Facilities
What's on site and what isn't — whether you're camping at Bashville or driving out from Birdsville for the day.
A town built
for one week
Birdsville is 35km away. The nearest capital city is more than 1,000km away. Everything you see on site — every toilet block, every bin, every light — was trucked in across the desert and will be trucked back out again.
That shapes what we can offer. There is more here than people expect, and less than a campground closer to town would have. This page is the honest list of both, so you can pack for the gap.
The whole site from the top of Big Red — stage, arena, Plaza and campground
One of the toilet blocks, and one of the Dunny Angels who keep them that way
We love our loos
Composting toilets, in the campground and the Plaza, and around the Concert Area. They are odourless, they use no water and no chemicals, and we have not looked back since we put them in. They are serviced constantly, and they are spotless because of a team of volunteers who have earned the name Dunny Angels.
Hand sanitiser is at every toilet block, with extra stations through the Plaza and the Concert Area.
How to use them
- For a number one, nothing changes
- For a number two, cover it with one scoop of sawdust — it's right outside the block
- Sanitiser on the way out
What goes in
- Poo, wee and toilet paper. That's the whole list
- No wet wipes. They don't break down, and the Dunny Angels spend real time fishing them out
- No chemicals, no inorganic items
- Bins are provided for sanitary items
- Never empty a caravan toilet cassette into them. Blackwater kills the composting process, and the block is out of action for everyone until it is dug out by hand
Why we bother
- They save over 140,000 litres of water every event
- No sewage trucked across the desert
- Only environmentally friendly cleaning products
- What comes out the other end is compost
Recycling,
and what you
take home
There are bins in the Plaza and the Concert Area, and they are for what you carry in your hands while you're there. They are not for campsite rubbish. Everything your camp generates goes home with you, out to the Birdsville tip on the road back to town.
Past crowds have been extraordinary about this. Campsites get left spotless, year after year, and it is a big part of why we are still welcome on this property.
The BRB letters, built from cans collected on site
What we recycle
- Aluminium cans
- PET plastic bottles, 2 litres or smaller — lids off
- Pizza boxes, in their own bins in the Plaza
- Food waste, at the composting stations
- Not glass. There is no glass recycling out here and it cannot go in any bin — see below
Where the bins are
- The Plaza
- The Concert Area
- Nowhere else. There are no bins in the campground, and the ones in the Plaza and Concert Area are for what you're carrying while you're there — not for what your camp produces
Greywater and blackwater
- There is no greywater or blackwater disposal anywhere on site. The rule is the same for both
- This covers dishwater, camp shower water, toilet cassettes and any container holding waste. Catch all of it, store it, and take it to the public dump points in Birdsville
- Bring storage with enough capacity for your whole stay — a 20 litre drum, or a vehicle storage system
- Nothing may be emptied onto the ground. Bashville sits on a certified organic cattle property, and contamination puts that certification at risk
There is no glass recycling at the Bash. Nothing you bring out here in glass can be dealt with on site — it can't go in a recycling bin, it can't go in a rubbish bin, and bags of it break on the person carrying them. Every piece of glass that comes in goes home with you, which is the honest reason we'd rather you left it at home in the first place. The full glass rules are here.
Volunteers working the cans cage. Glass is the one thing that cannot go in any bin here — see the camp rules
The Plaza at dusk
You don't have
to cook
There are food vendors in the Plaza through the festival, and plenty of Bashers never light a stove. But bring your own food as well — queues at peak times are real, and vendors wind down after breakfast on the last morning.
Most vendors take cards, but there are no ATMs out here. Bring cash as a backup.
Firewood and ice, sold on site in limited quantities
Lunch, 1,000km from the nearest city
Both are sold on site, both in limited supply, and both run out. Pre-orders open closer to the festival and we'll put the link here when they do — pre-ordering is the only way to be sure. Collecting firewood on the surrounding property is prohibited, so if you want a fire every night, bring your own.
After dark, and
when something
goes wrong
Lighting
The Concert Area and the Plaza are lit. The campground and Day Parking are not. Bring a torch or a head torch — walking back to a dark campsite among four thousand others is the thing first-timers underestimate most.
Phone and WiFi
There is no mobile reception at the site. Paid WiFi is available in the Plaza and it is the only connection out here. Download anything you need — tickets, maps, the Bash App — before you leave Birdsville.
BashFM 99.9
Bring an FM radio. BashFM carries Bash news, artist interviews, weather and fire updates, and live traffic during roll out. With no phone reception, it's how information actually reaches you out here.
The Info Tent
In the Plaza. Questions, activity bookings and lost property. It also holds the Bash Community Noticeboard — where you leave a note for mates you can't call, which is most of them.
Cash and cards
Most food vendors take cards, but bring cash as well. There's no mobile reception out here, so terminals lean on other connections and they don't always hold. There are no ATMs — the merchandise tent has EFTPOS and offers cash out.
Medical
The Bash Medical Centre is in the Plaza, staffed by doctors, paramedics and nurses from Queensland Health. In an emergency, call the Control Room on CB Channel 5 — it is monitored 24 hours a day while patrons are on site.
The Bash Medical Centre is not a pharmacy, and there is no pharmacy in Birdsville either. The nearest one is 625km away in Quilpie, and the nearest hospital is 700km away in Mt Isa. Bring every medication you take, in the quantity you'll need, plus a margin. If you use medical equipment overnight it has to run on a battery system you can charge between 8am and 8pm, because there is no powered camping.
What's not here
Ten things this site does not have. None of them are a surprise once you know — all of them are a problem if you don't.
Most of this turns into a packing list. The camping page has the full one, by category, and you can tick it off as you load the car.
Staying Friday
night?
Roll out runs from 7am Friday 9 July to midday Saturday 10 July, and staying that last night costs nothing extra. It's the quietest the desert gets all week. But the town starts packing up around you, so plan for it.
The ones we
get asked most
Where to next
Built, used,
and taken away
Everything on this page exists for one week, then leaves no trace on a working cattle station. 2027 is the last time it goes up.