Dog Trumpet To Headline Final Nimbin Roots Festival

Pete and Reg’s Dog Trumpet has taken top billing for the 10th birthday of the Nimbin Roots Festival but there is some bad news attached, it will also be the last year of the festival.

“After 10 years and tens of thousands of attendees who have found their way to the beautiful, alluring, family-friendly and endlessly fascinating village of Nimbin for our festival, it’s a bitter-sweet decision to end the annual event,” founder Lou Bradley said. “We started Nimbin Roots Festival in 2016 when we were struggling to find a festival that wasn’t too big
and wasn’t too small to play at, to perform my original music.”

The Nimbin Roots Festival for 2025 also features (Lizzie) Mack and (Murray) Cook, The Audreys, Paul Greene, Kingfisha, Mungo Fungo (Ben from Regurgitator offshoot), Hussy Hicks, Wild Marmalade, Emily Lubitz (Tinpan Orange), Allison Forbes, Joshua Lee Wright, Thirst Trap, The Golden Gaytimes and many more.

Check out the Noise11 Dog Trumpet ‘Live Forever’ interview:

The Nimbin Roots Festival is on 24-26 October 2025.

https://nimbinrootsfest.com/artists/

A statement from Lou Bradley

We raised our family in Huonbrook in the hills of Mullumbimby.

In 2016, when the kids left and moved to Sydney, Phil (my husband and partner in life, adventure and music)
and I decided to move over the hill to Barkers Vale on the outskirts of Nimbin. At the time, we were both
struggling musicians. We’d lost our property in Huonbrook to the bank and were living in a tiny blue shed in
Barkers Vale. We had no money and even though I had a good few juicy accolades under my belt, it was
virtually impossible to find music work unless you were a tribute show.

So we decided on two things. First, we wanted to create an opportunity for musicians like us who couldn’t find
any gigs or festivals for original music. The festival process at that time favoured the most popular artists and
it was very difficult to compete. So in the little blue shed we came up with the idea of having a festival in
Nimbin – the place where commercialism, success, gentrification and smoke and mirrors didn’t exist. A place
where the arts and an alternative disposition was normal. The perfect place for us to take a leap of faith.

Secondly, because we didn’t have any money, we decided we’d go to the outback and hunt for work. We’d
done that years before when I received a grant from John Butler to tour the outback. And the late, great Joy
McKean always told me to go far and wide looking to play if I had to.

So we set off with Winton QLD as our destination. We had some work lined up playing in a poets shed seven
days a week for six weeks.

Before we left, we drummed up the poster art for our new dream Nimbin Roots Festival. I started a Facebook
page for it and we made a plan with the artists. If by June we hadn’t sold 200 tickets, then we’d have to cancel.

They were okay with that.

But our outback work took us all the way to the Northern Territory, to Daly Waters Pub, where we struck up a
relationship with the owners and the crowds and before we knew it, we’d somehow sold over 400 tickets to
Nimbin Roots Festival which by this time was a long way back in our dreaming.

When it was time to leave the NT, we had 1000 tickets sold. We came home to Nimbin, excited, nervous and
inspired!People just seemed to love our festival ethos of all of the acts being on the same playing field – without an
actual playing field! There were no headline acts for years.

And every year since then, we would go to the Northern Territory and play 100 shows in 100 days to put in the
kitty in case of any festival shortfall.

Today, we do have headline-ish acts. We’ve had Shane Howard, Ross Wilson, Neil Murray, Jeff Lang…96% of
the audience come from outside the region, way outside the region. They come and enjoy beautiful, eclectic
Nimbin and you can tell that they really love the family festival vibe. We have a very small team. Even my
Mum sells the t-shirts.

By the end of each festival it’s like we’ve extended our family. Everyone always comments on the quality,
diversity and the warmth and fuzziness of Nimbin Roots Festival.

And yet with all that said, we are moving on to something a bit bigger, a bit more accessible, with the
certainty that we won’t ever lose our original inspiration and ethos. Please come along to this 10th and final
Nimbin Roots Festival – and then join us next July at our 2nd Mullum Roots Festival!

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Tagged as: 80s, alternative, Australia, Dog Trumpet, indie, Live Forever, live music, Mental As Anything, Nimbin Roots Festival, Peter O'Doherty, Reg Mombassa