Outback festival cancelled as fuel crisis threatens Easter plans
Heavy rainfall has made the “world’s most remote” festival in Queensland untenable this year, as tourism operators voice fears over the impact of fuel prices on Easter holiday travel.
The Big Red Bash, which promotes itself as the “world’s most remote” music festival, has been cancelled for 2026.
In a statement posted to social media on Friday morning, organisers announced the decision had been made after a rare outback deluge flooded its performance site.
“Mother Nature is the highest authority,” they wrote.
“This year she has spoken, and we have heard the message.”
The three-day festival was set to be held at the Big Red sand dune on Adria Downs, a privately organic cattle farm, in July.
Headliners included Missy Higgins, Hoodoo Gurus and The Teskey Brothers.
“Following unprecedented rainfall and flooding across the region, the Big Red festival site will not recover in time for the event to be delivered safely this July,” organisers said.
“Options for a relocation of the festival in the Birdsville area were carefully explored but were found to be infeasible.”
The event is set to go ahead in 2027, with most of the musicians on the 2026 line-up agreeing to play at the outback festival next year.
Ticketholders have been told they can request a refund, transfer their tickets to the 2027 festival, or transfer to the Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash in August.
Operators in remote and far-flung regional areas are especially concerned about supply impacting tourism numbers.
“We’re definitely getting cancellations [from] Europe and the US,” Robert Pennicott from Pennicott Wilderness Journeys in Tasmania told the ABC this week.
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International visitors normally make up 15-18 per cent of customers for Pennicott’s business, which offers cruises in south-east Tasmania. But he said he remained optimistic about domestic tourists.
“As long as there is still a supply of fuel, I believe a lot more interstate people will be reluctant to travel to Europe and to areas that don’t feel safe … Tasmania [will be] looked at as being an incredibly safe destination,” he said.
Pennicott said his business wouldn’t survive if fuel supplies dried up.
“If either [fuel] tankers weren’t coming, or they were having to prioritise primary production rather than tourism, that’s where my concern is,” he said.
Holiday-makers say they will reconsider their plans if fuel reaches $3 a litre. Photo: Reflections Holiday Parks
Last week, research by NSW’s largest holiday group, Reflections Holidays, discovered the tipping point for Australians to consider changing their holiday plans.
The study of 9000 respondents, conducted on March 18, found that so far less than 5 per cent were worried enough about the fuel crisis to delay holiday plans. But, almost two-thirds (62 per cent) said they would look to holiday closer to home if fuel hit $3 a litre.
Comments from those surveyed included: “The only thing we might change is that we might holiday closer to home”, “We are now planning shorter breaks and less destinations”, “I’m travelling around Australia and staying longer in places to spread out the cost”, and “We are trying to reduce our fuel use to let farmers and others who need it have priority”.
Unleaded 91 was selling for nearly $2.60 a litre in Adelaide on Friday, while there are reports of diesel topping $3.40 a litre in regional areas.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen, who has updated parliament each day of fuel shortages in each state and territory, said on Thursday that more than 500 petrol stations across the country had some issues.
“When you get a big increase in demand it takes time for the supply chain to recover to back-fill the existing demand. But the fact that the supply to regional Australia is up substantially shows the measures this government has put in place with industry, working closely in collaboration with the states, are seeing real progress, which is what Australians so desperately deserve and are receiving,” he said.
“The entire industry is working hard to catch up with the massive spike in demand that we saw after [strikes on Iran began on] February 28.”
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