The Byron Bay Bluesfest, formerly the East Coast International Blues & Roots Music Festival, is an annual Australian music festival that has been held over the Easter long weekend in the Byron Bay, New South Wales, area since 1990. The festival features a large selection of blues and roots performers from Australia and around the world and is one of the world's leading contemporary music festivals.
The festival was founded by Dan Doeppel and Kevin Oxford in 1990 and is run by Peter Noble who joined Oxford for the 1994 event. It has been held at several locations in and around Byron Bay and is currently held at Tyagarah, 11 km (6.8 mi) north of Byron Bay town. Originally running for four days, it now[when?] runs for five days, from Thursday to Monday.
The Boomerang Festival is an event within the festival dedicated to Indigenous Australian performance, art and culture.
Bluesfest 2020 and 2021 were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
History
The festival began in 1990 at the Arts Factory in Byron Bay as a four-day blues music event over the Easter weekend. It was founded by Dan Doeppel and Kevin Oxford in 1990 and is now run by Peter Noble who joined Oxford for the 1994 event.[citation needed]
It has been held at several locations in and around Byron Bay and is currently held at Tyagarah, 11 kilometres drive north of Byron Bay town. It now runs for five days, from Thursday to Monday. From an original crowd of 6,000, it now attracts annual audiences of over 101,000 across the five days. Patrons range from locals to international visitors from a wide age range, including celebrities such as Matt Damon, Jason Momoa and Chris Hemsworth.[1]
In December 2004, Keven Oxford, a director and founder of the event, left the festival and sold his 50% share of the company to a consortium comprising Michael Chugg (managing director of Sydney-based Michael Chugg Entertainment), Daryl Herbert (CEO of Melbourne-based Definitive Events) and Glenn Wheatley (CEO of Melbourne-based Talentworks), who ran the festival with co-founder Peter Noble. Noble bought out the consortium in 2008 and now owns the festival alone.[2] In 2010 Bluesfest moved to its permanent home at the 120-hectare Tyagarah Tea Tree farm.[3]
In 2014, the Boomerang Festival was introduced as part of Bluesfest. This is an event within the festival dedicated to Indigenous Australian performance, art and culture.[4]
2020
Bluesfest 2020 was the first of 31 Bluesfests to be cancelled, due to event restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.[5][6]
2021
The 2021 event, scheduled for 1–5 April,[7] was cancelled one day before it was to commence after a COVID-19 case was detected in Byron Bay. A public health order to shut down the music festival was signed by the Minister for Health Brad Hazzard.[8] As of 17 February the festival was still going ahead as the NSW Government had approved its COVID safety plan. It was to have been about half the size of previous Bluesfests, and be fully seated. Only Australian artists were to play.[9] Evelyn Richardson, of live performance industry body Live Performance Australia, estimated the sudden cancellation had caused an A$10 million loss. Eddie Brook of the Cape Byron Distillery said that Bluesfest was worth A$100 million to the local economy.[10]
Another event was arranged for October 2021, but on 17 August it was cancelled.[citation needed]
2022
The 2022 Bluesfest took place on 15–19 April.[11] Around 100,000 people attended the festival.[12]
2023
In November 2022 it was announced that, in addition to the 34th annual Byron Bay Festival being held on 6–10 April 2023, the inaugural Bluesfest Melbourne will take place on 8–9 April.[citation needed][13] Controversy about the line-up erupted after controversial band Sticky Fingers was included in the line-up. This resulted in Melbourne band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard and rapper Sampa the Great withdrawing from the festival in protest.[14][15] Bluesfest director, Peter Noble, defended the decision to include the band stating that the lead singer of Sticky Fingers had apologised for his past actions and called for the artists to stop living in the past.[16] After weeks of backlash, it was announced that Sticky Fingers would no longer be on the lineup.[15] Around 70,000 people attended the Byron Bay festival.[12]
The 2008 festival was held at the 26 acres (110,000 m2) Belongil Fields, the original outdoor venue. The 2008 festival had more food and craft stalls, a covered area where festival goers could eat at tables, a chill-out area, plus an area for an additional, fifth stage.
Bluesfest 2021 was cancelled on 31 March 2021 by order of the Minister for Health and Medical Research, due to the discovery of a positive COVID-19 case in Byron Bay the previous day.[8]
On 17 August 2021, Bluesfest 2021 was once again cancelled due to COVID-19, and will not be rescheduled. The majority of the announced lineup has been confirmed for Bluesfest 2022, which took place over its original Easter weekend scheduling.[25]
2022
Thursday, April 14 (Thursdaze)
The Cat Empire Final Ever Performance of The Original Line-up After 20 Years
^ abElsworthy, Emma (31 March 2021). "Byron Bay Bluesfest cancelled for second year running after local man tests positive for COVID-19". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 1 April 2021. This action is being taken to minimise the risk of the highly infectious COVID-19 variant of concern being transmitted in the local area, as well as across states and territories. − NSW Health statement
