Billed as the world’s most remote music festival, BIG RED BASH is located 35-kms west of Birdsville Queensland. As a crow flies, that is some 1400-1500-kms from the cities of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne but much further by road. 

This is its tenth anniversary year, and BIG RED BASH attracted over 10,000 people in attendance. A tremendous line up of musicians included: Icehouse, John Williamson, Chocolate Starfish, Angels, Hoodoo Gurus, Kate Ceberano, Troy Casser-Daly, Human Nature, Grace Knight, Mel Dwyer, Caitlin Shadbolt, Shane Howard, Wendy Mathews, Dragon and many more.  

Apart from the music, there are many other events and activities for the whole family. This year some 5,838 people set a new world record for Nutbush dancing as sung by the legendary Tina Turner, who recently passed away. This record event raised some $90,000 for the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS). Further funding for RFDS came from Drag Race, Dunny Door painting, fashion parade and early entry/exit passes. 

Juvenile Type one Diabetes Medical Research received a huge donation from 5,467 people who dressed in blue clothing and wigs to form a giant map of Australia, which made another world record. Crack Up Sisters also entertained the crowd with their shows, comedy, whip cracking plus games and activities. 

The event also included a big number of displays and food vendors to cater for the masses. Smith‘s mobile bakery made hot bread, pies, cakes, tarts and donuts for patrons. Other vendors did pizza, burgers, coffee, Mexican food, South American food, chicken, ice cream, fish & chips etc.   

Festival goers could also do camel rides and helicopter flights. Festival organisers also had a huge range of merchandise for sale.

Birdsville BIG RED BASH (with Big Red sand dune as a backdrop) certainly Rocks the Simpson Desert and is an iconic event that brings people back year after year. For myself, this was my fourth BIG RED BASH as a volunteer. I work as a stage builder along with about 400 volunteers that are road marshals, merchandise sellers, ticket staff, concert marshals, tent erectors, cooks, electricians, plumbers, dunny angels, stage hands, camp site and road set up teams etc. 

Some 11,000 man hours of work was done by volunteers to make this event a success plus a huge effort by the event staff members. It is a great event in that it showcases Australia’s music talent, has raised some $300,000 for charity. It has generated an estimated $20 million for the outback economy as patrons travel to and from Birdsville, spending money on fuel, food (groceries, meat, fruit and vegetables), caravan parks, hotel/motels, meals out, camping supplies and tourist attractions. 

It is a windfall for small towns like Birdsville, Boulia, Windorah, Quilpie, Winton etc. plus larger towns like Charleville, Cunnamulla, Longreach, St George and many others along the way. I believe it helps our economy where Australian tourism dollars are spent here rather than overseas.   

Congratulations to Greg Donovan and his family who have founded and promoted Birdsville BIG RED BASH and making it such a great event. Greg was featured on ABC’s “Australia Story” some months ago.