The Gympie Music Muster has kicked off the road to 2026 with a major announcement: multi Golden Guitar winner Amber Lawrence will serve as next year’s Ambassador, headlining the first wave of artists revealed for the August 27–30 festival.
For Lawrence, the role is more than a title it’s a full-circle moment two decades in the making. “The Gympie Muster is such an iconic Australian festival, one that I could only dream of playing when I first started my career,” she said.
“It’s a bucket list festival to play, so it’s even more of a bucket list to be trusted to be the Ambassador. This year will be my 10th Muster, and my first Muster was 20 years ago – can you believe those stats?”
She’ll be joined by a stacked list of returning favourites and heavy hitters, including Lee Kernaghan, The Wolfe Brothers, Graeme Connors, James Blundell, James Johnston, Brooke McClymont and Adam Eckersley, Beccy Cole, Sara Berki, Taylor Moss, PETRIC, Pierce Brothers and more, with dozens still to come.
Brooke McClymont and Adam Eckersley are treating the 2026 Muster as both a career milestone and a family holiday. “We’ve both been coming to the Muster since 1998. Brooke was signed to Universal Records from winning the Muster talent search so it’s always held a special place from where our careers started,” they said.
With a new album on the way, Eckersley added, “This year would have to be our 4th Muster together… it’s our favourite together as a family,” and noted, “the Blues Bar is one of our favourites so it will be good to play all the AEB songs this year.”
Longtime Muster legend Connors summed up the festival’s legacy best: “The only accurate answer to how many Musters I’ve played is ‘many... heaps... but still not enough!’”
He also praised the event’s enduring support for homegrown talent. “It was and still is the most supportive major music festival when it comes to Australian voices and Australian stories.” His favourite memory is peak Gympie Muster magic: “I sang the line ’the sun sinks behind me in the west’ and the roar of approval from the crowd temporarily drowned out the front of house and onstage sound.”
More lineup announcements and ticket info will roll out in the coming months, but if the first drop is anything to go by, 2026 is shaping up to be one of the most star-studded line ups yet.
FIRST ARTISTS FOR GYMPIE MUSIC MUSTER 2026:
Adam Eckersley Band
Amber Lawrence
Beccy Cole
Bo’Ness Brothers
Brett Wood
Brewn
Brooke McClymont & Adam Eckersley
Brooke Schubert
Cass Eager
Chase the Sun
Claudia Tripp
Graeme Connors
Jake Whittaker
James Blundell
James Johnston
Lane Pittman
Lee Kernaghan
Luke Geiger
Marshall & The Fro
Max Jackson
Nathan Cavaleri
PETRIC
Pierce Brothers
Route 33
Sara Berki
Taylor Moss
The Pigs
The Wolfe Brothers
Tori Darke
The Vibrolators
Zac & George
Countrytown brings you Australia’s best country music news, interviews, charts and more every week! This post was authored by Countrytown and originally published on the Countrytown website. It has been re-published with permission.
