station. [3] The concert area measures 63,000 square metres. [2] The event takes places over three days in July. Camel rides and sand dune boogie boarding are popular recreational activities on offer.
John Williamson performed at the first Big Red Bash. [4] About 500 people were in attendance for the 2013 festival.
Since 2016, the festival has held attempts at the world record for Nutbush City Limits dancers. [5] 5,838 people set a new world record in 2023. [6]
The 2020 event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite the ongoing pandemic the 2021 event went ahead with a COVID-safe plan. [2] 90 square metre campsites provided ample distance between campers. [7] That year performers included Paul Kelly, Daryl Braithwaite, Busby Marou, The Black Sorrows, Eurogliders, Sarah McLeod, The Chantoozies, Brian Cadd and Kyle Lionheart. [2]
The 2022 event featured Tim Rogers, Bachelor Girl and a Noiseworks reunion. [8]
The Simpson Desert is a large area of dry, red sandy plain and dunes in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland in central Australia. It is the fourth-largest Australian desert, with an area of 176,500 km2 (68,100 sq mi).
The Birdsville Track is an outback road in Australia. The 517-kilometre (321 mi) track runs between Birdsville in south-western Queensland and Marree, a small town in the north-eastern part of South Australia. It traverses three deserts along the route, the Strzelecki Desert, Sturt Stony Desert and Tirari Desert.
Munga-Thirri National Park, formerly known as the Simpson Desert National Park, is the largest national park in Queensland, Australia, 1,495 km west of Brisbane. The park covers an area of 10,120 square kilometres (3,910 sq mi) in the Simpson Desert surrounding Poeppel Corner in the west of the locality of Birdsville in the Central West region of Queensland.
Bedourie is a town and a locality in the Shire of Diamantina, Queensland, Australia. It is on the border with the Northern Territory. In the 2021 census, the locality of Bedourie had a population of 150 people.
Birdsville is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Diamantina, Queensland, Australia. The locality is on the Queensland border with both the Northern Territory and South Australia. The town is situated 10 kilometres (6 mi) north of the South Australian border. In the 2021 census, the locality of Birdsville had a population of 110 people.
Casey Donovan is an Australian singer, songwriter, actress, theatre actress and author, best known for winning the second season of the singing competition show Australian Idol in 2004. She won the competition at the age of just 16, becoming the series' youngest winner. In 2017, Donovan won the third series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here. Donovan also hosted the NITV music show Fusion with Casey Donovan.
The Brisbane Cricket Ground, commonly known as the Gabba, is a major sports stadium in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia. The nickname Gabba derives from the suburb of Woolloongabba, in which it is located. Over the years, the Gabba has hosted athletics, Australian rules football, baseball, concerts, cricket, cycling, rugby league, rugby union, Association football and pony and greyhound racing. At present, it serves as the home ground for the Queensland Bulls in domestic cricket, the Brisbane Heat of the Big Bash League and Women's Big Bash League, and the Brisbane Lions of the Australian Football League. It is also the secondary home of the Brisbane Broncos of the National Rugby League. The stadium will receive a refurbishment for the 2032 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.
Emma Donovan is an Aboriginal Australian singer and songwriter. She is a member of the renowned musical Donovan family. She started her singing career at age seven with her uncle's band, the Donovans. In 2000, she became a founding member of Stiff Gins, leaving the band three years later to release the solo album Changes in 2004. She performs with the Black Arm Band and released a solo EP, Ngaaraanga, in 2009.
Betoota is a ghost town within the locality of Birdsville, in the Shire of Diamantina, in the Channel Country of Central West Queensland, Australia. Betoota is situated on a gibber plain 170 kilometres (110 mi) east of Birdsville and 227 kilometres (141 mi) west of Windorah.
The Birdsville Races are horse races held each year in September in the Queensland, Australia, town of Birdsville. Funds are raised in aid of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia. The population is swelled from about 100 to around 7,000 people for the two-day event.
The Nutbush is a line dance performed to Ike & Tina Turner's song "Nutbush City Limits". The dance, which emerged during the 1970s disco era, is particularly popular in Australia, where it has been taught in schools.
Sport is an important part of the culture of the Australian state of Queensland. Golf is the most played organised sport and touch football is the most played team sport. Netball is the most popular female sport, while rugby league is the most watched sport. Queensland also has two AFL teams, the Queensland Reds in Super Rugby, and two National Basketball League teams, the Brisbane Bullets, Cairns Taipans and Premier Gymnastics. The largest sporting event held in Queensland annually is the Gold Coast 600 motor race.
Esmond Gerald "Tom" Kruse MBE was a mail carrier on the Birdsville Track in the border area between South Australia and Queensland. He became known nationally as the result of John Heyer's 1954 film The Back of Beyond. He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1955 New Year Honours, "for services to the community in the outback".
Brisbane Festival is one of Australia's leading international arts festivals, and is held each September in Brisbane, Australia.
Central West Queensland is a remote region in the Australian state of Queensland which covers 396,650.2 km2. The region lies to the north of South West Queensland and south of the Gulf Country. It has a population of approximately 12,387 people. As of 2018, it is one of 16 Aged Care Planning Regions (ACPR) in Queensland.
The Women's Big Bash League is the Australian women's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition. The WBBL replaced the Australian Women's Twenty20 Cup, which ran from the 2007–08 season through to 2014–15. The competition features eight city-based franchises, branded identically to the men's Big Bash League (BBL). Teams are made up of current and former Australian national team members, the country's best young talent, and up to three overseas marquee players.
The Simpson Desert Bike Challenge (SDBC) is an annual staged mountain bike race held in the Simpson Desert of Australia. First held in 1987, the SDBC is run by the non-profit organisation Desert Challenge Inc
The COVID-19 pandemic in New South Wales, Australia was part of the worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The first confirmed case in New South Wales was identified on 19 January 2020 in Sydney where three travellers returning from Wuhan, Hubei, China, tested positive for the virus.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Queensland, Australia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.