The biggest 12-hour party in Darwin, BASSINTHEGRASS, has only just wrapped for 2021 – the first one back since the spicy lung showed up – and tickets are already on sale for next year’s big hoon.
After a very much sold-out festival at the start of the Top End’s dry season, it’s no surprise that that first release of early bird tickets have already flown out the door.
Considering we’ve spent the last year in some form of lockdown or social distancing, suddenly being allowed to be around about 14,000 other punters in the thick of a festival felt utterly surreal.
Not only that, but crossing state lines to go to an open-slather festival? In Darwin of all places? Unheard of. Incredible.
Popping up at Mindil Beach – which legit gets the best sunsets in town – BASSINTHEGRASS has been kicking on in Darwin since 2003, and is hands down the biggest music festival in the NT.
I was lucky enough to get along to the festival this year, which coincidentally was also my first festival since March 2020, and let me tell you: it was so much fun.
There was an electric buzz in the air as people felt free to dance, sing and hoon around together en masse – equally liberating and naughty at the same time.
The line up brought some of the best Australian music to the Top End, proving you don’t have to have a bursting bill of international fly-ins to put on a red-hot show.
If you’ve been to Darwin, or know someone who’s been, before, you’ll know about the Mindil markets. Think of BASSINTHEGRASS as the bi-weekly markets but with 12 full hours of huge bands, DJs, and artists smashing out sets.
The regular market strip is packed full of food options (importantly, chip on a stick) local businesses, and bars. Most importantly, there’s a stretch of beach roped off for festival punters to sit and watch the sunset – which is at 6.29pm every bloody day.
Darwin’s one of the other places you can 100% watch the sun set over the water, and there’s truly nothing like knocking back a Red Bear (which stunningly still exist) and cheering as the sun turns into a giant red orb and slips into the ocean.
I mean come on.
If you’re keen as to yeet out of the late autumn (or very early winter, if you’re in Melbourne) and get to the warmth and not-too-oppressive humidity of the tropical side of the NT, lock yourself in a ticket over on the festival’s website.
A ticket will set you back $110 for general admission, and are on sale until the day of the festival – but let’s be real, they’ll probably sell out pretty soon.
See you in the NT, kents.
