The Byron Shire has been renowned for its music, its festivals, and its innovation that has had a huge impact on the Australian music scene.
Local author Tricia Shantz’s latest book Musicland. When the Music Came to Byron 1970-1995, will be launched at this year’s Byron Writers Festival. She says that the region has been a hotbed of music, festivals, and culture, with notable standouts being the 1973 Fowlers Lane concerts, Danny Doeppel attracting bands such as Midnight Oil to The Piggery, Bluesfest, Splendour in the Grass and the very popular Mullum Music Festival. Over the last few years, we have seen all of those festivals disappear, with Bluesfest dying for the second time last Easter.
While this has been hard on local contractors as well as music lovers, it has also opened up the field to new ideas, innovations, and expressions of art and culture. Smaller festivals give local musicians a platform that isn’t available at the larger festivals, with more intimate venues, and often new opportunities to explore more diverse experiences.
For example, last weekend’s Mullum Roots Festival (rising phoenix-like from Nimbin Roots Festival) created a great opportunity around the town to enjoy music, and the ‘songwriters in the round’ session provided a close-up and intimate music experience that was unique to the festival.
The recent Stone & Wood Festival of the Stone is a relatively new festival that has become increasingly popular – the most recent event was a sell-out success and combined great music and experiences with raising money to combat homelessness.
The inaugural DINGO Music & Arts Festival is set to transform Bangalow in October for four days, creating a fusion of local foods, international and local musicians, performance artists, and thinkers. Many people enjoy an intimate, multifaceted experience.
Another local festival that is curating a diverse local and visitor experience is Byron Fest, which will be running throughout the Shire in June 2027. Destination Byron is seeking to bring businesses, artists, performers, musicians, and other creatives together to develop an innovative and engaging showcase of what this region represents (see page 2).
It is sad to see the large festivals in decline, but it also represents an opportunity for locals to create new opportunities, new experiences, and explore the diversity of talent and creativity that the Northern Rivers is known for.
Smaller festivals give everyone a chance to create affordable, innovative, and diverse experiences that speak to the incredible range of talent that is here.
This is not a comprehensive list of our music festivals, and arguably non-music festivals such as the Byron Writers Festival, or the Mud Trail sculpture event, art and film festivals could possibly make an even greater contribution to our cultural enrichment, as a community, than singing along to Daryl Braithwaite’s ‘Horses’. But the main thing is to value and support what we have left, quick, before someone in Sydney decides that Byron’s the kind of place that needs a massive sports stadium.
Aslan Shand, editor
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