How best to explain Queensland Music Trails? Perhaps as a travelling music festival – except it’s the punters who do the travelling. The idea is to shine a light on places and communities that are little known to most Australians, making each stop on the festival trail a chance to experience music, art and adventure.

“Music events globally are a very powerful way of putting places on the map – the prime example of which is Glastonbury,” says Joel Edmondson, CEO and creative director of Queensland Music Festival, which stages Queensland Music Trails. “Glastonbury is a small village, but its name is internationally understood because of that event.”

With Queensland Music Trails, Edmondson and the QMF team aren’t trying to replicate Glasto. Rather than staging one massive festival, Music Trails will eventually total seven multi-stop adventures along tropical coastlines and through red dirt Outback, and feature everything from cutting edge contemporary music to local visual art. The first to launch this year is the Outback Trail, which introduces visitors to towns such as Charleville and Cunnamulla.

Never miss a Brisbane moment. Make sure you're subscribed to our newsletter today.

SUBSCRIBE NOW

“One thing we’re really passionate about is giving people an experience of Outback communities,” says Edmondson. “A lot of what drives us is the way music events can break down boundaries between people. We’ve got a big rural-metropolitan divide in Australia, but these kinds of events are a way of bringing people into a collective space around the universal love and enjoyment of music.”

The Outback Trail features four stops, plus some travelling goodies in between. Locals Hussy Hicks are set to headline a blues and roots-themed show in St George; Alice Skye and Emma Donovan & the Putbacks will be part of a fully First Nations female headlining event in Cunnamulla; while idiosyncratic bluesman CW Stoneking gets top billing in Charleville.

“In Charleville we’re doing a ’50s Americana-type event that will celebrate the reopening of the [town’s] World War II secret base,” says Edmondson. “What we’re really trying to do there is use music as a way of framing the historic importance of that site.”

If you’re planning on heading along to the Outback Trail this year, Edmondson says it’s worth taking the whole trip to get the full experience.

“The trail concept is set up so that you travel from one venue to another, so the whole trail experience is curated as a package,” he says. “You can go to one or as many of the events as you want, but the ultimate experience is to travel the whole trail, because we’re doing other things along the way. We’re really passionate about creating a community among all the people that are going along the trail.”

There are also two standalone events this year, in Jimbour and Canungra, which will eventually form the head of two other trails. Opera at Jimbour is a long-running event in itself, with the historic Jimbour House providing a backdrop to opera and chamber music.

“What’s amazing about that event is that you get to experience music of a bygone era in a way that it would have been experienced in that house in the 19th century, when it was built,” says Edmondson.

At Canungra, The Long Sunset, headlined by indie pop outfit Lime Cordiale, will introduce travellers to the natural wonders of the Scenic Rim region.

As the trails roll out over the next year, Edmondson is hopeful that the concept brings joy to both travellers and Outback Queensland locals alike.

“It’s about giving visitors from around the world the best possible experience of Queensland communities and places,” he says, “but at the same time involving those places and communities in a process of making Queenslanders even more proud of who we are.”

This article is produced in partnership with Tourism and Events Queensland.