In just a few short weeks, Bluesfest Byron Bay will celebrate 35 years of bringing outstanding blues and roots music to Byron Shire every Easter long weekend since 1990.

This year’s festival takes place from Thursday 28th March to Monday 1st April, with headline performances from Jack Johnson, Jimmy Barnes, Tom Jones, and a host of others, including Ben Harper, Elvis Costello, and Tim Finn to name a few. Admittedly, it’ll be hard to fit them all in over the course of the five-day event, but it’s well worth a try.

Australia’s premier blues and roots music festival has won a swag of awards over the years, including seven wins at the NSW Tourism Awards for Major Festivals and Events, four wins at the Australian Helpmann Awards for Best Contemporary Music Festival, six wins at the Australian Event Awards for Australian Event of the Year and eight nominations at the Pollstar Awards (USA) for International Festival of the Year. 

In 2014, Festival Director Peter Noble added The Rolling Stone Award to his many accolades. He went on to receive the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his service to live and recorded music, tourism, and community in 2016. And in 2017, he added the Keeping the Blues Alive Award from The Blues Foundation, Memphis, Tennessee, to his list of achievements.  

Bluesfest Byron Bay has been taking place at the Tea Tree Farm site in Tyagarah since 2010, having long outgrown its early venues at the Arts Factory, Red Devil Park and Belongil Fields. 

Located just 11 kilometres north of Byron Bay, the Tyagarah site, now known as Byron Events Farm, is a community venue incredibly well set up for an event of this scale. With multiple stages, bars, market stalls and food sellers providing delicious international fare, the site also offers plenty of room for parking, camping and accommodation if you prefer to stay onsite.

It may take some stamina to experience all the incredible international artists in this year’s line-up but don’t worry, there’ll be a few months to recover before Splendour in the Grass comes to North Byron Parklands in July. In the meantime, one thing’s for sure – great music keeps on coming to Byron Bay. And that’s the way we like it.