Byron Bay Bluesfest


The Byron Bay Bluesfest, formerly the East Coast International Blues & Roots Music Festival, is an annual Australian music festival that has been held over the Easter long weekend in the Byron Bay, New South Wales, area since 1990. The festival features a large selection of blues and roots performers from Australia and around the world and is one of the world's leading contemporary music festivals.
The festival was founded by Dan Doeppel and Kevin Oxford in 1990 and is now run by Peter Noble who joined Oxford for the 1994 event. It has been held at several locations in and around Byron Bay and is currently held at Tyagarah, 11 kilometres drive north of Byron Bay town. Originally running for four days, it now runs for five days, from Thursday to Monday. From an original crowd of 6,000, it now attracts annual audiences of over 101,000 across the five days. Patrons range from locals to international visitors from a wide age range, including celebrities such as Matt Damon, Jason Momoa and Chris Hemsworth.
Bluesfest 2020 was the first of 31 Bluesfests to be cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic in Australia.

History

The festival began in 1990 at the Arts Factory in Byron Bay as a five-day blues music event over the Easter weekend. In December 2004, Keven Oxford, a director and founder of the event, left the festival and sold his 50% share of the company to a consortium comprising Michael Chugg, Daryl Herbert and Glenn Wheatley, who ran the festival with co-founder Peter Noble. Noble bought out the consortium in 2008 and now owns the festival alone. In 2010 Bluesfest moved to its permanent home at the 120-hectare Tyagarah Tea Tree farm.

Awards

Awards summary – Bluesfest
Bluesfest Awards
Bluesfest nominations
The line-up for the 2007 festival included:
The 2008 festival was held at the Belongil Fields, the original outdoor venue. The 2008 festival had more food and craft stalls, a covered area where festival goers could eat at tables, a chill-out area, plus an area for an additional, fifth stage.
Artists in 2008 included Buddy Guy, Eskimo Joe, The John Butler Trio, Gotye, The Beautiful Girls, Newton Faulkner, Seasick Steve, Charlie Musselwhite, Mavis Staples, John P. Hammond, John Hiatt, Ray Davies, Maceo Parker, Loudon Wainwright III, Ozomatli, Ruthie Foster, Jake Shimabukuro, Keith Urban, Amali Ward, Lior, MOFRO, Dan Sultan, Jeff Lang, The Cat Empire, Clare Bowditch, Raul Midon and Xavier Rudd.

Line-up 2011

The line-up for the 2011 festival included:
The line-up for the 2012 festival included:
The line-up for the 2013 festival included:
Thursday, 28 March
Friday, 29 March
Saturday 30, March
Sunday, 31 March
Monday, 1 April
The line-up for the 2014 festival included:
Thursday, 17 April
Friday, 18 April
Saturday, 19 April
Sunday, 20 April
Monday, 21 April
The line-up for the 2015 festival included:
Thursday, 2 April
Friday, 3 April
Saturday, 4 April
Sunday, 5 April
Monday, 6 April
The line-up for the 2016 festival included:
Thursday, 24 March
Friday, 25 March
Saturday, 26 March
Sunday, 27 March
Monday, 28 March
The line-up for the 2017 festival included:
Thursday, 13 April
Friday, 14 April
BOOMERANG:
Saturday, 15 April
BOOMERANG:
Sunday, 16 April
BOOMERANG:
Monday, 17 April
The line-up for the 2018 festival included:
Thursday, 29 March
Friday, 30 March
BOOMERANG:
Saturday, 31 March
BOOMERANG:
Sunday, 1 April
BOOMERANG:
Monday, 2 April
The line-up for 2019 included:
Thursday, 18 April
Friday, 19 April
BOOMERANG:
Saturday, 20 April
BOOMERANG:
Sunday, 21 April
BOOMERANG:
Monday, 22 April
Bluesfest 2020 was cancelled on 16 March 2020 due to the Public Health COVID-19 Public Events Order 2020.
The line-up for 2020 was set to include:
Thursday, April 9
Friday, April 10
Saturday, April 11
Sunday, April 12
Monday, April 13