The Wandering Tops: Birdsville, Big Red Bash 2018

Big Red Bash concert area with Big Red in the background

Road into Birdville was not too bad and were surprised to see a green Common area between Birdsville and the Diamantina River, plus some kerbing and green medium strips in town!! Camped on the Common and caught up with WA couple who we met at Betoota, also volunteers at the Big Red Bash. Joining our camp area was Hack and Jody friends from Kingaroy, Qld. Had a few days before we were able to check into Bashville (Big Red site where the concert was held) so had a Training Day for volunteers in Birdsville. All very excited - Hels was in the Merchandising Area having three shifts in Birdsville and one out at Bashville. I had a very important job of Camp Toilet Monitor, with all of my shifts at the Bashville site!

Sunset over Big Red. The organisers had erected a sign with various destinations on the top.

A bit of history;
In 2012, The Founder of the Birdsville Big Red Bash, Greg Donovan, took on a global running challenge, the 4 Deserts Series, which involved running 250km across each of the 4 deserts around the world - Chile, China, the Sahara in Africa and Antarctica. The runs were undertaken to raise funds to contribute to medical research for Type 1 Diabetes, a lifelong incurable disease which his youngest son suffers from. Having completed all 4 overseas desert runs in a single year (known as the 4 Desert Grand Slam), Greg wanted to complete 5 in one year and wanted to do the 5th run on Australian soil. He established Australia's first ever multi-day desert running event, the Big Red Run, through the Simpson Desert and based out of Birdsville. To celebrate the first ever Big Red Run in 2013, and entertain runners and volunteers John Williamson performed a sunset concert on top of Big Red. When word spread about the performance a lot of people wanted to experience this unique performance, so it was decided to sell some tickets to the general public. A crowd of approx 600 gathered on the 8th July 2013 for an amazing sunset concert - so many people felt that this was such a stunning location to experience live music, plans were put in place to hold a 2 day festival in July 2014 which was called the Big Red Bash. The organisers decided to make the most of the set up and announced more artists and access to two-days of onsite camping as well. The staging and concert area was to be set on top of Big Red again but predicted high winds led to a last minute decision to relocate the stage to the base of Big Red. This turned out to be very popular and has been located here ever since - the huge dune created a great stage backdrop. With about 1,200 people attending in 2014 (well short of numbers to cover costs) a decision was made to increase investment in the event for 2015. Jimmy Barnes came on board as the headline artist and word quickly spread about the Rock Concert in the Simpson Desert. With a huge line up of Australian artists the attendance increased to 3,000 people and increased again in 2016 to 7,000 people (pre event rain required the concert to be relocated to Birdsville main oval). 2017 marked the first year for the newly named Bashville campsite at Big Red - an arc shaped campsite set out with separation of walkways and roads, with a large plaza behind the concert area. Heading in 2017 was Missy Higgins and Lee Kernhagan plus other great Australian artists incl Russel Morris, Kate Ceberano, James Reyne etc.

This year the line up was:

Tues 10/7 Busby Marou, Adam Brand;
Wed 11/7 Amber Lawrence, Travis Collins, The Wolfe Brothers, Russell Morris, The Angels, Hoodoo Gurus;
Thurs 12/7 Black Sorrows, Kate Ceberano, Jon Stevens, Daryl Braithwaite, John Farnham.

The Crack Up Sisters were MC and very funny entertainers over the 3 days.
Approx attendance number = 9,000 patrons plus nearly 450 volunteers!! At the Concert Plaza there were quite a few vendors - variety of food, RFDS info plus many more exhibitor stalls. Also offering were camel rides, helicopter flights, beach volleyball, dune surfing, movie on the big screen, Mal Leyland speaking on his adventures, particularly the crossing of the Simpson Desert in 1966.

Helen ready for her first shift in her volunteer gear, a bit like dropping your child at the first day of school!

Saturday 7/7 was Helen's first 5 hour shift in Birdsville so I dropped her off in the afternoon and drove out to Bashville to set up camp. Road out was not too bad and Volunteer camping area was quite close to the Concert Venue. Apparently Jody was running after me to show where they had camped however I had already spotted our WA friend's (Des and Jan) van so set up next to them. Already the dust was begining to blow around however soon found out that it increased 100% once the concert audience drove in on the 10/7. Bit of a problem with Helen when she finished her shift as she got a ride home with a fellow worker however had no idea where I had camped - I walked up to the top of Big Red as you could get a mobile signal, trouble was she forgot to look at her phone in Birdsville to get my message. She had a bit of wandering around before just on dusk, she found her new home! Happy Hour was in full swing by this time with Des, Jan, Hack and Jody! With her first shift of 5 hours she was absolutely buggered and retired early to bed!

After the first shift Helen was early to bed with her souvenir rug purchased that day.

This was the volunteers camp before the patrons arrived. we are camped near the back row about the middle of the picture.

Helen had another 5 hour day the next day, followed by 4 hrs the following day. On her last day of work in Birdsville I drove in taking another lady who worked with Helen. Noticed the increase of cars/caravans/camper trailers etc all waiting to enter the concert site the next day. The dust was increasing and the access road was becoming very corrugated and very sandy in places with the volume of vehicles. While Helen worked I topped up with water and fuel, had a pie at the Bakery and spent a few hours in the Birdsville Pub!! On the way back to Bashville we came across a car and trailer which was bogged in the soft sand - 2 young ladies (tight jeans and tops) which I was only too happy to assist!! They were towing a coffee van and had no idea of driving in soft sand - thought I might get a free coffee for helping them!! Unfortunately they were not vendors but helping out a friend in the Pizza stall. Helen said if they were older ladies I may not have made such a fuss of helping them out!!! Back home we got the fire going and enjoyed the company of another camper Debbie from Portland, a second time volunteer.

Line into the bakery was out to the road and they eventually ran out of pies.

From opposite the pub the line for fuel went back out of town to the common area.
Police were directing traffic into each of the 2 service stations until one ran out of fuel.
I had heard on the radio it took 2 hours in the line before getting fuel.

My volunteer role was Camp Toilet Monitor consisting of about 13 hours over 2 days. I was going to be Water Truck driver however the organisers changed the toilet system from wet (portaloos) to dry, waterless long drops sourced from Natural Events. www.naturalevent.com.au/ My prestige job as water truck driver was scrapped and now I'm Camp Toilet Monitor!! My first thoughts were, what a let down but how wrong was I. Day one arrived for my first 8 hour shift and was allocated a block of 20 or so toilets to monitor and educate patrons on how to use the dry toilet. Basically I made a little ditti; "If you want to pee, please feel free, if you want to poop then use a scoop" of sawdust after the poop. This was used to breakdown the solids which you deposited into a wheelie bin. The system proved to be very successful, very clean and odorless. I did find a couple of little hiccups on the first shift! It was a windy day and the cubicles without a roof created some sort of vacuum which sucked the toilet paper up when you tried to place it in the bin after your 'deposit'. I also had one "client" advise me that there was about 10 meters of paper blowing in the wind out of one cubicle. The other issue occurred when you tried to tip the sawdust in, it was also sucked out. Anyway Hamish the inventor of this system came and had a look and instigated a roof on all the cubicles which solved the "wind" problem!

This is the row of cubicles - you walk up 4 steps and sit on the throne over a wheelie bin.

Early morning sun on Big Red, and the access road turning into bull dust as a result of traffic.

2018 Big Red Bash Concert was sold out with approx 9,000 people attending and 450 volunteers. The mornings were absolutely freezing (found ice on the windscreen one morning) with the days warming up but certainly not hot weather. The wind eased off for the concert performances although once that sun went down, jumpers, coats, beanies and even rugs were required!

On the 12/7 which was the last day of the concert the Guiness Book of Records largest number of people dancing to Tina Turner's classic Nutbush was broken. 1,719 people took part in the challenge beating the original record of 522. Was a great fundraiser for the RFDS with $5 entry fee. Quite a few people paid their entry fee however if they could not perform the dance proficiently they had to be sidelined - very technical when competing for the Guiness Book of Record.

View from Big Red over the concert area with the 4,000 plus caravans camped around.

All types of camp setups from the biggest to this Suzuki Mighty Boy and tent, probably the smallest.

Stage area setup, awaiting for the concert goers to arrive.

Concert area full and concert underway! Big Red made an excellent back drop.

As the night darkened the lights lit up the stage, with large screens each side.

Large screens really helped everyone have a great view.

John Farnham was one of our favourite performers, a fitting way to finish the 3 days.

The Crack up Sisters doing one of their daily shows in the Plaza.

Some dressed up for the concert.

The King and Queen dressed up to raise money for the RFDS
The Bilby mascot was sitting on the throne, a toilet seat!.

Another fantastic fund raiser for the RFDS was Bashville Drags followed by Fashions in the Desert allowing revellers to dress in Queen of the Desert attire. The Drags is a running race with the starting line at the top of Big Red sand dune and follows the track down and into the Concert Area. What a heap of fun with competitors going to great lengths with their costumes - some guys looked awfully comfortable in their outfits!!!

Assembled at the top of Big Red for the start

Some of the first competitors down the sand dune.

This was a team effort.

This Priscilla Bus didn't win the Drag race but was awarded Queen of the desert in the Fashion Parade

Sunrise over a great event

We thoroughly enjoyed experiencing the Big Red Bash and would recommend volunteering for this event. It was run so professionally we knew exactly when and where to go for our shifts and the organisers were genuinely grateful of our help. The performers were brilliant (only a couple we were disappointing in) but overall we left on a high after each nights entertainment. What's even more a credit to the organisers, when we left on the 14/7 you would hardly know that anything of this magnitude was held at this location! It was cold, it was dusty but Helen and I were so glad we were able to experience such an incredible event at one of the most beautiful natural locations.