Blue Mountains Music Festival returns to Katoomba in 2027 with more than 100 performances, seven stages and a first lineup stacked with folk, roots and blues.
Sydney has no shortage of gigs, but there is something undeniably better about swapping the usual crawl between venues for a train or drive into the mountains, landing in Katoomba and spending the next day or two bouncing between bands.
That is where Blue Mountains Music Festival comes in.
Running since 1995, the three-day festival takes over a pocket of Katoomba each March, with seven undercover stages all sitting within a few minutes’ walk of one another.
No sprawling festival site, no half-hour trek to catch the next act, just a lot of music packed into a very manageable corner of town – and a very good looking corner of town at that.
And the first 2027 lineup gives you plenty to work with.
US duo The Milk Carton Kids lead the international contingent, bringing their close harmonies and quietly devastating folk songs to the mountains, while English folk mainstay Kate Rusby is also locked in.
Grace Petrie brings the kind of sharp, politically charged songwriting that has made her one of the UK folk scene’s most distinctive voices, while Scottish outfit Skerryvore should push things firmly into bigger, more anthemic territory.
Elsewhere, Irish singer-songwriter Eleanor McEvoy joins Ron Block and Damien O’Kane, alongside Brett Newski, Babes In Canyon, Alice Howe & Freebo and Canadian songwriter Kristina Olsen.
The Australian side of the bill is equally solid, with Dom Turner & Jeff Lang, Stiff Gins, Microwave Jenny and Gusto Gusto among the first names announced.
View this post on Instagram
Across the weekend, more than 100 performances will unfold from Friday night through to Sunday, giving the festival the kind of depth where wandering into something you had no intention of seeing is half the point.
And because the whole thing happens in Katoomba itself, you can actually make a night – or a weekend – around it.
Catch a band, head out for food, dig through an op shop, find a pub, wander back for another set.
There are bushwalks and lookouts if you are feeling ambitious the next morning, and enough cafes around town to recover properly before round two.
One hundred performances, mountain air and a lineup already worth travelling for.
That will do nicely.
Blue Mountains Music Festival returns to Katoomba in March 2027, with full-weekend, day and night tickets available now.
The full festival program will be released closer to the event.
