Byron Bay’s Bluesfest is set to return in 2026 despite claiming 2025 could be its final edition.
Taking place over Easter weekend, the blues n’ roots music festival featured a line up of Chaka Khan, Toto, Vance Joy, Rag’n’Bone Man and more.
After announcing that 2025 would be the last Bluesfest, festival director Peter Noble conducted a u-turn a few months later and said that he had started booking acts for 2026.
At the time (December), Noble also said that he had been discussing support for festivals with the New South Wales government.
Now, the NSW government has allocated emergency funding through the Contemporary Music Festival Viability Fund to Bluesfest, as well as Lost Paradise on the Central Coast, Your and Owls in Wollongong, and Listen Out and Field Day in Sydney.
This year’s Bluesfest attracted 109,000 patrons, which marked the third largest crowd in the event’s 35-year history.
Ticket sales were partially spurred by the announcement that 2025 could be the last edition of Bluesfest.
The festival takes place at the 300-acre Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, roughly 11km north of Byron Bay in Australia.