The 2025 edition of Adelaide Beer & BBQ Festival (ABBF) will officially be the last in its current form – but it’s going out with a bang.
The event, which is one of Australia’s most beloved independent festivals, was founded in 2015 by three mates with a shared love of beer, food, and music. In the last ten years, ABBF has welcomed more than 150,000 punters through the gates, showcasing more than 400 breweries and small businesses.
“We want to put on the biggest and best party of the past decade, and we need your help to do it,” Festival Co-Director Aaron Sandow says. “If you’ve never been to a Beer & BBQ Festival, this is your last chance for the full-tilt experience of one of Australia’s most loved and unique festivals.”
The big ten year bash will see music headliners like Wolfmother, Tim Finn, The Chats, Custard, Rocket Science, The Gooch Palms and more, as more than 100 producers and more than 40 artists bring the heat alongside a mass selection of brewers, distillers, and pitmasters.
Image © Daniel Marks
ABBF, like so many festivals and businesses around the country (and the world) has been hit hard, post-pandemic.
“Since the enforced COVID break, the festival landscape has been a roller coaster. The initial sugar-hit of demand in 2022 gave everyone a false sense of security, and since then times have been tough, very tough,” Co-Director Gareth Lewis adds. “Festivals all over Australia have collapsed, brewers who have been with us from the start have fallen into administration, many have never recovered, and our hospitality friends are being put through the ringer weekly.”
Costs have risen by up to 40 per cent since 2022, making the festival model increasingly unsustainable.
“This festival is who we are. It’s always been about supporting small businesses and giving punters something special, but the cost of putting on a festival of this scale has increased between 30 per cent and 40 per cent since 2022, and for this reason we can not see a way forward. Our punters are loyal and bloody amazing, but we can’t continue to pass the costs on to you, you can’t afford them, and we can’t afford to absorb them.”
Image © Morgan Sette
“We want to thank the South Australian Government, especially the Music Development Office, who have supported the festival for the past few years. The state government is very supportive of the events industry. It’s true that there are more major publicly funded events than ever before in SA and it’s hard for independent festival brands to compete on a level playing field with them, but we hope to continue to work with Government for years to come to produce events that add value to the state culturally and economically.”
It’s not all bad news, and there’s still hope for the future of ABBF. It’s not goodbye forever, as the event’s directors assure fans: “This isn’t a marketing stunt, and we are sure we will be back to present some version of the festival, somewhere, sometime in the future. But this is not a John Farnham tour, it will be ‘The Last Time’ . . . as you know it.”
Tickets are on sale now.
Adelaide Beer & BBQ Festival 2025 is on at Adelaide Showground 6-8 June.
Adelaide Beer & BBQ Festival 2025 Line-Up
FRIDAY
WolfmotherCustard
Rocket Science
The Tarantinos
Caitlin Harnett & The Pony Boys
Cosmo Thundercat
Free Golf
Haystacks Calhoon
I Can't Believe It's Not The Hives
JPH x The Dangerous Animals
Sticky Beak
The Briar Patch Band
SATURDAY
The ChatsThe Gooch Palms
Dick Move
Mulga Bore Hard Rock
Batpiss
Andy Golledge
Slim Krusty And Fluorescent Adolescents
Halftime Oranges
My Cherie
Pelvis
SUNDAY
Tim FinnCASH: The American Recordings starring Henry Wagons & The Tennessee Studs
Mondo Psycho
Captain Hellfire & The Wretched Brethren
Free Drinks
Kelly's Wake
King of Spain
Nocturnal Animals
The Dead Regulars
The Public Servants
