Newcastle's biggest showcase of local live music is back for another year. West Best Bloc Fest returns to Newcastle West on Sunday 4 October, running from 10 am to 10 pm across a block cornered by King, Steel, Hunter and Union streets, with the main address at 418 King Street in the Midtown precinct. It's the festival's fifth year, and the scale is hard to overstate: more than 300 local musicians playing across 10 stages spread over nine venues.
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The lineup is topped by William Crighton, the Dubbo-born alternative rock singer-songwriter who took home the 2022 ARIA for Best Blues and Roots Album for 'Water and Dust' and whose 2026 album 'Colonial Drift', on ABC Music, reached number 30 in Australia. Underneath him the bill fills out with CATPISS, Anna Weatherup, Trophy Wyfe, The Howlin' Rats, FÄHM, Piper Butcher, Krisp Trip and Fandino, and the genres run the full distance from rock and indie to punk, electronic, jazz and folk.
What's new this time round is a dedicated all-ages program. An all-ages ticket gets you into six of the stages across the participating venues, plus a custom all-ages activation, so it's a genuine all-day option for families rather than just the late-night crowd. For the electronic side of things, there's the Impulse Response Dayclub, a collaboration with Bernie's Bar with a fully electronic lineup headlined by Assembler Code, who's bringing a modular synth live set. Red Bull has set up a laneway garden with face painting, Tarty Party, Cam Time and Interviews, and the jazz program is handled by the Newcastle Improvised Music Association (NIMA) over at Maru Hi-Fi, pulling together some of the city's best jazz and improvised players.
Maru Hi-Fi is worth a mention in its own right. It's a Japanese-Australian listening bar and live music venue at 10 Union Street, set up by Andrew Coughlan and Joel Hillier with a vinyl collection, live neo soul and jazz, and Japanese fusion food, and it's the home of the NIMA collaboration for the day. NIMA itself works across the Newcastle Hunter region to champion jazz and improvised music and support local and emerging players.
On the practical front, tickets are on sale now at westbestblocfest.com, ranging from A$40 to A$70. A single ticket covers the whole program, which is the point: you're meant to move between the venues rather than stay put at one stage. With over 300 musicians and ten stages packed into a single block, the whole idea is to wander from one room to the next and catch whoever's playing. It's a long day, from 10 am to 10 pm, so pick your must-sees and leave some room to stumble onto something you've never heard of. Given the all-ages program, it's as much a family outing as a night out, which is a nice change for a lineup this big.
Published Date
26 September 2026
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