In another devastating blow for Aussie music, iconic festival Bluesfest is wrapping up for good after 2025.
The announcement came on Tuesday morning by festival director Peter Noble, who has been the festival’s big dog since 1994.
“Bluesfest has been a labour of love, a celebration of music, community, and the resilient spirit of our fans but after the 2025 festival, as much as it pains me to say this, it’s time to close this chapter,” he said in a press statement.
“Next year’s festival will be happening, but it will be our last. I want to make it the most unforgettable experience yet.
“To my dear Bluesfest family: I want to make it the most unforgettable experience yet. If you’ve been thinking about it, now is your last chance to experience our beloved festival.”
In a small and sweet silver lining, the statement also revealed that Bluesfest 2025 will take place on April 17, 2025 through to Sunday, April 20, 2025 and the act line-up will be announced next week.
Speaking to the Financial Review, Noble stated that he hoped the cancellation of Bluesfest and other music festivals makes the government pay attention to the dwindling state of live music and arts in Australia.
“I hope this is a wake-up call to the government, and to the people on the couch watching Netflix, that if you don’t support the Australian music industry then eventually you won’t have one.”
Bluesfest kicked off in 1990 under the name East Coast Annual Blues Festival and has been one of the country’s longest-running festivals. In its 34 years, Bluesfest expanded in every sense of the word. It went from entertaining 6,000 people to over 100,000, with organisers having to seek bigger and better locations to host it.
Bluesfest’s genre line-up evolved over time too. After starting as — you guessed it — a blues festival, it developed to include all sorts of genres including hip-hop, rap, R&B, indie, folk and pop.
Over the years, the festival has hosted the likes of Bob Dylan, BB King, Elvis Costello, Hozier, Mary J Blige, Grace Jones, Kendrick Lamar, John Mayer, and Noel Gallagher and those are just a few of the legendary names who have walked across a Bluesfest stage.
Bluesfest had notably difficult years in 2020 and 2021 after being cancelled due to COVID-19. Then, in 2023, it was marked in scandal when Aussie band Sticky Fingers — whose lead singer had been accused of violent behaviour towards women — was added to the line-up. Bluesfest refused to remove the act from the lineup until Sampa The Great and King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard withdrew, essentially forcing organisers to remove Sticky Fingers too.
Bluesfest is the latest in a string of Australian music festival cancellations. Early this year, Splendour In The Grass and Groovin The Moo were axed. In 2022, Falls Festival was cancelled. In 2020, FOMO was nixed and in 2021 Mountain Sounds said cya.
In a move that still hurts bodybuilders everywhere, Sterosonic was cancelled 2016 and Future Festival in 2015. And Big Day Out — which took my festival virginity — wrapped up in 2014.
May they rest in peace.
The post Bluesfest Organisers Announce They’re Pulling The Plug After 2025 In Another Huge Blow For Aussie Festivals appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
