Mundi Mundi Bash: You Are Not Just Watching the Show — You Are Part of It

Come to the Mundi Mundi Bash for the music and you soon discover something unexpected: the concert is only part of the experience.

Out beyond Broken Hill, thousands of people have temporarily exchanged houses, hotels, electricity, showers and ordinary conveniences for campsites on the vast Mundi Mundi Plains.

They have travelled enormous distances to get here.

Some have crossed several states. Some have made the journey part of a much longer road trip. Caravans, motorhomes, camper trailers, four-wheel-drives and tents stretch across the landscape.

And when everyone arrives, something remarkable happens.

For a few days, a temporary Australian town appears in the outback.

It has food vendors, roads, toilets, security, medical services, police, fire services, communications, entertainment and an extraordinary technological infrastructure built around a giant stage.

Then there are the residents.

They have come to listen to music.

But they have also come to be part of Mundi Mundi.

More than a music festival

The easiest way to describe the Mundi Mundi Bash is as a large Australian music festival.

That description is accurate.

It is also inadequate.

Mundi Mundi is simultaneously a concert, camping expedition, road trip, social gathering and enormous logistical exercise.

It attracts families and people of many ages, although one characteristic of the crowd quickly becomes apparent.

There are plenty of older Australians here.

There is a practical reason.

Getting to Mundi Mundi takes time.

For many people it also involves considerable expense. There is fuel, accommodation along the journey, camping equipment, food and the numerous other costs associated with travelling hundreds or thousands of kilometres across Australia.

Retired and semi-retired Australians often possess something equally valuable: time.

They can turn Mundi Mundi into a journey rather than simply an event.

And many do.

The journey is part of the ticket

This is one of the secrets of Mundi Mundi.

You don't simply arrive at a city arena, watch a performance and drive home.

The experience begins long before the first musician walks onto the stage.

Vehicles head towards Broken Hill from across Australia.

People prepare caravans and motorhomes. Friends arrange to meet. Supplies are purchased. Routes are planned.

Then everyone converges on the plains.

By the time the music begins, the audience has already invested considerably more than the price of admission.

They have invested themselves in getting here.

That changes the atmosphere.

Be prepared: this really is camping

Anyone contemplating their first Mundi Mundi Bash should understand something clearly.

This is a camping experience.

Don't arrive expecting a resort cleverly disguised as an outback festival.

There are bush-style composting toilets.

There are no showers provided across the camping experience in the manner someone accustomed to a holiday park might expect.

There is no convenient powered caravan site waiting for every visitor.

Food can be purchased around the concert precinct, but relying entirely upon takeaway meals can become expensive.

Experienced Bash visitors therefore arrive prepared.

Bring your food.

Bring plenty of drinking water.

Bring your preferred drinks.

Bring the equipment necessary to prepare meals.

Bring suitable clothing for outback conditions.

Bring what you need to live independently.

In many respects, Mundi Mundi is BYO life.

That is not a criticism of the event.

It is part of it.

The veterans know the secrets

You can tell that many people have done this before.

Returning visitors understand the rhythm.

They know what to bring, how to establish camp and how to make themselves comfortable in an environment that initially looks remarkably unforgiving.

That experience may also help explain why tickets can disappear quickly.

People who have already experienced Mundi Mundi don't need to be persuaded about what they are buying.

They know.

For prospective visitors, there is a simple lesson:

If you want to come next year, plan early and watch for ticket releases.

Then the plains become a concert venue

Eventually attention turns towards the stage.

And the scale changes again.

The technical achievement is impressive.

A huge stage rises from an otherwise enormous landscape.

Powerful sound systems distribute music across an audience occupying an area that feels more like a sporting field than a conventional concert floor.

The sound quality is remarkably consistent.

Then there are the screens.

Large video screens are positioned so that people sitting considerable distances from the performers can still watch the show.

The quality of the live imagery is striking. Camera work, production and enormous displays transform performers who may physically be distant into an intimate part of the audience experience.

Stand among thousands of chairs and you can still hear.

You can still see.

And when the mood takes you, there is another option.

Head towards the front.

Find the crowd.

Hit the mosh pit.

Suddenly you aren't watching Mundi Mundi from a camping chair.

You're inside it.

The musicians need the audience too

There is another side to the relationship.

Thousands of people have travelled enormous distances because they want to see musicians, singers and bands perform.

But performers also gain something valuable from Mundi Mundi.

They gain an enormous live audience.

For established artists, it is an opportunity to reconnect with people who may have followed them for decades.

For other performers, festivals provide exposure to people who may never previously have heard them.

A musician can arrive with one group of followers and leave having been discovered by thousands more.

Performers can promote their music.

Audiences discover performers.

The promoter needs both.

The audience needs the event.

Local businesses benefit from the visitors.

Broken Hill and the surrounding region gain national attention.

It is symbiosis in action.

Everyone contributes something to the ecosystem that makes Mundi Mundi possible.

Behind the music is a military-scale operation

Perhaps the most easily overlooked aspect of the Bash is what happens behind the audience.

An event of this scale cannot simply be placed in the outback.

It has to be engineered.

Concept.

Planning.

Resources.

Execution.

Coordination.

Then repeat.

Road access has to work.

Vehicles must be directed.

Camping areas must be organised.

Waste has to be managed.

Food operations require oversight.

Security has to be maintained.

Medical emergencies have to be anticipated.

Fire risk has to be managed.

Police must be able to operate.

Rules and regulatory requirements must be satisfied.

Insurance and public liability risks have to be considered.

Thousands of people must somehow arrive, live together and eventually leave.

Seen from that perspective, Mundi Mundi begins to resemble a military logistical operation with a soundtrack.

An entire support system in the desert

Look around and the infrastructure becomes visible.

There are volunteers who have travelled from different parts of Australia.

There are security personnel.

Police have a mobile operational presence.

Fire and emergency capabilities are available.

Paramedics and ambulance services are part of the machinery required to support a temporary population gathered far from the facilities of a capital city.

These people are not the headline act.

Most visitors will hopefully never need some of them.

But an event of this scale could not responsibly operate without them.

The success of Mundi Mundi depends just as much upon what happens behind the stage as what happens on it.

An extraordinary piece of Australian event engineering

Creator and promoter Greg Donovan and his team deserve recognition for something beyond assembling a concert program.

They have created an event people are prepared to cross Australia to experience.

That is an important distinction.

Plenty of concerts can attract an audience from the surrounding suburbs.

Mundi Mundi persuades people to pack a caravan, load a vehicle, organise supplies and head into far western New South Wales.

That requires a powerful proposition.

It also requires an enormous organisation capable of delivering on it.

Communications are another important component. Kylie Edwards and the team at Cardinal Communications help manage the flow of information surrounding an event where good communication is essential.

The Bash also operates within a much wider community and governmental environment, with engagement involving local Indigenous people and support associated with the New South Wales Government and regional stakeholders.

The result is something distinctly Australian.

Come for the music. Remember everything else.

Eventually the final song will be played.

The screens will go dark.

Campers will pack their equipment.

Caravans will reconnect to tow vehicles.

Motorhomes will start moving.

The temporary city will disappear.

People will head towards Broken Hill and then scatter across Australia.

But that may be precisely why Mundi Mundi becomes so memorable.

For several days, everyone shared something that could only exist because they all made the effort to be there.

The performers needed an audience.

The audience wanted the performers.

The promoter brought them together.

Hundreds of workers, contractors, volunteers and emergency personnel made the gathering possible.

And the Australian outback supplied a stage that no stadium could reproduce.

The Times View

Mundi Mundi is more than music.

That is the lesson from experiencing it rather than simply reading the program.

You buy a ticket to see performers.

What you actually purchase is admission to a temporary community.

You travel there.

You camp there.

You eat there.

You meet people there.

You sit beneath an enormous Australian sky and listen to music with thousands of strangers who have made the same improbable journey.

Sometimes you watch from your chair.

Sometimes you head towards the stage and become part of the crowd.

Either way, you are not merely watching the show.

You are immersed in it.

If that sounds appealing, there is one final piece of advice from Mundi Mundi: Get organised early for next year.

The experienced Bash travellers already know why.