A Celebration of Blues and Roots Music, the Byron Bay BluesFest turned 30 in 2019! Put on over the long Easter Weekend every year, this 5 day camping optional, music festival brings together over 100,000 music lovers.
Located on the Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm just north of Byron, the BluesFest can accomodate about 6000 campers with 200 performers over 5 days. Mark and I decided to do a 3 day camping pass. We came in on Thursday morning and set up camp before it rained. We then walked around the festival to see the layout, food and stall options.
Since we parked onsite we needed to take a bus to get into town. $5 each way was a small price to visit downtown Byron which had cheaper food options and a free beach. The actual ‘festival’ ground did not open until after noon so it was nice to have something to do during the morning hours.
Although there were lots of veggie and vegan options at various stalls, I thought there would be more due to Byron itself having tons of options downtown. That being said, there were more second hand and vintage stalls at the BluesFest than I have seen at any other festival.
The BluesFest ran pretty smoothly considering its size, however, it has a lot of work to do in order to step into modern day festivals. They did not use re-useable cups, liked every festival in NZ and even FLOW in Finland. Instead they gave out plastic cups which created so much waste! They did not use a cashless system such as AWOP, which has been used in NZ and Europe since Nordik Impakt in 2016. This caused huge lines and confusion as some tellers only took cash, while others only took cards. Being a family friendly festival, like Splore or Soundsplash, children under 18 were allowed with parents. At the BluesFest, however, this gave families the ability to bring in wagons and extra lawn chairs. When it got too crowded, due to a big act or bad weather, families with children or elderly participants would not move to accommodate fellow music goers under the tents. It was quite disrespectful in my opinion.
Another thing the BluesFest could improve upon was the free water system. There were very few free water fill stations because they had more ‘pay for water’ stations. These stations offered filtered, sparkling or room temperature water. You could buy a pass and use it all weekend but had to bring your own re-useable bottle. If you did not have one, they had plastic cups to use, which again reinforced the fill up and throw away method. Security was tight and you were not allowed to enter with full water bottles that had a resealable top. This discouraged people from bringing in re-usable bottles and was not a smart idea for a festival that has a hippe vibe.
One thing that the BluesFest had that was new to me was a record tent. This area sold albums, posters and even had artist signing merchandise on a daily basis. I thought this was a great way to support artists and even meet them!
The weather at the BluesFest was pretty up and down. It was hot & sunny and then wet and cold. From mud to muggy, be sure to bring all kinds of outdoor, waterproof and temperature appropriate clothing. This includes hats, sunscreen, sunglasses and rain boots.
In preperation to arriving to the BluesFest be sure to download the app. Not perfect, but handy enough, the festival application powered by Optus was quite useful. It has set times (what stages, days and times artist were playing on), information about each band, map, stall and food information. It was good to know an artist was playing on another day in case you missed them seeing someone else.
Now to the music! Here is who we saw 🙂
Thursday:
- Caiti Baker – An up and coming musician from Northern Territory, Caiti had a strong voice with 808 style percussion.
- Mavis Staples – 2019 was Mavis’ 7th or 8th BluesFest; she’s lost count. Currently living in Chicago but born and raised in Mississippi, Mavis has blues in her blood. She was classic and her songs told great stories from her life which were pretty prevalent today including, “We Got Work To Do.”
- Samantha Fish – What a powerful voice! Hailing from Kansas City, Missouri, this beauty had a small band with herself on guitar, a trumpet player, saxophone player and flutist.
- Six60 – These Kiwi legends made their debut at the BluesFest and performed on the biggest stage. Definitely one of my favorite acts all weekend.
- Ocean Alley – Reggie fusion group from North Sydney, Ocean Alley had a deeper rock vibe that Six60.
Friday:
- Melody Angel – Another Chi-Town artist, Melody stands for Black Power and loves her long solos. Very jam band!
- Marcus King Band – Another highlight of the whole weekend, these South Carolina boys set the scene at sunset. They were upbeat, country style, jam band. From cowboy boots and hats, the Aussies in the crowd had to have felt the patriotism.
- Shaky Graves – Acoustic solo act, Texan born Shaky plays the guitar and hits the drum with his foot. One of the bigger acts of the entire weekend who gave us goosebumps with his voice.
- Norah Jones – This was Grammy Award winner Noah Jones’ first BluesFest, and sadly, we felt she was too slow. Her songs put us to sleep and we didn’t stay more than 40 minutes.
- Hozier – Straight off the release of his new album, “Wasteland, Baby!” Hozier played all of his classic’s including ‘Take Me to Church.”
- Pierce Brothers – The surprise of the day was this sibling duo with high energy and native instruments.
Saturday:
- Archie Roach – For one of the first acts of the day, Archie was slow but we enjoyed him for his use of indigenous instruments.
- Impelda May – A young Gwen Stefani… need I say more?!
- Colin Hay – Byron Bay local, via Scotland and now a USA resident, Colin has been a crowd favorite because of his old school style.
- Keb’ Mo’ (Solo) – A one man act from LA, USA, Keb’ Mo’ is the definition of ‘blues.’
- Dallas Woods – A good warm up band, this indigenous rapper was one of the few other ‘genres’ the entire weekend.
- Baker Boy – A local favorite, this rapper had the whole tent up and dancing! From kids on shoulder to blow up pool floats in the most pit, Baker Boy kept his cool in a vintage Nike rain jacket.
- Snarky Puppy – A large band with every instrument, Snarky Puppy did pop songs with an RnB, blues, jazz remix.
- Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals – Another big name on the big stage, Ben Harper would talk American politics in between songs which turned us off.
- Melbourne Ska Orchestra – Re-creating movie classic soundtracks such as Star Wars, the Ska Orchestra is a great percussion to see live. We saw them play a small venue at the beach in West Auckland and were excited to see them play to a larger crowd with a better sound system.
The BluesFest was an amazing time and I would recommend it to anyone who is in the area around Easter. If I were to go back I would most likely get day passes and only come to the festival via the bus so I could enjoy more of town. It is also nice to sleep in a bed out of the elements…
Tip: Make sure you have a solid, fashionable, pair of rain boots. Even if it doesn’t rain on you, the grounds might be muddy.
Have you been to the BluesFest? What is your opinion of how it is run?
