‘NO JAB, NO JIVE’ FOR BROKEN HILL MUNDI MUNDI BASH & BIRDSVILLE BIG RED BASH PATRONS, STAFF, VOLUNTEERS, CONTRACTORS AND VENDORS

(Friday August 20, 2021): In an Australian Music Industry first, The Outback Music Festival Group has today announced a new “no jab, no jive” vaccination policy across their outback music festival events – the new Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash (April and August 2022), and the iconic Birdsville Big Red Bash (July 2022).

In the week that the inaugural Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash was originally scheduled to kick off, The Outback Music Festival Group are advising all current and future ticket holders, staff, volunteers, contractors and vendors that vaccination will be required to attend their events in 2022.

All events are staged in remote outback locations and are camping-based, operating over a period of up to five days and nights, with each event attracting a crowd of 10,000 music fans and outback travellers from all corners of Australia.

“The health and safety of our patrons, staff, volunteers, contractors as well as the local outback communities has always been and will continue to be the highest priority for the Outback Music Festival Group. Every decision related to the operation of the festivals is made with health and safety as an overriding consideration,” said Greg Donovan, founder and Managing Director of The Outback Music Festival Group.

“Staging festivals in such remote locations, where patrons come from all over Australia and travel through small regional and outback communities, many of which have large indigenous populations, has led us to carefully review our position on vaccinations.

“Whilst we respect the choice of individuals as to whether or not they decide to get vaccinated, due to the nature and location of our festivals we have decided to make vaccination a condition of attendance for everyone aged 16 and over – including patrons, staff, contractors, vendors and volunteers.  This will offer all in attendance the best available protection against COVID-19.  It will also ensure that remote communities are protected as much as possible from our patrons travelling through and visiting these towns and communities.”

With vaccination roll-out a continued Government priority, it is expected that by the time the first Mundi Mundi Bash runs in April next year, everyone who wants to be vaccinated will have had the opportunity to do so.

“As an organisation we always strive to do everything within our power to ensure our festivals can be enjoyed safely by all those in attendance. Whilst this might impact some people’s decision to attend the festivals, we know we’ve made the right decision to keep everyone, including small regional and outback communities, as safe as possible.

“We understand that this policy introduces a new condition of entry that wasn’t in place when current ticket holders of the Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash purchased their tickets, so a refund will be available for any ticket holder who will be unable to attend due to this new policy,” added Greg Donovan.

The Outback Music Festival Group became the only music promoters in Australia to stage a major, multi-day festival since COVID hit when they ran the Birdsville Big Red Bash event from July 6-8, 2021.  The event was described as “the happiest place on earth” during the time that it ran.

“It feels like a miracle that we had this small magical window of time in which we were able to operate a COVID safe major event with 10,000 people in attendance in one of Australia’s most remote locations.  The logistics and preparation that went into making that happen were extraordinary – from rapid COVID testing onsite provided by Pathology Queensland, to extreme social distancing measures and artist bubbles”, said Greg Donovan.

Since then however the Delta variant has come through and really made it impossible for any event producer to operate until vaccination levels are higher.  This is the advice coming from our expert health professionals, and that’s one of the reasons we’re taking this ‘no jab, no jive’ approach.  If any of our patrons, staff, contractors, vendors or volunteers are sitting on the fence about vaccination, we hope this gives them a good incentive to get the jab.  The live music industry has been absolutely crippled, impacting the livelihoods of so many people from artists, production crew, festival staff, vendors, suppliers and more.  We need to do our bit to help promote and advocate for vaccination, so we can all get back to doing what we love.”

“In addition, our festivals inject much needed tourism spending into a broad area of Australia’s outback and regions, which in 2022 is expected to be in excess of $35 million. We also have a huge responsibility to ensure our festivals can operate safely so this vital tourism spending is maintained”.

Despite staging one of Australia’s most iconic outback events and suffering significant setbacks including cancellation in 2020 and event postponements in 2021, The Outback Music Festival Group has received very little financial support from the Government to assist it in dealing with the impacts of COVID.

“We’re hurting, and COVID isn’t something we can insure against.  We take out insurance to protect our events against weather conditions such as extreme rain and wind.  COVID is currently our biggest threat, and it’s the one thing we can’t insure against.  And the Government has offered us no life-line in that respect either.  So asking our patrons to be vaccinated is all we can do to give ourselves and the communities in which we operate some level of protection.  It’s not foolproof, but it certainly adds a big degree of comfort in moving forward”, Greg Donovan says.

Our industry has been calling on Governments to provide an Interruption Scheme similar to what has been provided to the film industry, to allow music promoters to invest in events without the fear of being burdened with the crippling losses from cancellations or postponements due to COVID.  That is really what’s needed to support us ongoing in this environment,” added Greg Donovan.

Renowned as leaders in staging remote events in the Australian outback, both pre and post COVID, The Outback Music Festival Group recently received an exemplary independent rating from IER Research that was commissioned by Tourism & Events Queensland following the 2021 Birdsville Big Red Bash event.

“We were thrilled to receive a net promoter’s score of 92.5%, which is the highest score ever achieved by an event of any kind – from sporting to music and the arts – that’s ever been held in Queensland.  We’ve always scored in the 80’s which had put us in the highest levels of event satisfaction previously.  But our 2021 Birdsville Big Red Bash event has taken us to an entirely new level.  I’m very proud of our staff, crew, volunteers and contractors and what we achieved in COVID times – and we can’t wait to bring this successful model to the Mundi Mundi Plains near Broken Hill next year as well as back out in the Simpson Desert near Birdsville”, said Greg Donovan.

The Birdsville Big Red Bash has been operating since 2013, and the inaugural new sister event the Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash was due to be staged from 19th to 21st August 2021 but has since been postponed to the 21st to 23rd of April 2022 due to the current COVID situation.

The April 2022 Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash will feature an all-star lineup of rock legends including Paul Kelly, Ian Moss, John Williamson, Kate Ceberano, Russell Morris, Glenn Shorrock, Ross Wilson, Vika & Linda, Wendy Matthews, Shane Howard, Shannon Noll, Dragon, The Radiators, Chocolate Starfish, Mi-Sex, The Chantoozies, Bjorn Again, Mark Gable, Steve Balbi and Caitlyn Shadbolt.

 All 2021 Mundi Mundi Bash tickets will remain valid for the April 2022 event for vaccinated patrons, and these tickets will automatically transfer to the new dates in April.  Ticket holders have the option to request a refund, including those who do not wish to be vaccinated, up until October 31.  New tickets for the April 2022 Bash will be made available later in the year, pending finalisation of refunded tickets.

When it does run in April 2022 the inaugural Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash music festival will be the biggest event ever staged in Outback NSW.

The line-up and ticketing details for the July 2022 Birdsville Big Red Bash and August 2022 Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash are yet to be released, along with further details on how ticket holder proof of vaccination will be monitored via OzTix.

All of the Outback Music Festival Group events are all-ages and dog-friendly festivals offering up a uniquely Australian destination adventure for families, grey nomads, camping and caravanning enthusiasts and intrepid travellers.

In addition to the music line-ups, the events will also feature a jam-packed program of outback activities – from a Nutbush City Limits World Record dance off attempt (the current record of 2,787 dancing revelers was set by the Big Red Bash on Thursday July 8, 2021) to a Mad Max costume dress up world record attempt for the two Broken Hill events, comedy and outdoor film screenings, scenic helicopter flights, camel rides and charity initiatives such as the Birdsville Bashville Drag Race and ‘Mundi Mundi Undie Run’ fundraising for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Event organisers the Outback Music Festival Group will continue working with relevant State Government and Health departments as they count down to the 2022 events, confident they will be operating in a vastly different COVID environment that includes vaccination of all event attendees.

What:                 2022 Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash

Where:               Belmont Station, on the Mundi Mundi Plains 9km north of Silverton –                                 35km north of Broken Hill

When:                 April 21-23, 2022 (2021 postponed event) – new tickets to be released                             post October 31 refund date

                          August 2022 – full line-up and ticketing details still to be released

More info:         www.mundimundibash.com.au

 

What:                 2022 Birdsville Big Red Bash

Where:               Big Red sand dune, 35 km West of Birdsville

When:                 July 2022 – full line-up and ticketing details still to be released

More info:         www.bigredbash.com.au