{"id":517210,"date":"2026-03-04T02:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T02:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/517210\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T02:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T02:47:11","slug":"barunga-festival-2026-under-new-management-as-previous-agency-claims-being-blindsided","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/517210\/","title":{"rendered":"Barunga Festival 2026 under new management as previous agency claims being ‘blindsided’"},"content":{"rendered":"

An iconic Northern Territory festival of Indigenous culture and music will be run by new organisers this year, after major events and marketing agency Sprout says it was “blindsided” by the change in direction.<\/p>\n

The Barunga Festival, held annually in June, is a major celebration of Indigenous art, culture, sport and music, bringing thousands of people each year to a small Aboriginal community about an hour from Katherine on the road into Arnhem Land.<\/p>\n

The festival also has deep ties to politics and Aboriginal land rights, dating back to the Barunga Statement that was presented to then-prime minister Bob Hawke in 1988<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Yothu Yindi, best known for their song ‘Treaty’, have regularly performed at the Barunga Festival. (ABC News: Lillian Rangiah)<\/p>\n

Last month, the Bagala Aboriginal Corporation (BAC) announced it would be taking a new “strategic direction” with the festival, which has drawn crowds of almost 5,000 people in recent years.<\/p>\n

BAC chief executive Jarah Maraschio told the ABC the community would take “management and control” of the event into its own hands and that the corporation would not renew its contract with Sprout, which has organised the festival for the last three years.<\/p>\n

Mr Maraschio said the corporation had engaged another creative agency, KWP and Partners, and the Darwin-based event manager Anthony Sherwood.<\/p>\n

He said under the new arrangement, “all of the decision-making, all of the budget, all of the creative direction, all of the branding, [and] all of the ideation” would be done in-house by BAC.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Festival attendees have often been able to participate in workshops, like learning how to weave. (ABC Katherine: Roxanne Fitzgerald)<\/p>\n

Sprout chief executive Anya Lorimer said while she wished the corporation success with the event, her company had already started working on Barunga 2026 and had been expecting a contract.<\/p>\n

“We’ve sort of been blindsided a bit by this,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We had no reason to believe that the contract wasn’t going to be renewed.”<\/p>\n

Ms Lorimer said decision-making about the festival had always rested with BAC and its Aboriginal board during her firm’s tenure.<\/p>\n

She warned that the event was extremely logistically complex, with thousands of visitors camping out in a remote Aboriginal community about an hour from the nearest regional centre.<\/p>\n

“It’s a bit like handing over the keys to the car, but it’s actually a road train,” she said.<\/p>\n

Asked about the claim Sprout had been caught off guard, Mr Maraschio said it was “not true”, but said that was all he could say about the matter.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Red Flag dancers from Numbulwar performed at the 2025 Barunga Festival. (ABC News: James Elton)<\/p>\n

‘Bigger than ever’<\/p>\n

Mr Maraschio said this year’s event would be “bigger than ever” and would feature not one but two stages, to allow for a “battle-of-the-bands” competition to take place alongside the main acts.<\/p>\n

“I think the only thing people need to worry about is tickets selling out,” he said.<\/p>\n

The music line-up is yet to be announced, but Mr Maraschio said it would be made public “very, very shortly”.<\/p>\n

\"Esther<\/p>\n

Esther Bulumbara says she’s keen to see Barunga Festival expand. (ABC News: Stephanie Zillman)<\/p>\n

Esther Bulumbara, a senior Bagala traditional owner and the chair of the corporation, said she was “feeling good” about Barunga 2026.<\/p>\n

“I want to try make it bigger and better,” she said.<\/p>\n

However, Ms Lorimer said there were constraints on how much bigger the festival could get.<\/p>\n

“We’ve sold out for the last two years against the maximum numbers reflected against the insurance,” she said.<\/p>\n

“[I’m] not sure how much bigger Barunga can get without significant investment in new infrastructure such as accessibility, toilets and showers and more space for campers.”<\/p>\n

Festival cultural advisor questions change in direction<\/p>\n

Conway Wirrpanda-Blanasi, a senior Aboriginal cultural leader born in Barunga who has long provided cultural advice to the festival, said he disagreed with the way the change in event management had been done.<\/p>\n

“When you cut someone’s contract, give that person a bit of respect and transparency,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said Sprout had done a good job of navigating the cultural side of the festival and connecting Aboriginal people from across the territory in celebration of their shared traditions.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Conway Wirrpanda-Blanasi says the change of contract could have been more transparent. (ABC Open contributor garrettlaur)<\/p>\n

Mr Wirrpanda-Blanasi, who is a custodian for his mother’s country around Blue Mud Bay, said he would have liked to see Sprout given an opportunity to train up and handover the festival to locals.<\/p>\n

He also questioned if the festival was really being brought back “in house” when a new set of contractors were being brought in.<\/p>\n

“Handing it back to the community? That’s deadly! But you’ve still got to get the right people to come in and run it, so what’s the difference?” he said.<\/p>\n

“I’d like to see how they pull it off.”<\/p>\n

Federal money yet to be allocated<\/p>\n

The Barunga Festival is supported through grants from the NT government, but has also received substantial federal money in recent years through the National Indigenous Australians Agency, including a grant of $250,000 for the 2025 festival.<\/p>\n

Mr Maraschio said BAC was yet to secure a federal grant for this year’s event, but was exploring multiple options.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the NIAA said the agency had not received a formal application for the festival.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year’s festival will be held from June 5 to June 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An iconic Northern Territory festival of Indigenous culture and music will be run by new organisers this year,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96206,258419,64,63,258421,258415,258414,258416,258417,134,258422,258418,258420],"class_list":["post-517210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-aboriginal-art","tag-aboriginal-artists-nt","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-barunga","tag-barunga-2026","tag-barunga-festival","tag-barunga-festival-2026","tag-barunga-festival-tickets","tag-entertainment","tag-indigenous-festival","tag-nt-aboriginal-festival","tag-sprout"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}