SECOND SELLOUT NIGHT – JOHN WILLIAMSON BIG RED SUNSET CONCERT
Media Release 10 July 2025
(Thursday July 10, 2025) The second and final night of the sold-out John Williamson Big Red Sunset Concerts was staged last night on the 40-metre dune west of Birdsville – the birthplace of the iconic Big Red Bash.
With a sold-out crowd of 1,000 literally at his feet, the legendary performer once again created magic atop the iconic sand dune on the edge of the Simpson Desert.
With the Birdsville Big Red Bash taking a brief pause this year, these two stripped-back shows offered a nostalgic throwback to where and how it all began.
Gone was the massive stage, the multi-day, multi-artist line-up, the 10,000 strong crowd and world record attempts. In their place was Williamson, and support act Amy Ryan, for a special performance on top of a dune carpeted in green from rare unseasonal rains earlier in the year.
Williamson, who turns 80 later this year and is marking 55 years on the road with his “55 YEARS – My Travellin’ Days are Done!” national tour, was in his element.
“I remember that first show in 2013 after Greg’s charity run – there were only a few of us, no big production, just the stars and the sand. The sound was perfect then, and it still is. No hard surfaces, nothing artificial. It’s just you and the country. That’s how my songs were always meant to be heard. It was magical. It’s an honour for me to be only artist to perform on the Big Red sand dune at Birdsville this week,” Williamson said.
On the simple, low stage silhouetted against the stunning sunset, he called out to the crowd, asking where they’d come from with enthusiastic concert goers revealing travel from as far afield as Tasmania and Western Australia.
One of those in attendance on night one was renowned Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith, who was there for Williamson’s very first performance on Big Red in 2013. At 81, Smith chartered a plane from Sydney to make the journey back.
“On July 8 2013 I happened to be sailing on Lake Hope at Coopers Creek,” Smith recalled. “Someone said, ‘Do you know John Williamson’s performing at Birdsville tomorrow night?’ So I jumped into my Cessna and flew over. I sat just a few metres away from him on the dune. It was unforgettable – and now twelve-years on it’s just the same. You can’t get more Australian than John Williamson on a red sand dune on the edge of the Simpson Desert.”
Smith added, “I hope this continues for another hundred years. To me you’re not a real Australian unless you’ve travelled to Birdsville to attend the Big Red Bash. Most Aussies, like me, live clinging to the coast, but our hearts are in the Outback.”
That sentiment was echoed by Greg Donovan, founder of the Birdsville Big Red Bash and its sister festival, the Mundi Mundi Bash, and who pioneered the first Williamson-on-Big-Red show back in 2013.
“I shed a tear last night,” Donovan said. “To be back on this dune, with John, under this sky, with the desert in full bloom… It’s hard to describe. These past two nights have been incredible. It reminded everyone of what made the Bash so special in the first place: the land, the music and the people. That essence lives on in our Bash events and we can’t wait to get back out here next July when the full Big Red Bash festival will return bigger and better than ever.”
This year’s smaller sunset concerts left those lucky enough to secure one of the 1,000 limited tickets per night with a once-in-a-lifetime experience under vast Outback skies, with everyone organisers spoke to vowing to return for the Birdsville Big Red Bash when it runs from 7-9 July 2026.
The John Williamson Big Red Sunset Concerts were proudly supported by the Queensland Government through Tourism and Events Queensland.
EVENT DETAILS
What: John Williamson Big Red Sunset Concerts
Where: Big Red sand dune, 35 km west of Birdsville, QLD
When: July 8 & 9, 2025
Info & Tickets: www.bigredbash.com.au/john-williamson-big-red-sunset-concert-2025
2026 BIRDSVILLE BIG RED BASH
Where: Big Red sand dune, 35 km west of Birdsville, QLD
When: July 7-9, 2026
Info: www.bigredbash.com.au (ticketing and line-up announcement to follow staging of the Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash August 21-23, 2025)
