bluesfest
After COVID-19, Floods, Bluesfest 2022 Exceeds Expectations
BRISBANE, Australia — As Australians settle into the cooler months, the traditional festivals season ends on a comforting note. Byron Bay’s Bluesfest, one of the great brands on the festivals calendar, wrapped without disruption, and welcomed more than 100,000 guests through its gates. After a tumultuous two years, which included a last-minute aborted mission in 2021, Bluesfest went ahead as planned from Thursday, April 14 to Monday, April 18 at the Byron Events Farm, with more ticket sales than expected. “This year we’ve sold more than 101,000 tickets — more than 15,000 of those in the past week,” explains Bluesfest director Peter Noble. “We had a surge of sales in the last 10 days. People waited to make sure we didn’t get cancelled again before they bought a ticket.” That wait-and-...
After Two COVID-19 Cancelations, Bluesfest Plots October Return
It was the second successive year COVID-19 had sunk Bluesfest’s best-laid plans. The most recent was a gut punch for the wider music industry, and the local businesses that rely on footfall that’s triggered by the five days of festivities. That cancelation “really affected the industry and pulled the last strands of confidence out of everything,” notes veteran concert promoter Michael Chugg. Rather than dwell on the negatives, Noble and his team have locked-in a lineup and new dates, Oct. 1-4, for what will be the first major festival to return since the pandemic struck. “We’re rising,” Bluesfest director Peter Noble told Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Breakfast program Wednesday (May 19), immediately after the announcement of Bluesfest’s return. “We have to do that because the Aust...
