AUSTRALIAN pop superstar Jessica Mauboy will headline a riverfront concert as part of a March long-weekend festival to celebrate 130 years of hospital care in Mildura.
Rising music stars Busby Marou will join the prodigously successful and popular Indigenous songstress at the Back to Base festival concert at Nowingi Place on Saturday, March 12.
Mildura Base Public Hospital is hosting the concert and festival to celebrate the history of the medical institution founded in a cottage in 1892 as the Mildura District Hospital.
The signing of such a well-known and much-loved performer is a coup for the hospital and chief executive Terry Welch said he was thrilled to be able to announce her appearance.
“We have been working for months with the promoter and Jessica’s management to secure her for this event and we are so excited to have someone of her ilk agree to be part of our celebration,” Mr Welch said.
Mauboy’s accomplishments include six Top 10 Albums and 16 Top 20 singles, over 200 million streams globally, two ARIA Awards, as well as 21 platinum and nine gold accreditations. She is also the first Indigenous Australian artist to debut at No. 1 on the ARIA album chart.
She has received an Australian of the Year award and been honoured by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts and the Australian Performing Right Association, MTV Europe and MTV Australia. Also an actor, she has starred in numerous on-screen roles including in The Sapphires and Bran Nue Dae, and she is a coach on The Voice Australia.
Supporting performers Thomas Busby and Jeremy Marou, known simply as Busby Marou, have gained the reputation as one of Australia’s hardest working live bands known for their distinctly Australian storytelling.
Their success includes millions of global streams, top-20 airplay and three ARIA-charting albums. Busby Marou’s self-titled album is certified ARIA Gold, while their follow up album Farewell Fitzroy debuted at #5 on the ARIA albums chart and their most recent album, Postcards from The Shell House, is the duo’s first ARIA #1 album.
Back to Base festivities will begin on the Friday evening of the long weekend, with a dinner under the vines hosted by celebrity cook Stefano de Pieri, who is famous for his ABC show Gondola on the Murray and his most recent series, Australia’s Food Bowl, aired on SBS this year.
On Saturday, a free riverfront festival will begin at noon and will include local entertainment, produce from the region, food halls, children’s activities, displays from various businesses and a reunion of past and present hospital staff.
The weekend will conclude with the Back to Base concert.
Mr Welch is hoping the whole weekend will draw people from not only throughout the Sunraysia region, but from all over Australia.
“This is all about letting people know Mildura and Sunraysia is open for business again and hopefully Back to Base is the start of a great 2022,” Mr Welch said.
“The hospital has been such a big part of this community over the past 130 years through the many health care services it provides and the weekend will be a great chance for past and present staff and the whole community to come together and celebrate as one.”
Tickets for the Back to Base concert will go on sale for Ticketmaster members on December 7 and will be available to the general public from December 8.
