With Bluesfest and Splendour off the local festival calendar, Mullum’s village-style roots festival is bringing big live music energy back to the Northern Rivers.
Mullumbimby is getting ready to turn into one big music crawl this weekend, with Mullum Roots Festival bringing great music, iconic acts and a whole lot of village buzz back to town.
The festival returns from July 11 to 12 after a sold-out debut in 2025, with organisers expanding this year to include a new venue and more seating.
But the real charm of Mullum Roots is not just who is playing.
It is how people get to experience it.
Instead of a giant festival site, Mullum Roots is spread across venues throughout Mullumbimby village, giving music lovers the chance to wander from place to place, catch big-name acts up close and soak up that old-school pub crawl feeling.
Think familiar streets, small venues, great songs, a groovy village atmosphere and the kind of festival energy where you follow the sound of music around town.
It is live music without the long trudge across a paddock.
Just grab your wristband, wander through Mullum, pop into a venue, discover a new act, relive an old favourite and keep moving with the crowd.
This year’s line-up includes Mental As Anything, Alex Lloyd, Busby Marou, Dave Graney and Clare Moore, Marcia and Damian Howard’s Homemade Jam, Bill Chambers, The Pinks, Hayley Grace and The Bay Collective, local favourites, emerging artists and a Youth Battle of the Bands.
For the Northern Rivers, the timing feels important.
Bluesfest and Splendour in the Grass helped put this part of the world on the national music map for years, drawing crowds, artists and attention to the region’s strong creative culture.
With both events now off the local festival calendar, Mullum Roots offers something different — smaller, more relaxed and woven into the heart of town.
That is what makes it feel so refreshing.
The festival also follows the loss of the old Mullumbimby Music Festival, with earlier event information describing Mullum Roots as part of a push to bring fresh energy back into the town’s music scene.
That history gives this weekend’s event extra meaning.
Mullum Roots is not trying to be the biggest festival in the country. It is bringing the focus back to something simple: great music, small venues, a walkable village and the chance to see iconic Australian acts up close and personal.
For local venues, cafes, shops and accommodation providers, the festival is also a welcome boost — not by building a separate world outside town, but by bringing the energy straight into the streets of Mullumbimby.
At its heart, Mullum Roots is about music, community and atmosphere.
It is the kind of weekend where people can wander through town, bump into friends, hear music spilling out of venues and enjoy the simple pleasure of seeing big acts in small rooms.
Big acts, small venues and a village full of music — that is the Mullum Roots Festival feel.
Tickets, the full program and venue details are available through the Mullum Roots Festival website.