We left Mildura bright and early super excited for the Mundi Mundi Bash. Pretty much as soon as we left Mildura the scenery changed to that of what we would consider the outback. Hardly any trees, red dirt and scrubby little bushes and emus. Although the scenery looks quite desolate the colours are spectacular and one we never seem to tire of. So many different shades of green! The road out to Broken Hill was in really good condition, we think due to several big mines in the area and the road was mostly straight so the 3 hours flew by. The closer we got to Broken Hill the more caravans we saw and by the time we drove into town there was a steady stream of us filing in. There were over 4000 caravans going so no wonder! Although we didn’t see much of the town it was apparently the first heritage listed town in Australia so we are looking forward to exploring it after the festival. We had to stop off at the racecourse to pick up our tickets and we knew straight away that the festival was going to be run like a well oiled machine due to the way they had even set up parking and lines to just get the tickets. We were expecting a bit of a wait but we’re back in the car and driving the 1/2 an hour out to the festival in no time.
They had received over 20mm of rain in the lead up so those who had arrived a day early were actually delayed as there was water over the road and the red dirt had turned to mud. But fortunately once the sun came out it dried up pretty quickly and our drive in was uneventful. The really amazing thing about the Mundi Mundi Bash is that it is a pop up festival so there is literally nothing there other than red dirt and bindis before set up and when it’s packed up there is not a trace. The festival is designed in a semi circle with the stage in the middle and then everything fans out in half circles from there. The food trucks and clothes stalls are on the inner most ring and then the campers are all fanned out behind that. From the sky it’s quite an impressive sight to see, especially because it is in the middle of nowhere. When we arrived we were ushered over to the Pet friendly section where we were met by a lovely volunteer who ended up chatting us us for about half an hour before he had us parked in our allocated spot.
As we were one of the late comers we were pretty much on the outmost ring which meant we did get a little bit extra room which was nice, though even if you were in one of the busy sections you still got more room than we have had at some campsites. Once we set up we headed into the festival, which was a bit of a trek for us at about 1km to get to the stage.
It was great being able to take Griff and those with dogs even had their own section to sit in. There is no seating provided at all so everyone brings along their camp chairs and sets up just relaxing and watching the bands. You also had to bring your own alcohol. Anything you wanted just no glass. It was such an amazing experience just sitting back with thousands of other people and the atmosphere was incredible. Everyone was happy and smiling and willing to be patient and give everyone their space. There were no idiots and we didn’t see an altercation the whole time we were there.
If you wanted to get up and go to the front which was standing room only or go for food or back to your caravan you just left your chair and esky and what ever else you wanted and nobody moved or disturbed it. It was such an awesome vibe. The food trucks that were available were serving fantastic food such as paella, smoked brisket, dumplings, baked potatoes, vegan gyros, the list goes on. We had stocked our freezer full of meals we had made but didn’t use any of them.
The music didn’t start until around 1pm each day so we had the mornings to explore. I went to yoga sessions pre breakfast which was fun and we also rode our bikes around the site. We put our tracker on while riding and it was 1.6 Kms from one end of the semi circle to the other! They also had a few world record attempts during the day, one being the most number of people doing the nutbush. We entered in that one and Tim got a crash course on how to do the dance. There were thousands of us lined up and it was hilarious. We ended up on one end of the line and I had Griff with me so that was a lesson in coordination on how to do the dance and make sure I didn’t either step on the dog or trip up on his lead. The rest of the day we had people coming up to us recognising Griff and saying they saw him doing the nutbush. 😂😂. They also broke the world record for number of Mad Max characters in one spot. Unfortunately we couldn’t enter that one as the costumes were very specific and none that we could russle up in the short space of time we had. The reason why they did Mad Max characters is because the original movie was shot out on the Mundi Mundi plains.
Griff also got lots of walks in the bush. There were lots of burs and bindis however so we had to get him some little shoes to protect his feet. These were the most adorable things you have seen but Griff wasn’t that much of a fan. Though I will give it to him he didn’t try and pull them off like a lot of the other dogs did and he did get used to them. After morning walks and rides etc we would then go in with our chairs and esky and Griff and sit back and watch some of the early acts. We would then come home, get our warmer clothes on as it got pretty chilly when the sun went down, drop Griff off at the camper as he would be knackered and then off Tim and I went back to the festival for some more fun.
The music itself was not exactly bands that we would seek out to watch though we thoroughly enjoyed listening to some old 80s Aussies rockers. It is amazing how many songs I knew without knowing I knew if that makes any sense. It did help that I have a bunch of older siblings who played 80’s rock constantly when I was a kid. A real highlight was John Williamson who is an old very iconic bush musician and it was surreal listening to him out in the outback setting. Gave you goosebumps. The show was headlined by Paul Kelly and he was amazing. Made especially so by his backup vocalists Vika and Linda who had some incredible voices.
Just before Paul Kelly played, a storm that had been brewing behind the stage came over us and it started to rain. It was crazy scenes for a while as people were running everywhere but luckily Tim and I had our rain jackets so we popped them on and made our way closer to the front of the stage. Luckily it didn’t last long and other than a bit of mud underneath there was no damage done. Other than that little bit of rain the weather for the whole was pretty good. We did have some strong winds for most of the festival and as we were on the outskirts we copped the brunt of it. We should have realised it was going to be windy considering there were about 20 wind turbines on top of one of the nearby hills. It just meant that we had to set up a few of our walls and we didn’t risk a fire.
Everyone who we had spoken to who had gone to the Birdsville Big bash had raved about it and it was a deciding factor on us purchasing these tickets to come out to the Mundi Mundi one. Although it cost us a fortune it was worth every cent and we could not recommend it more. Honestly we are looking at future dates and trying to work out where we will be and if we can make it to the next Birdsville one as it is apparently bigger and better. If we do manage to make it out we will volunteer next time as not only do you get free tickets the volunteers are the ones who seem to have the most fun as there is a real community/family vibe between them all. If you ever find yourself out in the outback near a Big Red Bash then I suggest you go buy your tickets and you will not be disappointed! S
