Simply the best: Australians smash Nutbush world record

One of the most remote festivals in the world has broken its own record for the most people doing the iconic line dance.

5,838 people took to the dusty dance floor at the Birdsville Big Red Bash to break the world record for the number of people doing the Nutbush. Source: Supplied / Matt Williams

Key Points

• Over 5,800 people at the Birdsville Big Red Bash have broken the world record for the most people dancing the Nutbush.
• The iconic line dance is performed to the song Nutbush City Limits by Tina Turner, who died in May.
• The Big Red Bash broke the previous world record in 2022 with 4,084 people partaking in the line dance.

5,838 people have gathered on a dusty dance floor at a remote music festival to break the world record for the most people dancing to Tina Turner's song Nutbush City Limits.

The Birdsville Big Red Bash, which is held in the Simpson Desert, has hosted Nutbush City Limits fundraisers and world record attempts since 2018.

This year's effort - which beat their 2022 record of 4,084 - was accompanied by tributes to Turner, known as the 'Queen of Rock and Roll', who died in May.

Some participants dressed in Tina Turner-inspired outfits to dance the Nutbush at the Birdsville Big Red Bash. Source: Supplied / Matt Williams

Ahead of the world record attempt, festival operations manager Steve Donovan said he was expecting over 5,000 people to take part.

He expected the song's 50th anniversary and the passing of Turner could motivate more people to get involved.

"I think in Australia there's just a sense of wanting to become involved in something and we love our kind of traditions," he said.

"And I think it's just become a classic Australian tradition."

The Birdsville Big Red Bash first broke the Nutbush World Record in 2018. Source: SBS News

The world record attempts are also fundraisers, with participants charged $15 and all proceeds going to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

It's not the only world record broken at the festival, held about 35km from the tiny Queensland town of Birdsville, this week.

On Wednesday, organisers posted on social media they had broken the record for the "most amount of people doing yoga on a desert sand dune at one time" with 672 participants.

On Tuesday, they set a new world record for the largest human image of a country, with 5,467 people coming together in the shape of Australia.

The previous record was set in Romania in 2018.

What is the Nutbush?

The song Nutbush City Limits was released by Tina and Ike Turner in 1973 and was written as a tribute to the small town in the United States where Tina Turner grew up.

The song and an accompanying line dance have become ingrained in Australian culture over the years.

The dance is a regular fixture at schools, parties and weddings, but was not choreographed or performed by Turner.

The Birdsville Big Red Bash has broken its own record for the number of people doing the Nutbush. Source: Supplied / Matt Williams

Jon Stratton, an adjunct professor at the University of South Australia's School of Creative Industries, has investigated where the dance came from.

Speaking to SBS News in May, he said he believes the moves were likely choreographed by the NSW education department as part of line dancing lessons in schools.

"What seems to have happened is that somebody devised the Nutbush along the lines of the Madison (another, slightly more complex line dance)," he said.

"Some people suggest that what actually happened was that somebody couldn't remember how the Madison went properly; so you end up with the Nutbush."