The Sydney Morning Herald logo

Live music

Advertisement
Emmaline Carroll Southwell and Freddy Collyer in Beyond the Neck.

A response to the Port Arthur massacre, this is not an easy play to watch

Beyond the Neck underscores the importance of memorialising, reflecting upon, and grappling with the terror and the trauma of public violence at scale.

  • Cameron Woodhead, Sonia Nair, Andrew Fuhrmann, Jessica Nicholas and Tony Way

Latest

Jeff Goldblum’s eccentric rhythm finds its groove at the piano

At 72, Goldblum seems less an actor or musician these days than a meme in the original sense: a kind of agreed cultural constant.

  • Michael Dwyer
Kai Ollmann and Davy Brown (left and right) of Barley Passable, performing with Olivia Dennis, aka DENNIS, in Newtown’s Pleasure Club.

The Sydney venues cradling the next generation of bands

Our city’s legendary pubs gave the likes of AC/DC and Midnight Oil their start – now young artists are forging a new path in a very different live music scene.

  • Kayla Olaya
Eurovision bound: Australian singer Delta Goodrem.

‘This could be a winner’: Delta Goodrem’s Eurovision campaign wows Norway

After a masterclass performance in Norway, Delta Goodrem has vaulted into the top five, as the hunt for Australia’s first Eurovision gold intensifies.

  • Michael Idato
Bluesfest was one of Australia’s oldest and most popular music festivals before it went into administration last week.

PayPal offers refund hope for some Bluesfest ticket holders

The online payment platform has announced it is temporarily relaxing their refund rules to help some ticket holders recoup the money they spent before the festival was unexpectedly cancelled.

  • Nell Geraets and Karl Quinn
Bluesfest

Bluesfest’s collapse leaves many questions. These six demand immediate answers

Confusion and anger has followed the news that the 2026 festival is off and the companies behind it are in liquidation. But Bluesfest chief Peter Noble has yet to respond.

  • Karl Quinn
Advertisement
The Bluesfest crowd in April, 2015.

If the Bluesfest era has ended, I’ve lost something more precious than money

Bluesfest set perilously high standards for itself, which is probably why, in the end, it burnt out instead of fading away.

  • David Free
A conceptual image of the planned 12,000-seat Gold Coast Arena at Southport. The final design has not yet been released.

Gold Coast snags Olympic stadium architects for new $480m arena

Mayor Tom Tate says the 12,000-seat Carey Park arena will give the Gold Coast “first chop” at global acts usually destined for Brisbane.

  • Cameron Atfield
The Pierce Brothers

Artists ‘devastated’, ticket holders out of pocket after Bluesfest cancellation

Thousands of revellers are unlikely to be refunded the festival’s more than $23 million in ticket sales, said the liquidator.

  • Kayla Olaya
Bluesfest 2025 proved a hit, attracting a near capacity crowd.

Bluesfest music festival cancelled as organisers appoint liquidator

Organisers of the northern NSW festival said it was “incredibly difficult” to scrap the April event that was to have featured Split Enz and Earth, Wind and Fire.

  • Kayla Olaya and Karl Quinn