Festivals return to Australia: Byron Bluesfest, seated audience and non-mandatory masks

The improvement in the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic in Australia, due to the harsh restrictions imposed on the population such as confining the entire city of Melbourne to the detection of a handful of infections, has allowed the return of the music festivals on the southern continent.

One of the most famous is the 32nd Byron Bluesfest in Byron Bay (Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm), New South Wales, from Thursday 1st to Monday 5th April. This is an event dedicated to blues and root music that this time will feature a purely Australian line-up, eliminating all foreign artists for obvious reasons - the borders are closed. Featured artists are: The Cat Empire, Jimmy Barnes, Tash Sultana, The Teskey Brothers and Ocean Alley among others.

While the prospects are good in Australia, amazing for Europeans and Americans, they don’t arrive to be as good as the New Zealand dream and the audience will have to sit back while watching the concerts. Masks, on the other hand, will not be mandatory at the largest outdoor music festival to be held in Australia since the beginning of the pandemic, despite having reduced its capacity by fifty per cent.

The festival suspended its 2020 edition three weeks before its celebration on behalf of the New South Wales authorities. In the next edition, the festival will have to comply with a 150-page anti-Covid manual. More than 80 percent of tickets are sold.

The full lineup will consist of the following bands and artists:

Ocean Alley

John Williamson

Tex Perkins The Man In Black

Jon Stevens

Ash Grunwald & Josh Teskey

Vika & Linda

Garrett Kato

Mia Dyson

The Church

Kate Miller-heidke

The Living End

The Angels

Ross Wilson And The Peaceniks

Blue King Brown

Jeff Lang

Kara Grainger

Tash Sultana

Ziggy Alberts

Kev Carmody

Ian Moss

Hiatus Kaiyote

Russell Morris

Briggs

Kim Churchill

Mama Kin Spender

All Our Exes Live In Texas

Jimmy Barnes

The Teskey Brothers

John Butler

Xavier Rudd

The Cat Empire

Kasey Chambers

The Waifs

Troy Cassar-daley

The Black Sorrows

Melbourne Ska Orchestra

Chain

Backsliders

Harts Plays Hendrix

Ash Grunwald

The Bamboos

Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission

Dami Im

Pierce Brothers

Emily Wurramara

Roshani

Ray Beadle

Henry Wagons

Hussy Hicks

Pacey, King & Doley

Daniel Champagne

Nathan Cavaleri

Little Georgia

Bluesfest Busking Competition & Winners

The Australian Americana Music Honours