Bashville camp rules
Bashville is a pop-up desert town on a working organic cattle property. These rules keep it safe, keep it quiet at night, and leave the place as we found it.
The eight that
matter most
If you read nothing else on this page, read these. The detail for each one is further down.
Leave the glass at home
Don't bring it, don't bin it. The only glass on site should be the condiment jars in your camp kitchen.
Quiet from 10:30pm
Music off, voices down. Quiet chats around the fire are fine.
Generators 8am to 8pm
Outside those hours, everything runs on battery.
Vehicles stay put
Once you're parked, your car doesn't move until roll-out.
Campfires are welcome
Safe, controlled, never left unattended.
Take your rubbish
Everything you bring in goes with you to the Birdsville tip.
No blackwater on site
Cassettes and waste go to the dump points near Birdsville.
CB Channel 5
Emergencies only. Monitored 24/7 while patrons are on site.
Leave it at home
Don't bring it, don't bin it.
One bottle smashes and it's gone — straight into the red dirt, where it is almost impossible to find and clean up. Someone finds it later with a bare foot. A basher, a kid, a dog, or one of our crew pulling the site apart after you've gone home.
There is no glass recycling at the Bash. Nothing you bring in glass can be dealt with here, which is why the answer is simply not to bring it.
The rule
- No glass in the Plaza, the Concert Area or any public area
- No glass around your campsite
- No glass in any recycling or general rubbish bin — bags break, and they break on the person carrying them
- No glass left behind when you pack up
- Any glass found at the Concert Area gate is confiscated
The one exception
Your camp kitchen. Oil, sauces, condiment jars — those are fine, and they stay in there. Everything else, leave it at home.
Cans, casks or plastic. Decant before you leave home and you won't have to think about it again. Drink responsibly — anyone intoxicated and causing a nuisance will be removed from the site.
The numbers to remember
Fires, firewood and ash
Bring your own firewood. Collecting wood on the surrounding private property is not allowed. A limited supply is sold on site, through pre-orders.
Keep it a reasonable size. Bonfires aren't permitted. A fire on the ground or in a fire pit are both fine.
Never leave a fire unattended. Not for a set, not for a quick walk to the Plaza. If everyone's leaving the campsite, the fire goes out first.
Put it out with water, not by burying it in sand. Sand holds the heat and someone walks through it the next morning.
Ash can stay. When you pack up, leaving ash on the ground is fine. Rubbish is not.
Structures, generators and fires sit at least 1 metre inside your marked back and side boundaries. Guy ropes can extend a further 40cm. Camping as a group? Two or more adjacent sites can be joined and you're free to use the internal space, but the 1 metre rule still applies to the outside edges, and cooking areas need clear space around them. Marshals are out in the campground and will ask you to move things that aren't right.
What goes where
Blackwater leaves the site. Cassettes, sewage, chamber pots and buckets of waste all go to the dump points near Birdsville. Never into a greywater tank or a composting toilet.
Greywater too. Catch your dishwater and take it to the dump points in town. A limited amount of excess can go into the large collection tanks at each toilet block — bring a container so it doesn't end up on the ground.
Camp showers follow the same greywater rule.
The toilets are odourless composting toilets, in the campground, the Plaza and the Concert Area. Only poo, wee and toilet paper go in — no chemicals, nothing inorganic. There are bins for sanitary items, and hand sanitiser to use before and after.
Rubbish. There are bins in the Plaza and Concert Area as you walk around. Campsite rubbish is different: it all goes with you to the Birdsville tip, on the road back to town. No glass in your rubbish bags.
Recycling bins for aluminium cans, PET bottles and pizza boxes are in the Plaza, the Concert Area and the campground toilet blocks. Glass is not recycled here and must not go in any bin.
Cars, bikes and scooters
Your car stays where you park it. Vehicles in the campground stay stationary until general roll-out begins at 7am on Friday 9 July 2027. If you need your car during the Bash, that's what Day Parking is for — see vehicle passes for how it works.
E-bikes and e-scooters are welcome everywhere except the Concert Area, as long as they have pedals. The speed limit is 10km/h, and there's bike parking near the concert gates. Sand tyres make a real difference in soft sand. There's no public charging, so you'll need your own generator, within the 8am to 8pm window.
Not permitted: unregistered motorbikes, petrol scooters and quad bikes.
What's not allowed
Anywhere in Bashville
- Drones and UAVs
- Kites
- Chainsaws and power tools
- Weapons, including firearms and whips
- Fireworks
- Unregistered vehicles
Fireworks are taken seriously. If you see someone setting them up, tell an event official or a volunteer — anyone found with them will be evicted.
In the Concert Area
- Glass — confiscated at the gate
- Animals — dogs excepted, under the dog attendance rules
- Metal cutlery, cheese knives included
- Umbrellas, tables, sunshades, tents or anything that blocks the view
- Aerosols
- Folding chairs over 110cm when you're seated
There are bag checks at the gates and prohibited items are confiscated.
Selling anything without authorisation. That includes ice, firewood, alcohol, internet access and Big Red Bash merchandise.
Four things people wish they'd known
There are no showers
Not at Bashville. Wet wipes do the job. In town there are showers at the caravan park for patrons, and opposite the Sports Hall for a small fee.
Bring a head torch
The Concert and Plaza areas are lit. The campground and Day Parking are not, and it gets properly dark out there.
Smoking and vaping
Not within 10 metres of the Concert Area, and take your butts with you.
Aircraft and drones
Only a licensed helicopter and licensed drones operate during the festival. Nothing else flies over the site or the surrounding property.
CB Channel 5. For anything medical or security related, that's the channel. It's monitored 24 hours a day for as long as patrons are on site. Keep it clear for emergencies.