When legendary Australian folk band The Waifs rolled into town for the recent Red Hot Summer Tour they had planned a pre-show lunch stop at Berry Bakery.

The band - Western Australian sisters Donna Simpson and Vicki Thorne and Tuross Heads local Josh Cunningham - have been popping into the bakery for more than three decades on their way to Josh’s home town during east coast tours in their trusty van.

“We would fang the Toyota Hiace early in the morning in time to hit the Berry Bakery after a show at the Wollongong Uni,” the Waifs recalled on their Facebook page after the beloved band’s recent gig at Berry Showground for the Red Hot Summer Tour.

“It’s now 2025 and the Berry Bakery had a line that was too long for us before the show. Good for them! Keep baking away you mob cos we’ve loved your produce for years.”

Lines were “out the door” across the town for the recent Red Hot Summer Tour concert, with Berry's population swelling by thousands and bringing an economic boon to businesses.

Publicans at The Berry Hotel and Great Southern Hotel said bar staff were “run off their feet” and bistro bookings were at capacity.

Crowded House. Photo: Henry Katz

With Crowded House headlining the festival and support acts including Vika and Linda Bull with Mark Seymour, Angus and Julia Stone and The Church along with The Waifs, the tour sold out within days of tickets being released.

The Red Hot Summer tour will return to Berry in February with master storyteller Paul Kelly, Missy Higgins, The Cruel Sea, The Cat Empire, Kasey Chambers, and Jess Hitchcock.

And with the most recent event proving a hit with punters and local businesses alike, it is expected to again reach maximum capacity.

A 2024 Live Music Census found long toilet, food and bar lines and delays entering and exiting concerts and festivals were the biggest turn-offs for fans.

But Berry nailed it with the number of ladies loos almost double that of the men. Bars were plentiful and lines non-existent and while there were queues for food, the ability for people to bring their own snacks, from boxes of Cheezels to a cheese platter, meant no one left hungry.

One festival-goer labelled it “the most civilised gig ever”. Another noted it was “unprecedented” for the men’s loo queue to be longer than the ladies at a festival.

Neil Finn lights up Berry. Photo: Silvie Macdonald

While there were lines to exit the festival, concert-goers were patient for the most part and traffic management strategies were in place to ensure exiting the town and hitting the freeway was relatively smooth-sailing.

The Red Hot Summer tours appear to be bucking industry trends, with a report by Creative Australia in April finding a downturn in the number of Aussies tuning in to homegrown music.

The report noted although there was “a slight increase in live music attendance, industry revenue was mostly driven by international tours presented at major venues”.

“In recent years music festival organisers have been faced with unprecedented challenges due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, extreme weather events, regulatory changes and rising operational costs,” says Creative Australia.

Challenges Kiama knows all too well. Two major festivals - Changing Tides and Folk By The Sea - recently pulled the pin on planned shows in a massive blow to the town’s event calendar.

Both cited poor ticket sales with Folk By The Sea - a Kiama institution for more than a decade - saying the decision was necessary “due to the key challenge of attracting patrons from outside the area”.

Aus rock icon Mark Seymour. Photo: Henry Katz

Kiama Tourism and Economic Advisory Committee chair Matt Brown labelled the Changing Tides cancellation “a shame for the operators and the locals who love to see big headline acts in their own backyard”.

He said major events were part of Kiama’s “destination marketing” and the cancellations of Changing Tides and Folk By The Sea would have a “significant impact on the Kiama economy”.

It is estimated patrons spend around $300 during their stay, resulting in a more than $5 million dollar hit to the town’s economy after both festival cancellations.

This figure is backed up by a cost-benefit analysis carried out by Australia's Live Music Office, which found that for every dollar spent on live music in Australia $3 worth of benefits are returned to the wider community.

The Creative Australia report found Australian music festivals are experiencing “a period of significant adaptation, facing changing patterns of audience behaviour and later purchasing of tickets”.

Berry Showground was packed when The Waifs opened the concert. Photo: Henry Katz