If you’ve been ‘Sitting, Waiting, Wishing’ for Bluesfest Byron Bay to start giving us a taste of the line-up for next Easter, it’s your lucky day. And ‘It’s Not Unusual’ if you’re feeling turned ‘Upside Down’ over your first glance at that headline. The first announcement for Bluesfest’s 35th anniversary is bursting with an eclectic mix of more than 20 legendary performers and rising stars.
Surfer, artist, filmmaker, humanitarian, and environmentalist Jack Johnson, who first played Bluesfest in 2001 as a virtually unknown artist, will return for one exclusive performance, the only one he is scheduled to play in Australia in 2024.
The Welsh national treasure with more than 100 million album sales to his name, Tom Jones, is also returning to the green, green grass of Byron Bay next year. The last time Jones played Bluesfest was in 2016, and in a press release, Bluesfest says that he had his manager personally contact them to ask to return in 2024.
But don’t get ‘So Caught Up’, it would be a ‘Crying Shame’ to overlook the big Aussie headliners on the bill, including blues rockers the Teskey Brothers, the most requested artist to return to Bluesfest after their show-stopping 2022 performance.
The first announcement also packs in Matt Corby, L.A.B., Elvis Costello & the Imposters, Peter Garrett, Tommy Emmanuel (exclusive), the Paper Kites, first-timers and internet sensations the Dead South. Drive-by Truckers are returning after a 15-year absence, 14-year-old wunderkind blues guitarist and singer Taj Farrant is making his debut, 19-Twenty is returning by popular demand, and there’s many more.
We will be keeping a keen eye on the announcements to follow (here's hoping for some more badass women and non-men talent to balance things out), and which artists will announce some inevitable Sydney sideshows (fingers crossed Jack Johnson gets a bit laxed on that “exclusive” thing!).
Bluesfest cranks thousands of people though their slick festival site for a five-day fest over the Easter long weekend every year (except for the interruptions of you-know-what). The 2024 festival will run from March 28 to April 1. Three- and five-day tickets are now on sale, and one-day tickets will be announced soon. Find out more at bluesfest.com.au.