Australia's Big Red Bash: First Sold Out Festival for 2021

Australia will be officially holding the first sold-out music festival after the mandatory lockdown due to the COVID-19 virus. Birdsville Big Red Bash 2020 will be taking place on July 6-8, 2021, after the 2020 event was canceled. The outdoor event is the first music festival to be held in the land down under after the lockdown.

The Birdsville Big Red Bash is the world's most remote outdoor music festival at the heart of Australia's outback. The three-day massive event is held annually attended by thousands of concertgoers mostly by families.

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For 2020, the festival was originally set on July 7-9. In mid-March, Festival Director and founder Greg Donovan hoped that the regional gathering will go ahead, but stood with a wait-and-see stance pending the prevailing coronavirus pandemic.

However, on April 3, Birdsville Big Red Bash 2020 was officially struck off the calendar. The organizers, headed by Donovan, regretfully announced the cancelation amid the sold-out tickets. The priority was the safety and health of the public and the artists since COVID-19 was spreading rapidly.

In a statement, Donovan said the decision to cancel the Big Red Bash 2020 event would "impact the artists" who set aside their other gigs just for the festival. He also expressed that the heartbreaking effect is real to the "much-needed income to Outback Queensland communities."

He assured the Big Red Bash 2020 ticketholders they would be honored on the new dates of July 6-8, 2021; at the same time, the option for a refund was provided. He also confirmed the entire 2020 line-up is still up for the 2021 show dates.

Out of the purchased tickets, only 10 percent availed of the refund offer.

On June 2, the first round of refunded tickets for Big Red Bash 2020 was released by the organizers at 9:00 am Australian time. In a matter of five fast minutes, all of these were sold out.

Ten thousand tickets for the music festival are now in the hands of the excited concertgoers who are looking forward to celebrating post-COVID 19. The allocated tickets were up by 1,000 more than The Big Red Bash 2019 which saw the highest attendance to date at 9,000.

READ MORE: UnCancelled Music Festival Set to Begin April 3

Big Red Bash 2021 will be headlined by Paul Kelly, Ian Moss, Tim Finn, John Williamson, and Kate Ceberano. See the entire performers on below list:

2021 Birdsville Big Red Bash Line-up

Paul Kelly

Ian Moss

Tim Finn

John Williamson

Kate Ceberano

Glenn Shorrock

Thirsty Merc

Ross Wilson

Shannon Noll

Dragon

The Radiators

Mi-Sex

Wendy Matthews

Vika & Linda

Mark Gable

Steve Balbi

Chocolate Starfish

Bjorn Again

Caitlyn Shadbolt

History

The Birdsville Big Red Bash started by accident in 2013 and is located at the edge of the Simpson Desert in Queensland, Australia. The festival name "Big Red" was derived from the rolling red dunes in the desert with the 40-meter high sand dune as the background.

Donovan, a person with diabetes, initially organized a 250-km marathon event called the Big Red Run to raise donations for type-1 diabetes. The run was scheduled for six days. He decided to invite John Williamson, who just released his album "Big Red" and sold 500 tickets for the show. Williamson performed an impromptu concert on top of the dune, which became an instant hit.

From 2014 onwards, the family-friendly Big Red Bash event attracted more and more fans and has become one of the most anticipated music festivals in Australia. The three-day event also hosts a variety of fun camping activities.

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