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Apr 29, 2025 By Celine Teo-Blockey Photography by Celine Teo-Blockey Web Exclusive

As the lights came up on Chaka Khan’s headlining set of career-defining hits on one stage, followed an hour later by Australian hip-hop stars Hilltop Hoods who brought Byron Bay Bluesfest 2025 to a sweaty, energetic, pyrotechnic-packed official end, it became plainly clear for those still unawares that the curtain would not be coming down on the festival after all. Last year, in the midst of several major Australian festivals going under, Bluesfest founder and owner, Peter Noble announced that 2025 would be the last Bluesfest ever. In its 36th year, Bluesfest is Australia’s longest running music festival. Its loss would be profound on the country’s music and cultural calendar, not to mention the millions it brings into the local and state economy. In response, thousands, with their families in tow, purchased tickets to come out for one final hurrah. But screens were flashing 2026 dates and early bird purchase details.

The cynics among us might gawk at the shrewd marketing strategy of billing the well-loved festival as its last to sell more tickets. Because sell it did! Usually between 40,000 and 60,000 tickets are sold, this year’s so called final instalment sold more than 100,000 and for a newly shortened four, rather than five-day roster. This presented its own problems from hour-long lines for the shuttle into town (which in previous years, took no more than 10mins), to all kinds of parking chaos. The laid back floating between stages or ability to grab a drink or bite in relative ease were all unfortunately out the window with the ballooning of crowds.

Last year, in the wake of popular festivals Splendour In the Grass and Groovin The Moo’s cancellations, Noble had cited post-Covid and cost-of-living struggles, as well as and the general hikes in booking international artists. There was also the the lack of support from the state government. And a hint that perhaps the public had not fully grasped, how much it took to pull off an annual event like Bluesfest.

Well, here was Noble’s mandate, the people this year had spoken with their wallets. They do want Bluesfest to continue.

For punters, festivals are a test of endurance and we pay for that privilege if the roster is a the right mix of good calibre artists we love and acts we are happy to discover. The bonhomie and incredible high you experience with fellow music lovers in a large tent singing along to “I Feel For You” with Chaka Khan herself or “Don’t Dream It’s Over” with Crowded House or “The Special Two” with Missy Higgins—that’s priceless! And Bluesfest seems to manage that feat with flying colours each year.

“Did your mother play my music to you,” Chaka Khan mused at the multi-generational mix of older ladies, teens and children pushed up against the barricades, “you all look too young?” In her 70s, Khan cut a diminutive figure, her face ageless and her crystal-cut voice soared easily to hit those stratospheric high notes on “I’m Every Woman,” “I Feel For You” and “Ain’t Nobody” which some might remember as a massive hit from the classic 1984 breakdancing film Breakin’. How many opportunities are there to experience these legends in Australian?

There’s been talk that as legacy acts such as Chaka Khan, last year’s headliners Buddy Guy and Tom Jones, Taj Mahal and the many other legendary greats that continue to age out of being able to perform overseas, Bluesfest would have to diversify its Bluesy roster and also include more homegrown acts. In some ways, this played out this year with young, breakout Australian pop act, Tones And I who headlined Thursday night with one of the biggest opening night crowds ever. And also closing the festival with homegrown rappers, Hilltop Hoods rather than a tentpole international blues artist.

So when we did have virtuosic Blues acts from Clarkdale, Mississippi, like Christone “Kingfish” Ingram or Chicago’s Melody Angel, they really were sets to savor. More than just a novelty act, and up against all the heavy-hitting headliners, Nashville’s Here Comes The Mummies did so well to deliver their upbeat funk rock, blues and jazz fusion every night.

Highlights elsewhere included Bluesfest regular John Butler, who has gone solo and did not perform as part of the trio. As politically-conscious as ever, Butler remarked after the acknowledgment of country that First Nations have “been looking after country for so long”—to suggest the absurdity that only days earlier controversy erupted as neo-Nazis boo-ed the Welcome to Country ceremony at the Anzac Day Dawn Service. In between songs such as his beautiful finger-plucked opener, the John Butler Trio favorite “Used To Get High,” and “Treat Yo Mama” he also took aim at Trump and Elon Musk. Before “Ocean,” his band departed the stage leaving him to speak out about privilege and the freedom of Palestine.

Other acts that stood out were the 26-member strong Melbourne Sky Orchestra which delivered ska anthems, big brass and high jinx led by ringleader Nicky Bomba, and yes, their bus driver! Seventeen-year-old Aussie Blues wunderkind Taj Farrant showed how far he’s come since his show at Bluesfest last year while Ry X with his big cowboy hat, surprised us all with a curve ball—a moody set of electro-atmospherics calling to mind Dermot Kennedy and Bon Iver.

If Bluesfest is to continue for another 36 years or return with as many people in 2026, organizers might consider more shuttles, better parking arrangements and chill out spaces where mothers can take their kids away from the loud music and dust to breastfeed. Or where weary festival-goers, some of whom were pregnant, (and we also witnessed a teen in the throes of a panic attack about the huge crowd) can go for some reprieve. Bluesfest is a great alternative to festivals that might just offer chart pop or meet solely the needs of the Spotify set content with AI electronica. More importantly, it’s also helping to prime the ears and mould the tastes of the next generation of music lovers—some still in the womb!

Also here are 5 standouts from Bluesfest 2025 that we couldn’t get enough of and why we think they were the best.

1. Gary Clark Jr — Best Blues Artist

Four-time Grammy Award winner, Gary Clark Jr. is too often touted as the Savior of the Blues, a label the man himself eschews as he doesn’t fancy the Blues needs any saving. But anyone present at the Mojo tent on Friday, the first night he performed, regardless if they had any interest in the blues would have been spellbound by his sheer mastery of the guitar, his expert melding of Taureg or Sub Saharan blues on “Maktub” (Arabic for ‘destiny’) and

“Habits” a raw and sprawling nine minute tune that lays bare his vulnerabilities—he reclaims a form often associated with white artists from James Bey to John Major and does it better.

Clark could have been singing in a foreign language and the music would still have spoken to your heart. That’s the power of the blues through Clark’s own inspired eclecticism. When he won his first Grammy over a decade ago, he thanked Eve Monsees, a white, high school friend and neighbor, from Austin, Texas where he grew up—for sparking his interest in playing the Blues guitar. And while as a teenager he cut his teeth in local clubs playing with musicians that played alongside Blues legends Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy, he was also a fan of Seattle Grunge, Kurt Cobain and hip hop of all stripes.

His third album, This Land, written in response to Trump’s first term, stood out with the title track’s incendiary lyrics: “I still remember when you used to say/ Nigga run, nigga run / Go back where you come from …fuck you, I’m America’s son / This is where I come from.” He adopted the cadence of a rapper. And on his fourth album JPEGRAW he takes in syncopated jazz with its title track, while thematically zooming out from the dark America-centric themes of This Land to inhabit more universal themes and hope.

Clark has proved himself a Renaissance man of sorts, having acted in Baz Lurhman’s 2022 film Elvis, and continually expanding the definition of a Bluesman, as he showcases his skills as rocker, rapper, r n’b singer. I was only too happy to also catch his set, on Saturday. And he did not disappoint. He opened with “Catfish Blues,” a Blues classic by Robert Petway that inspired Muddy Waters, Jimi Hendrix and countless others. It electrified the dusty Byron Bay air with the heavy wobble of the Mississippi delta. “Maktub” which was written after a conversation with longtime producer Jacob Sciba and Clark’s Palestinian friend Sama’an Ashrawi, was yet again, hypnotic. He ended with “Bright Lights,” a defining early hit from his 2012 debut Blak and Blu and proved resoundingly that he is an artist at the peak of his powers.

2. Miss Kaninna — Best History Lesson On Country

A political firebrand for Country, climate and Palestine, Miss Kaninna’s Sunday set made no apologies for who she is, what she says and the songs she sings. “Politics absolutely belongs in music,” she said while discussing being censored for her views in the past, “Without it, nothing will ever change.”

A proud Yorta Yorta, Djadja Wurrung, Kalkadoon and Yirendali sovereign woman, she invited her brother to open her set by playing the didgeridoo. She also invited her mother, Ruth Langford onstage to share her experience as an activist fighting against the police and forestry industry in Tasmania. “Thirty-six million old growth forests are being made into woodchips or worse just cut and then left on the ground to burn,” Langford said, which prompted the crowd to respond “Shame, shame!”

After a call for the audience to get behind the fight to protect Country, the mother, daughter and son trio sang a church hymn in their people’s Aboriginal language. She explained the hymn was about the story of Moses, parting the sea and leading his people to freedom. She dedicated it to the Palestinian people.

Striking an oftentimes fine balance between unapologetic activist and gifted entertainer, she never missed her mark with her message or her songs. “Kush,” “Push Up” and “Dawg In Me,” were electrifying but it was the fiery “Blak Britney” that sent everyone out charged!

3. George Thorogood — Best ol’time Rock n’Roll

George Thorogood is one of these acts that Bluesfest can pull effortlessly out of the hat like a magic trick and have everyone just adore it! Many might not have had any idea just how many classic rock songs the man is responsible for: from Bbb Bbb “Bad To The Bone” to “Get A Haircut”… and get a real job!” But Thorogood and his band The Destroyers crashed onto the stage, him with a saucy twinkle in his eye and a cheeky swing of his hips to “Rock Party” and you just knew it was going to be a rollicking good one.

He followed with the Bo Diddley cover, “Who Do You Love?” then “Mama Talk To Your Daughter“ and said “Thank you for making my Elvis dreams come true,” adding he’d always wanted to make an Australian girl squeal. It was pure joy!

And nonstop fun with “I Drink Alone,” then “House Rent Blues” that segued into John Lee Hooker’s “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer”—which was like being transported to a juke joint or roadhouse back in the ‘60s, or a college dorm house party in the late ‘80s and ‘90s. You quickly realize how good he is at doing obscure covers by the greats and just making it his own.

He finished his set with “Gloria,” a song written by Van Morrison and recorded by his 1964 band, Them. But him and his band delivered such a faultless rendition that I’m pretty sure most fans in the tent yelling along to “Gloria, G-L-O-R-I-A” thought he’d written the song.

4. Neal Francis — Best Dressed

Chicago-based singer-songwriter-pianist Neal Francis was a vision in a delicate floral blouson matched perfectly with a pair of striped pants of rose and pink hues, on stage, Friday. Playing behind an assortment of keyboards, which included a Moog and Yamaha, he brought his ‘70s boogie woogie and Allen Toussaint-inspired New Orleans style to the stage.

It took a couple of songs for the audience to warm up but as I had to leave, I thought I heard the funky bass and psychedelic piano flourishes of “Broken Glass” ring out. He must have the audience eating out his hands by that number which he wrote with Queens of the Stone Age drummer Michael Shulman.

Returning on Sunday, the power pop of “What’s Left Of Me” from his latest Return To Zero album was a treat, while older hits “Sentimental Garbage” and “Changes Pts 1 & 2” were a great introduction for the uninitiated of Francis’ piano playing and singular style.

Plagued by troubles in the U.S., he told the audience “fight hard to keep what you’ve got cause there’s some funky shit going on at home.” Later when we chat briefly after his set, he was visibly down on the news but said he had options: “I could leave but I don’t want to. It’s my home.” Feeling that the only right thing to do for him was to keep writing his songs and concentrating on his craft. We have to agree creativity is the best form of resistance in dark times.

5. Tom Morello — Best Fuck You To The Powers That Be

Indeed at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame artist and activist Tom Morello’s headlining set on Friday night, he had said as much: “Tonight we’re celebrating our strengths … because music, joy and laughter have suddenly become acts of resistance.”

A groundbreaking solo artist, it’s Morello’s work with Rage Against The Machine, fusing metal, rap and hardcore with anti-authoritarian lyrics that he is best remembered. Never one to rest on his laurels, he helped form supergroup Prophets of Rage with Public Enemy’s Chuck D and rapper B Real from Cypress Hill in 2016, to counter the first Trump term with their own “Make America Rage Again” tour. At the Bluesfest merch stand, his t-shirt emblazoned with “Nazi Lives Don’t Matter” took pride of place.

Morello’s much anticipated set kicked off with “Soldier in the Army of Love,” and quickly followed with a Rage Against The Machine medley, before he showcased his driving power on the guitar, with an MC5 cover “Kick Out The Jams.” It wasn’t all fury as he delivered a touching tribute to his friend and Audioslave bandmember, Chris Cornell, leaving a mic stand free as another member in his present band sang the somber, Cornell-penned hit “Like A Stone.”

He then spoke of visiting Australia as a member of Bruce Springsteen’s band and proceeded to sing “Ballad of Tom Joad.” When he asked “How many of you were here yesterday?” and a host of hands went up he laughed, joking that they all now knew what came next. And that was “Killing In The Name Of” which he turned the mic over to face the audience and offered “let us sing the whole damn song” which the whole tent sung word for word, leaping or standing shoulder to shoulder, arms around each other!

Reminding everyone that creativity is an act of resistance, he closed with a John Lennon cover of “Power To The People,” and literally instructed everyone to jump off their feet as he himself clutched his guitar, spun around and got airborne. His message of power hung in the night air and invigorated fans long after the lights came up.

Tickets for Byron Bay Bluesfest 2026 HERE