JOHN WILLIAMSON SET TO PERFORM ATOP THE ICONIC BIG RED DUNE IN BIRDSVILLE IN 2025 FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2013

 

The Outback Music Festival Group have today announced that the Simpson Desert outside Birdsville in Outback Queensland will come alive with music again next year, revealing the first details of a special Big Red Sunset performance by legendary Australian artist John Williamson in July 2025.

The special sunset concert featuring John Williamson will be staged as a one off, never to be repeated event while the Birdsville Big Red Bash event takes a breather in 2025.  The throw-back performance will take place on July 8 on top of the breathtaking 40-metre-high Big Red sand dune at sunset, 12 years to the day since he performed there in 2013. 

Ticketing and full event details for the limited-edition John Williamson Big Red Sunset performance will be announced in January 2025 and will give fans the opportunity to reconnect with the roots of the iconic Big Red Bash.

John Williamson said, “It’s an honour for me to be chosen as the only artist to perform on the Big Red sand dune at Birdsville next July.

“I remember at the beginning in 2013, when I performed for the competitors and volunteers on top of the dune after the first charity run Greg Donovan organised out there. It was a magical night. The sound is perfect on sand as there are no hard surfaces for my songs to bounce off. It will be a true campfire outback setting that is ideal for my Aussie songs. And a perfect celebration as part of my 55 years in the business.”

The special concert will be set against the backdrop of the Simpson Desert’s sweeping landscapes looking out from on top of Big Red, and under the flaming sunset skies that the region is renowned for.  John Williamson’s iconic storytelling through his music promises to deliver another magical evening that celebrates the spirit of Australia in the heart of the Outback.

Founder and organiser of the Birdsville Big Red Bash, and Managing Director of the Outback Music Festival Group Greg Donovan said, “After we announced the breather for the Birdsville Big Red Bash next year, we took stock of the outpouring of disappointment – not just from our loyal festival goers, but from the multitude of businesses in Outback Queensland who rely heavily on the $20 million in tourism dollars that the event generates annually.  It weighed heavily that the decision to take a breather was going to have a knock-on effect for businesses that have supported us for more than a decade.

And more recently we were thrilled to have the Birdsville Big Red Bash  take home the Gold for Festivals and Events at the Queensland Tourism Awards,  and this along with wanting to support our friends in the outback, spurred us on to look at what we might be able to do on a much smaller and less intense scale to bridge the gap until we’re back in Birdsville with the Big Red Bash in 2026.

I have always dreamed that at some stage we might get a chance to go back to where it all began with a simple John Williamson Sunset Concert staged on the top of the Big Red dune. And with the date of the original sunset concert on July 8 2013 lining up with what would have been the 1st day of the 2025 Big Red Bash – July 8 2025 – it felt like recreating the very first Big Red sunset concert was meant to be.”

“So for 2025 we have decided to re-create and celebrate where it all began for us, providing a unique bucket list opportunity for people to experience first-hand the special event that led to the creation of the Big Red Bash.  To have John Williamson performing again after 12 year on top of the iconic dune, along with the boost that it will provide for tourism in the outback, is truly is a win/win,” added Greg Donovan.

From John Williamson’s first solo performance in 2013, the Birdsville Big Red Bash has grown to an award-winning three-day festival featuring performers such as Midnight Oil, Jimmy Barnes, John Farnham, Missy Higgins, Icehouse, Paul Kelly, Human Nature, Tina Arena, Colin Hay, Tim Finn, Jon Stevens, Ian Moss, Daryl Braithwaite, Kasey Chambers, Kate Ceberano, Richard Clapton and many more.

“The Big Red Bash sets the gold standard, quite literally, after the event’s recent gold win at last month’s Queensland Tourism Awards.

“The Big Red Sunset concert will carry the spirit of this beloved and iconic festival through 2025 while also putting the breathtaking beauty of Outback Queensland on full display, all while supporting local tourism and the regional economy until the full event returns in 2026,” said Andrew Powell, Minister for the Environment and Tourism and Minister for Science and Innovation.

“It feels like Christmas has come early for us with the decision to stage this event in our Shire next year.  While the numbers won’t be at a Big Red Bash level, it will still bring an influx of travellers to Outback Queensland and that’s a huge win for all of us,” said Cr Francis Murray, Mayor of Diamantina Shire Council.

Outback Queensland Tourism Association CEO Denise Brown added, “This wonderful and exciting announcement comes at a great time for Outback Queensland and true music lovers of all ages.

“Outback event organisers are well known for their creativity and determination and I congratulate Greg and the Outback Music Festival Group for re-imagining the 2013 Big Red Sunset Concert and inspiring travellers to journey to our region next year.

“The Sunset Concert promises a magical experience at one of Queensland’s most spectacular locations and the timing couldn’t be better, with a full calendar of Outback events encouraging visitors to extend their itineraries through the amazing regions surrounding Birdsville and beyond.”

Having captivated audiences for decades with timeless hits like True Blue, Raining on the Rock, and Cootamundra Wattle, Williamson’s music has become synonymous with Australia’s rich culture and landscapes. Performing on Big Red – where the Big Red Bash first began – brings his music full circle to a location that perfectly embodies his themes of connection to country, heritage, and identity.

Tickets for this special event will be strictly limited given the restricted space on top of Big Red.

The John Williamson Big Red Sunset Concert is proudly supported by the Queensland Government, through Tourism and Events Queensland.

What:                   The John Williamson Big Red Sunset Concert

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

When:                  July 8, 2025

More info:          www.bigredbash.com.au/john-williamson-big-red-sunset-concert-2025/

NB: Full details and ticketing will be released in January 2025

In 2025 John will also celebrate 55 years in the industry with a national tour: 55 YEARS – My Travellin’ Days are Done!  For dates and details on his national tour go to www.johnwilliamson.com.au

MEDIA ENQUIRIES: Kylie Edwards @ Cardinal Spin M: 0422 233 996 or E: kylie@cardinalcomms.com.au

EDITORS NOTES

About the Birdsville Big Red Bash

The Birdsville Big Red Bash was initially an adjunct to the Big Red Run that was launched in 2013 as Australia’s only multi-day desert running race and was founded as the next challenge after Greg Donovan undertook the 4 Deserts Race Series to fundraise for Type 1 Diabetes.

In a team of five – including his eldest son – Greg Donovan ran four 250 kilometres runs across four of the world’s most inhospitable deserts – The Sahara, Atacama, Gobi and Antarctic. They were the first team to ever finish the 4 Desert Race series, and the first father and son to participate in the event.

Bitten by the bug and wanting to continue their diabetes fundraising Greg and his family set about establishing a similar challenge in Australia and launched the Big Red Run that has evolved to the Big Red Bash.

With a career in corporate insurance, Donovan had no experience staging events when he established the inaugural Big Red Run and then the first iteration of the Big Red Bash in the Simpson Desert in 2013 by running an impromptu concert with a solo performance from John Williamson on the side of the Big Red sand dune.

The last Big Red Run event was staged in 2019 and in the six years from 2013 that the JDRF fundraising Big Red Run took place more than $1.1 million was raised to support diabetes research.  The 2023 10^th Anniversary Big Red Bash event marked a return to fundraising for the JDRF.

The challenges involved in establishing a music festival in the middle of the desert without electricity, water, sewerage or communications were significant, but with the success of the first year fuelling the fire, Donovan set about making it a bigger and better experience in the years following.

The 2014 event attracted a smaller-than-anticipated crowd of close to 1,200 people. Combined with the huge investment that went into ramping up the event, the 2014 edition of the Big Red Bash ultimately turned a financial loss. The losses were a reality check for Donovan, who took solace in the fact he still had the backing of his work in corporate insurance.

However, on the first day Greg returned to his day job in the insurance office, he was handed a redundancy after 20 years of service.

“Getting the redundancy made me all the more determined to keep going with the Big Red Bash,” says Donovan. “I’d had enough of the corporate life and had a good redundancy payment in my pocket, so I decided to take the ‘no guts, no glory’ approach and invested in Jimmy Barnes as our lead artist for 2015.

“I thought Jimmy would make a much better performing investment than the boring balanced funds my financial adviser was trying to steer me towards. We marketed the hell out of the event that year, and thankfully the gamble paid off. We had 3,200 festival-goers turn-up, which put us back in the black – and it has been onwards and upwards ever since.”

The following year, Jimmy Barnes returned to the Bash – along with Paul Kelly and a host of other celebrated Australian rock artists – to perform in front of a sell-out crowd of 7,000 and it has grown exponentially since then.

The Big Red Bash is the most remote music festival in the world with attendees collectively spending more than $20 million annually over the course of their journeys to, during and from the event.

The Simpson Desert where the Big Red Bash is staged is the world’s largest parallel sand dune desert covering an area of more than 176,000 square kilometres, which is larger than the country, Belgium.

With 9,000 concert goers undertaking an average trip of 4,300 km, a combined 40 million kms are accrued by those travelling to and from the Big Red Bash.  This is over 100 times the distance to the moon and is the highest number of kms travelled to attend any event in Australia.

The Big Red Bash event site is 35km from the small outback township of Birdsville, Queensland. Outside of event times, Birdsville is home to around 115 residents. Birdsville sits at either the start or finish of the famous Birdsville track.

Birdsville has a rich history of drawing people together. The traditional custodians of the land are the Wangkangurru-Yarluyandi people. For thousands of years, Wirrarri (Birdsville) was one of the places where people gathered to trade grinding stones, ochre, weapons and other goods.

The concert and Big Red Bash campsite grounds, known as Bashville, are located on an organic cattle station called Adria Downs.

Camping in this pristine environment is restricted, and event organisers do everything possible to protect the land and to ensure the station’s organic status is preserved.

The camping area sits on the dried-out bed of an ancient lake with the giant red sand dune as a backdrop. It forms a natural amphitheatre, making it the perfect setting for the iconic Big Red Bash outback festival.