If you needed an excuse to disappear north and pretend winter doesn’t exist, the Airlie Beach Festival of Music 2026 just handed you one.
The first lineup announcement for the Airlie Beach Festival of Music is here, with Xavier Rudd, Mental As Anything and The Whitlams leading the charge for the three day run from November 6th to 8th.
Airlie Beach Festival of Music 2026 – Lineup (So Far)
- Xavier Rudd
- Mental As Anything
- The Whitlams
- The Radiators
- Adam Harvey
- 19-Twenty
- Skinny Living (UK)
- Little Quirks
- The Mason Rack Band
- The Wayward Suns
- Loonaloop
- Salt & Steel
- Monroe (Passport to Airlie 2025 winners)
Further details and tickets can be found here.
Xavier Rudd headlining
Rudd sits front and centre, arriving straight off a European festival run and hinting that this won’t just be a greatest hits set, there’s new material in the mix too, with the Whitsundays crowd set to hear it first on home soil (per press release).
“There will be some new music at this show, which will be played for the first time in Australia”.
Airlie Beach isn’t your standard festival site, it’s all ocean air, salt on your skin and a stage perched on the edge of the reef, that connection isn’t lost on Rudd either.
“My music is definitely a celebration of our natural world, so a place like Airlie feels especially aligned with songs like ‘Follow the Sun’”.
He’s even floating the idea of ditching the tent entirely, “These are the kinds of shows I love, and hopefully, weather permitting, we can actually pull down the tent and play under the stars!”
Legacy acts and local favourites fill out the bill
Mental As Anything are rolling through as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations, bringing a catalogue that’s practically stitched into Australia’s musical DNA, “We’re known for being a party band, so the Airlie Beach Festival of Music is a perfect fit,” says Reg Mombassa.
The Whitlams also slot neatly into that space, with Tim Freedman clearly keen to make up for lost time in the region, “I’ve been wanting to return to the Whitsundays for decades and now we have the chance,” he said.
Beyond the headliners, the lineup leans into variety. The Radiators, Adam Harvey, 19-Twenty, Skinny Living, Little Quirks and more round things out, alongside emerging acts pulled through the festival’s Passport to Airlie program.
Now in its 14th year, the festival continues to blur the line between holiday and live music circuit, sixty plus acts, 15 venues, and the reef sitting just offshore.
Follow me for more on Music:
MORE IN News
