Five years in, Great Southern Nights isn't slowing down. It's sprawling.
Running 1–17 May, Great Southern Nights, Australia’s only state-wide live music initiative is taking over more than 200 venues across NSW, from Sydney and Newcastle down to Wollongong and the South Coast, west to Dubbo and Wagga Wagga, and north to Tamworth, Byron Bay and Brunswick Heads.
Check out our gig guide, our festival guide, our live music venue guide and our nightclub guide. Follow us on Instagram here.
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Great Southern Nights
- When: 1–17 May 2026
- Where: 200+ venues across NSW, including Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong, Dubbo, Tamworth, Wagga Wagga, Byron Bay, Brunswick Heads, South Coast and Orange
This year’s wider program reads like someone raided a very good record collection and gave everything a NSW postcode.
Thundercat brings his bass-driven cosmic jazz to Sydney. Meg Mac, one of Australia’s most distinctive voices, is on the bill alongside Genesis Owusu, whose genre-defying live show has been turning heads internationally.
Baker Boy heads to Dee Why RSL. Ball Park Music, The Jungle Giants and Peking Duk are in for the dance-floor contingent, while Augie March, Pete Murray, Gordi, Jack River and Hatchie cover the more introspective end of the spectrum.
Regurgitator, Dune Rats and WAAX are there for anyone who needs things louder.
There’s country and roots from Kasey Chambers, Steph Strings and Amber Lawrence, and soul and RnB from Emma Donovan, Wilsn and Vv Pete.
Even The Whitlams are doing an orchestral run with the Sydney Philharmonic, which sounds exactly as good as it should.
Groovin the Moo is back, and it’s heading to Lismore
Groovin the Moo has been gone a while, but it hasn’t been forgotten.
The festival that spent two decades proving regional communities deserved the same lineups as capital cities returns on 9 May with a one-off show at Oakes Oval on Widjabul/Wia-bal Country in Lismore, operating in a stripped-back single-stage, single-day format.
It’s a considered re-entry rather than a full comeback lap, and Lismore was chosen deliberately: the city has a deep creative identity and has had a genuinely hard few years.
Groovin the Moo being there means something beyond the music. Two dollars from every ticket sold goes to local charity Our Kids, and Lismore locals get exclusive access to a Homegrown Groovers presale.
Lineups are still to be announced, so keep an eye on that one.
Groovin the Moo Lismore
- When: 9 May 2026, 11am–10pm
- Where: Oakes Oval, Widjabul/Wia-bal Country, Lismore
- All ages
Live Fest is new, regional and worth the drive
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Live Fest Dubbo
- When: Saturday 2 May 2026
- Where: Lazy River Estate, Dubbo
- All ages, licensed
Live Fest Tamworth
- When: Saturday 9 May 2026
- Where: Tamworth Entertainment Centre, Tamworth
Also fresh for 2026 are the Great Southern Nights Live Fest events, two separate all-day lineups in Dubbo and Tamworth built around the idea that some shows are worth planning a whole weekend around.
On 2 May, Dubbo’s Lazy River Estate hosts a lineup of genuine Australian music royalty: Paul Kelly, Missy Higgins, The Cruel Sea, The Cat Empire, Kasey Chambers and Jess Hitchcock.
Multiple ARIA Hall of Fame inductees, more than 60 combined studio albums, and rolling vineyards running down to the Macquarie River as the backdrop.
It’s an all-ages, licensed event, and it opens Great Southern Nights 2026 in about as strong a fashion as you could hope for.
The following Saturday, 9 May, Tamworth Entertainment Centre gets Lime Cordiale, Jet, The Living End, Thelma Plum and Kita Alexander.
A bill that opens with Lime Cordiale’s easy, infectious energy, moves through Jet’s guitar-forward crowd-pleasers and The Living End’s chaotic punk-rock, then lands with Thelma Plum and Kita Alexander doing the kind of emotionally precise indie-pop that cuts right through. Dust off the dancing shoes.
Great Southern Night Gig Trails: the whole neighbourhood is the venue
Rounding out the program are the Great Southern Nights Gig Trails, which do away with the idea of a single venue entirely.
Instead, entire neighbourhoods become the stage: bars, laneways, rooftops, hidden nooks, all hosting pop-up sets, buskers, surprise performances and whatever else the local venues decide to do with the night.
Newcastle’s Midtown trail returns, and three new locations debut in 2026, with Chippendale, Port Kembla and Newtown/Enmore all joining the map for the first time.
- Newcastle: Friday 1 May, 5pm–late, 11 venues across Midtown including Bernies Bar, JAMS and King Street Hotel
- Chippendale: Saturday 9 May, 1pm–late, including Gin Lane, Sneaky Possum, The Lord Gladstone Hotel and The Lansdowne Hotel
- Port Kembla: Saturday 9 May, 12pm–late, including The Servo, The Shave Cave, NASA Gallery and Black Metal Motor Co
- Newtown/Enmore: Saturday 16 May, 2pm–late, including Hive Bar, Rising Sun Workshop, The Duke of Enmore and Young Henry’s
No set times. No single stage. Just a neighbourhood, a good crew and however long your legs last.
For more information, head here.
This article was made in partnership with Great Southern Nights.
