Nicky Bomba’s steel pans are heading to Creswick for CresFest 2027
Steel pans and a Japanese shamisen are bound for Creswick’s heritage halls, with CresFest 2027 dropping its first line-up.
Bustamento leads the first wave for CresFest 2027, which runs in the Goldfields town from 2–4 April. Four-time ARIA winner Nicky Bomba fronts the calypso-reggae band, and they don’t travel light: there’s a brass section and a set of steel pans on the truck. Joining them are The Spooky Men’s Chorale, who swing between serious harmony singing and absurd comedy, and First Nations duo Stiff Gins, now more than 20 years into making music together.
CresFest 2027
- 2–4 April 2027
- Creswick, Victoria
- Public tickets on sale 1 November 2026
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Ainslie Wills is also on the bill, as are blues, roots and soul band Checkerboard Lounge and First Nations folk-pop duo Microwave Jenny. For Ballarat, the big one is The Dead Salesmen Duo. The band formed just down the road in the late 1980s and rarely plays live these days, so this one counts as a homecoming.
Further down the CresFest 2027 program, the passport stamps start piling up. Andrea Kirwin plays Fijian folk and Fuá da Tita bring Brazilian forró, while Glasgow duo Roo & Neil take care of the Scottish material. Banjo player Allison de Groot pairs up with percussive dancer Nic Gareiss. Melbourne vocal group Akasa add more harmonies to the weekend, and Noriko Tadano plays the shamisen, a three-stringed Japanese lute.
Ngiyampaa songman Pirritu will launch his third studio album at the festival. Interactive First Nations duo Charlie Needs Braces are booked too, along with Skyscraper Stan and Oskar Herbig.
Creswick sits about 90 minutes’ drive from Melbourne, between Daylesford and Ballarat. CresFest skips the big outdoor stages and puts its acts inside the town’s old buildings, with free community events spilling into the streets around the ticketed shows. Earlybirds who buy from 1 November save 15% on day and weekend passes, and kids 12 and under get in free with a child ticket. This is the sixth edition of a festival Beat has followed since its 2023 line-up brought Kutcha Edwards to town, and more names will be added before April.
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