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BLUESFEST 2023

Second artist announcement

Six more huge artists
added to the bill!

PLUS! 1-DAY & 3-DAY TICKETS ON SALE TODAY, WED 5th OF OCTOBER…
KEEP AN EYE OUT ON EMAILS & BLUESFEST SOCIALS!

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In just over 26 weeks the 34th Annual Bluesfest’s gates will open for what promises to be the most exciting Bluesfest ever.

With today’s artist announcement, they have now rolled out 47 artists on the already mammoth Bluesfest 2023 line-up. They have also reported continuing development of the festival site, to make for a game-changing festival experience over the Easter Long Weekend held in the Byron Shire, from Thursday 6 April – Monday 10 April 2023.

This morning, Bluesfest have announced The Doobie Brothers, bringing their 50th Anniversary Tour to the festival stage on closing night – Easter Monday, April 10. The band are still smashing attendance records, and rightly so with some of the classic line-up still performing today – Michael McDonald has re-joined the band, alongside Patrick Simmons, Tom Johnston, and John McFee. Their legion of fans will be able experience a coming together of what many may call “THE CLASSIC DOOBIE BROTHERS COMBINATION”.

Next on the line-up addition list is winner of the Americana Album of the year, Allison Russell, playing Bluesfest 2023 on Easter Saturday & Sunday.

Bluesfesters will also see Counting Crows (Easter Saturday), the forever unwavering on-stage-energy of Vintage Trouble (Good Friday & Easter Saturday), PLUS the mighty return of Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats and St Paul & the Broken Bones (both performing on Opening Night of Bluesfest 2023 – Thu 6 April, and on Good Friday 7 April).  

It’s going to be a Bluesfest to remember with some of the world’s finest contemporary and legendary Blues, Roots, Soul, Rock, Hip Hop, R&B, World and Americana music artists… and more!

1-Day and 3-Day tickets will also go on sale today (soon after the artist announcement) at a special price which will only be available for a limited time before we increase to the standard price.

Camping for 1-Day & 3-Day festival goers will also be available to purchase next week!

Tickets are available to purchase through Moshtix www.bluesfest.com.au/tickets

Stand by for further announcements on two special satellite events happening in Melbourne and Perth, as well as side shows from some of this amazing line up. 

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Here’s the list of new artists on the Bluesfest 2023 bill! 
[IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER] 

ALLISON RUSSELL

COUNTING CROWS

DOOBIE BROTHERS, THE

NATHANIEL RATELIFF & THE NIGHTSWEATS

ST PAUL & THE BROKEN BONES

VINTAGE TROUBLE

Joining the already announced lineup
[IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER]

19-TWENTY | THE BARNESTORMERS | BETH HART [EXCLUSIVE] | THE BLACK SORROWS
BONNIE RAITT | BUDDY GUY | THE CAT EMPIRE | CHAIN
CHRISTONE ‘KINGFISH’ INGRAM | ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS | ERIC GALES [EXCLUSIVE]
FEMI KUTI & THE POSITIVE FORCE | GANG OF YOUTHS | GREENSKY BLUEGRASS [EXCLUSIVE]
JACKSON BROWNE | JASON ISBELL AND THE 400 UNIT | JOE BONAMASSA [EXCLUSIVE]
JOE CAMILLERI PRESENTS A STAR-STUDDED TRIBUTE TO THE GREATS OF THE BLUES
JON STEVENS | KALEO [EXCLUSIVE] | KEB’ MO’ | KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD
LACHY DOLEY AND THE HORNS OF CONVICTION | LARKIN POE
LP | LUCINDA WILLIAMS | MARCUS KING
MAVIS STAPLES | MICHAEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD | NIKKI HILL [EXCLUSIVE]
ROBERT GLASPER | ROCKWIZ LIVE
THE SOUL REBELS & FRIENDS WITH SPECIAL GUESTS TALIB KWELI • GZA • BIG FREEDIA
SOUTHERN AVENUE [EXCLUSIVE] | SPINIFEX GUM FEAT. MARLIYA
STEVE EARLE & THE DUKES | TASH SULTANA | XAVIER RUDD

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Bluesfest, Australia’s largest International Festival of Blues and Roots Music in beautiful Byron Bay on April 15, 2022 // Photo – Joseph Mayers

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SNAPSHOT BIOS

ALLISON RUSSELL

Poet, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist – Allison Russell unpacks her youth in searing detail on her tour de force debut Outside Child. She sings about deliverance and redemption, about the places, the people and realisations that helped her survive and claim her freedom.

“It’s an album of strength and affirmation, not victimization,” said The New York Times in their profile on Russell, and has named Outside Child the #2 Best Album of 2021.

Outside Child has received three Grammy award nominations in the Best Americana Album category, Best American Roots Performance and Best American Roots Song. In addition to her three Grammy nominations, Russell has been awarded Album of the Year at the 2022 Americana Music Association Awards, four Canadian Folk Music Awards, the Polaris Music Prize and two Juno Awards. Russell is the first-ever Black artist to win a Contemporary Roots Album of the Year in Juno history.  

COUNTING CROWS

Counting Crows have enchanted listeners worldwide for more than two decades with their intensely soulful and intricate take on timeless rock & roll. Exploding onto the music scene in 1993 with their multi-platinum breakout album, August and Everything After, the band has gone on to release seven studio albums, selling more than 20 million records worldwide, and is revered as one of the world’s most pre-eminent live touring rock bands.  

In 2004, Counting Crows recorded the chart-topping “Accidently in Love” for the animated motion picture Shrek 2. The instant success of the track earned them an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song at the 2005 Academy Awards, a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song, and a GRAMMY Award nomination for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. 

Over the last 30 years, the masterful songwriting from front man Adam Duritz put the band at No.8 on Billboard Magazine’s 2021 “Greatest Of All Time: Adult Alternative 25th Anniversary Chart.” The band released their newest record, Butter Miracle, featuring hit single “Elevator Boots” in April of 2021. 

THE DOOBIE BROTHERS

For over five decades, The Doobie Brothers have been known for delivering mind-blowing, roots based, harmony-laden, guitar-driven rock and roll – all of which recently culminated in an induction into the 2020 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Boasting one of the most loyal fan bases in music, selling more than 48 million albums, and winning four Grammy Awards, The Doobie Brothers continue to write and record new material and tour the world. 

In all, the Doobies have tallied up five top 10 singles and 16 top 40 hits. Beginning with their multi-million-selling sophomore collection Toulouse Street, the Doobies have 3 multi-platinum, 7 platinum, and 14 Gold albums. Best of the Doobies has sold more than 12 million copies – a rare “diamond record.” In 2021, the band kicked off their 50th anniversary tour which reunited Tom Johnston, Michael McDonald, Pat Simmons, and John McFee back on the road together for the first time in over 25 years. Catch them at Bluesfest 2023 on Easter Monday.

NATHANIEL RATELIFF & THE NIGHT SWEATS

It took Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats less than five years to become one of the most recognisable new forces in contemporary Rock ’n’ Roll. Since 2015, Rateliff has led his denim-clad, horn-flanked Night Sweats, supplying the zeal of a whiskey-chugging Pentecostal preacher to songs about this world’s shared woes. They’ve had hits, sure, but their combustible mix of soul and rock quickly cemented them as the rare generational band who balanced ecstatic live shows with engrossing and rich records.

To wit, is there any other modern act capable of revving up stadium crowds for The Rolling Stones while also appearing on Saturday Night Live and CMT Crossroads and at NPR’s Tiny Desk in short order?

When Rateliff returned from his pandemic-truncated solo tour in March 2020, he struggled with the same question that vexed so many of us then—what now? Fortunately, he returned to his Colorado homestead and penned a set of songs that synthesized his introspection with his anthemic inclinations. The result is The Future, the third Night Sweats album but the first to capture this octet’s true depth and breadth. An instant classic of 11 songs, the album presents something more sustainable, interesting, and indeed open—a songwriter and band growing into bigger questions and sounds, into a future that allows them to remain recognisable but be so much more compelling than some denim-clad caricature.

ST PAUL & THE BROKEN BONES

A fever dream in sonic form, St. Paul & The Broken Bones’ new album The Alien Coast represents the most adventurous and original output yet from an ever-evolving musical powerhouse. In a profound shift for the Alabama-bred eight-piece—Paul Janeway (vocals), Jesse Phillips (bass), Browan Lollar (guitar), Kevin Leon (drums), Al Gamble (keyboards), Allen Branstetter (trumpet), Chad Fisher (trombone), and Amari Ansari (saxophone)—the band’s fourth full-length and first for ATO Records strays far from the time-bending soul of past work like their 2014 debut, arriving at a convergence of soul and psychedelia, stoner metal and funk. At turns explosive, elegant, and unhinged, that sound makes for a majestic backdrop to St. Paul & The Broken Bones’ visceral exploration of the strangest dimensions of the human psyche.

“This album has some of the more strange musical ideas I’ve ever come up with, and I’m proud that we were all excited to swing for the fences and not really worry about getting too weird.” 

With the release of The Alien Coast, one of St. Paul & The Broken Bones’ greatest ambitions is to provide their audience with the same sense of unbridled possibility and purposeful abandon they felt in making the album. “I hope the record takes people on a journey and tests their boundaries a bit,” says Janeway. “I’d love for it to be almost like a gateway drug, where it opens a door that people weren’t willing to open—or maybe weren’t even aware of—and through that they get to experience all these beautiful moments they never would’ve expected.” 

VINTAGE TROUBLE

Since forming in 2010, Vintage Trouble have become Rock ‘n’ Roll’s best kept secret. Distilling swaggering rock, soulful blues, R&B grooves, and pop ambition into a bold and brash brew, the quartet—Ty Taylor (vocals), Nalle Colt (guitar), Rick Barrio Dill (bass), and Richard Danielson (drums) — have logged 3,000 shows across 30 countries on tour with divinities such as The Who, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Lenny Kravitz, and Bon Jovi, to name a few.

Along the way, Vintage Trouble performed on Later… with Jools Holland, Jimmy Kimmel LIVE!, David Letterman, Conan, The View, and The Tonight Showin addition to receiving acclaim from New York Times, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, Billboard, Rolling Stone, and more.

They return to the Bluesfest stage in 2023 after their unforgettable performance in 2019! Catch them on Good Friday & Easter Saturday!

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Photo – Lachlan Douglas

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About Bluesfest Byron Bay

Bluesfest will take place over 5 days from Thursday 6th to Monday 10th April 2023 at the Byron Events Farm, Tyagarah, NSW, AUSTRALIA.

All 5-Day Season tickets, including festival entry, camping & add-ons, parking and VIP are on sale now via the Bluesfest website.

Bluesfest is Australia’s most awarded music festival and has been recognised as one of the TOP 10 Festivals of the Decade by industry bible, Pollstar in 2021. From the humble beginnings in 1990 the festival now takes place at the beautiful Byron Events Farm (formerly the Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm), regularly attracting an audience of over 100,000. Located just 10 minutes north of Byron Bay, NSW, Australia, Bluesfest is well situated and surrounded by the charming village of Mullumbimby and the beach towns of Byron Bay and Brunswick Heads. Best festival vibes ever!  

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Photo – Kurt Peterson

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AMNPLIFY – DB