Red dirt, rock ’n’ roll and wide-open skies: Mundi Mundi Bash announces its biggest lineup yet

There's something about the Australian outback that makes everything feel a little different.

The roads stretch forever, the skies seem endless and the landscape has a way of reminding you just how big this country really is. Add a few thousand caravans, three days of live music and some of Australia's finest musicians performing beneath the Barrier Ranges, and you've got something well beyond your average music festival. That's the appeal of the Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash, which returns to the red dirt outside Silverton from 19–21 August 2027 with its biggest lineup yet.

Leading the 25-act program is Jimmy Barnes, joined by an impressive collection of Australian favourites including The Living End, The Cat Empire, Kate Ceberano, Ross Wilson, The Screaming Jets, Mental As Anything, Mark Seymour, Pseudo Echo, Casey Barnes, Dragon, Furnace and the Fundamentals, 1927, Spy V Spy and GANGgajang. It's a lineup that spans generations, bringing together the songs that have soundtracked Australian road trips, backyard parties, crowded pubs and festival stages for decades.

There's also The Rolling Stones Revue, featuring Adalita, Phil Jamieson, Tex Perkins and Tim Rogers, alongside 19-Twenty, Pierce Brothers, Sarah McLeod, The Chantoozies, Ella Hooper, Taxiride, Jason Singh and The Pigs. Supporting the performances will be the Mundi Mundi Bash Band, featuring Jak Housden, Dario Bortolin, Gordon Rytmeister, Colin Coorie, Robyn Loau and Miranda Carey.

Barnes is clearly looking forward to returning to the outback. ‘The Mundi Mundi Bash is one of the greatest festivals on the planet,’ he says. ‘For a start, you get to see some of the best artists Australia has produced, which is always great, and secondly, the location for this festival is like no other place in the world. It is absolutely breathtaking.’ And with a band ready to rock, it's hard to imagine a more fitting performer to lead the celebrations.

Of course, the lineup is only part of the story. The real character of the Mundi Mundi Bash comes from its extraordinary location, where the stage sits against a backdrop of vast red dirt plains and the rugged Barrier Ranges. During the day, the skies stretch endlessly overhead, while at night the stars provide a spectacle of their own. It's a setting that gives even the most familiar songs a completely different feel.

Festival founder and Managing Director of the Outback Music Festival Group, Greg Donovan, believes that's what sets the event apart. ‘We're definitely not the usual live music experience of an indoor venue or even a parkland setting in suburbia, at a winery or by the beach,’ he explains. ‘And the Mundi Mundi Bash isn't a rinse and repeat gig. We only run the event once a year because so much goes into creating an extraordinary experience in the middle of the Outback.’

For many festivalgoers, the experience begins long before the first band takes the stage. Caravans are packed, motorhomes prepared and road trips planned as people make their way from across Australia to spend several days camping on the plains. Some travel with family and friends, while others return year after year to reconnect with people they've met along the way. It's this sense of community, the shared meals, conversations around the campsite and friendships formed over a few days in the outback, that has become such an important part of the Bash.

And there's plenty happening beyond the music. The three-day, all-ages, dog-friendly festival has developed some wonderfully Australian traditions, including the Big Blue Day, where festivalgoers dress in blue to create a giant map of Australia in support of Beyond Blue, and the Mundi Undi Run, which raises money for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. The Bash Choir, introduced in 2026, also supports the RFDS, while a Mad Max dress-up gathering celebrates the region's connection to George Miller's iconic films.

Add camel rides, helicopter flights, nursery animals, morning yoga, outdoor movie nights and even dunny door painting, and it's clear the organisers aren't afraid to have a bit of fun. More importantly, the festival has raised over a million dollars for the Royal Flying Doctor Service and hundreds of thousands for Beyond Blue, giving the event a meaningful connection to the wider Australian community.

There's also a changing of the guard ahead for Australia's outback festival calendar. With the Birdsville Big Red Bash set to finish after its 2027 event, the Mundi Mundi Bash will become the sole focus of the Outback Music Festival Group, allowing organisers to concentrate their efforts on continuing to develop the Broken Hill experience.

Held at Belmont Station on the Mundi Mundi Plains, approximately nine kilometres north of Silverton and 35 kilometres from Broken Hill, the festival is accessible by sealed roads, with regular flights and trains also servicing Broken Hill. Festivalgoers can bring their own supplies, including alcohol, while food vendors will be on site throughout the event.

Australia has no shortage of great music festivals, but there aren't many where the journey is as much a part of the experience as the music itself. The Mundi Mundi Bash brings together the songs we grew up with, the freedom of the open road and the simple pleasure of spending a few days in good company, surrounded by some of the most remarkable scenery in the country.

And with its biggest lineup yet, 2027 is shaping up to be another very good reason to point the car west.

2027 Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash
19–21 August 2027
Belmont Station, Mundi Mundi Plains, near Silverton, NSW.