The Waifs Australia Tour 2027

The Waifs have not announced a 2027 tour of Australia or New Zealand. As of 9 October 2026 no dates, venues or festival bookings for 2027 have been published, and nothing official points to a particular run of shows next year.

That does not mean they have gone quiet. Few Australian bands play their own country as widely as The Waifs. Since the Up All Night 20th Anniversary Tour of 2023 they have kept up a steady rhythm of theatre dates, winery shows and festival slots, and the concert archive lists more than thirty Australian shows in 2025 alone, from Castelli Winery in Denmark, Western Australia, on 1 March to Sandalford Winery in Perth on Saturday 6 December 2025.

Formed in Albany in 1992 by sisters Donna Simpson and Vikki Thorn with guitarist Josh Cunningham, the band has spent more than three decades on the road. This page sets out what is and is not known about 2027, then follows their recent Australian touring city by city, the festivals they have played, the songs that anchor their sets and their place in Australian folk and roots music.

The Waifs Australia Tour 2027: what is announced so far

There is no official information about The Waifs concerts in Australia or New Zealand in 2027. No tour name, dates, venues, support acts or sale dates have been published as of 9 October 2026, and no festival in either country has announced them for 2027.

Because they tour so often, an announcement could come at short notice, and much of their recent work has been in the form of shorter runs: a regional theatre leg here, a string of winery or racecourse shows there, a festival weekend in between. In 2025 they played two distinct runs, one from March to April that took in Tasmania, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, and another from October to December that started in Darwin and Cairns and finished in Perth.

New Zealand is a different story. The concert archive used for this page contains no New Zealand show by The Waifs, and Wikipedia does not describe any New Zealand tour. Their touring outside Australia has historically been in North America, where they built a following through the Newport Folk Festival and their 2003 support slot with Bob Dylan.

If a 2027 run is announced, this page will list the dates, venues and sale times as soon as they are official. Until then, the alert sign-up below is the quickest way to hear about new shows.

Before The Waifs Australia Tour 2027: Australia/NZ concert history

The Waifs grew out of the road. In February 1992 Donna and Vikki Simpson set off in a Kombi van to tour Western Australia as the duo Colours; in Broome they met Josh Cunningham, and after a ten-minute jam he was invited to join. Back in Albany they became The Waifs in August 1992, and the Kombi carried them to gigs across Australia until 1996. After moving to Melbourne in 1996 they toured the country for a year behind their first album, and their second album, Shelter Me, was again supported by a national tour.

Their breakthrough came in 2003. Bob Dylan took them as support on his Australian tour in March that year and then on his North American tour, and in 2003 they also played the Big Day Out. In September and October 2007 the SunDirtWater Tour crossed Australia, starting in Broome, and in January and February 2008 they joined their label-mates the John Butler Trio for the Union of Soul Tour in Western Australia, including Denmark, Margaret River, the Swan Valley and two nights at the Fremantle Arts Centre. In January 2005 they were part of the WaveAid concert in Sydney for tsunami relief.

The detailed concert archive picks up in November 2019 with a run of Victorian dates billed as the 2019 Australian East Coast Tour: the Athenaeum in Melbourne on 14 November, The Wedge in Sale, the Latrobe Performing Arts Centre in Traralgon, the Burrinja Cultural Centre, Healesville's Memorial Hall, Meeniyan Town Hall and the Queenscliff Music Festival on 24 November. In January and February 2020 a Western Australian tour followed, opening at the Albany Entertainment Centre in their home town on 25 January and moving through two nights at Margaret River HEART, the South Lawn and the Fremantle Arts Centre in Fremantle, the Mundaring Weir Hotel and the Ravenswood Hotel in Pinjarra.

The biggest recent run was the Up All Night 20th Anniversary Tour of 2023, marking two decades since the double-platinum album. It began at Queenscliff Town Hall on 31 May and 1 June, played the Palais Theatre in Melbourne on Saturday 3 June and the Northcote Theatre on 8 June, then went north to the Big Red Bash site at Birdsville on Tuesday 4 July and on to Townsville, the Canberra Theatre, the Newcastle Civic Theatre, the State Theatre in Sydney, Anita's Theatre in Wollongong and two nights at The Tivoli in Brisbane on 20 and 21 July. August brought the Odeon Theatre in Hobart, two nights at The Governor Hindmarsh Hotel in Adelaide, the Araluen Arts Centre in Alice Springs and the Mundi Mundi Plains near Silverton; the tour ended in Western Australia at the Perth Concert Hall on 2 September, Bunbury on 14 September and the Roebuck Bay Hotel in Broome on 24 September 2023.

Since then the band has favoured outdoor shows in the warmer months. In 2024 the archive lists 3 Oceans Winery in Metricup, the South Lawn in Fremantle on 20 January, Taronga Zoo in Sydney on Saturday 17 February, Hervey Bay's Seafront Oval and Byron Bay at Easter. In 2025 the March to April run included Launceston's Country Club Tasmania, the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, Batemans Bay, the Theatre Royal in Castlemaine, Mornington Racecourse, the Old Mount Gambier Gaol, Victor Harbor, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Don Lucas Reserve in Sydney, Busselton and Freo.Social in Fremantle.

The spring and summer run of 2025 went further still: the Darwin Ski Club on 2 October, Munro Martin Parklands in Cairns, Harrup Park in Mackay, two nights at the Sandstone Point Hotel, Roche Estate in Pokolbin, Berry Showground, Ballarat, Rochford Winery, The Princess Theatre in Brisbane, Queens Park in Toowoomba, the Gold Coast, Mannum, Seppeltsfield on the Red Hot Summer tour, The Capital in Bendigo, the Lighthouse Theatre in Warrnambool, Queenscliff and Mornington, ending at Sandalford Winery in Perth on 6 December 2025, the most recent show in the archive.

The table below lists 97 documented Australia/NZ concerts by The Waifs between 2019 and 2025, with the most shows in Fremantle (6), Melbourne (5), Queenscliff (4), Perth (3), Gold Coast (3), Brisbane (3). It is not exhaustive: it only includes documented shows.

Concert data: setlist.fm

The Waifs Australia Tour 2027 setlist: the songs played most often in Australia and New Zealand

Across the 15 most recent documented Australia/NZ concerts with a full song list (12 August 2023 to 23 November 2025), these are the songs that came up most often. Titles only — set lists change from night to night.

1. Fisherman's Daughter — played at 15 of 15 shows
2. Lighthouse — played at 15 of 15 shows
3. London Still — played at 15 of 15 shows
4. Highway One — played at 14 of 15 shows
5. Ironbark — played at 14 of 15 shows
6. Bridal Train — played at 13 of 15 shows
7. Crazy Train — played at 10 of 15 shows
8. How Many Miles — played at 9 of 15 shows
9. Done and Dusted — played at 8 of 15 shows
10. Black Dirt Track — played at 6 of 15 shows
11. Born to Love — played at 6 of 15 shows
12. Gillian — played at 6 of 15 shows
13. The Swing — played at 6 of 15 shows
14. Heart in the Game — played at 5 of 15 shows

Before The Waifs Australia Tour 2027: past Australia/NZ tours at a glance

• Red Hot Summer (2025): 1 Australia/NZ show — Seppeltsfield.
• Up All Night 20th Anniversary Tour (2023): 22 Australia/NZ shows — Queenscliff, Melbourne, Meeniyan, Warrnambool, Birdsville, Townsville, Canberra, Newcastle, Sydney, Wollongong, Brisbane, Gold Coast….

The Waifs Australia Tour 2027 and Australia/NZ festivals

The Waifs have been festival regulars throughout their career. Wikipedia records their 2003 Big Day Out appearance, and the concert archive lists the Queenscliff Music Festival in November 2019 and again in November 2025, the National Folk Festival site at Exhibition Park in Canberra over Easter 2023, Port Fairy in March 2023 and Byron Bay Bluesfest at Easter in 2022 and 2024, where the archive lists them on the Crossroads and Mojo stages.

They have also taken their songs to some of the most remote stages in the country. In July 2023 they played Big Red, the sand dune outside Birdsville in far south-west Queensland, and in August 2023 the Mundi Mundi Plains near Silverton in far western New South Wales. In November 2025 they appeared at Seppeltsfield in the Barossa as part of Red Hot Summer.

The Waifs Australia Tour 2027: career and records

The Waifs formed in August 1992 in Albany, Western Australia. Sisters Donna Simpson and Vikki Thorn (née Simpson) had been playing Bob Dylan and Everly Brothers covers in local pubs as Colours; their father was a seasonal salmon fisherman at Cosy Corner beach and bought Donna her first guitar when she was 15. With Josh Cunningham, a farmer's son from Moruya, they released The Waifs (1996), Shelter Me (1998) and Sink or Swim (2000) independently, adding David Ross Macdonald on drums and later Ben Franz on bass.

In 2002 they founded the independent label Jarrah Records with John Butler and their manager Phil Stevens. 'London Still' became their first top 50 single, and Up All Night, released in January 2003, debuted at number three, went double platinum and won four ARIA Awards that year: Best Blues and Roots Album, Best Independent Release, and Producer and Engineer of the Year for Chris Thompson. 'Lighthouse' reached number 12 in the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2003, and 'Bridal Train', the story of the sisters' grandmother, a war bride who crossed Australia by train to join her American husband, won Vikki Thorn the USA Songwriting Competition.

Sun Dirt Water (2007) reached number two, Temptation (2011) number three and Beautiful You (2015) number five. Ironbark, a double album released in February 2017, 25 years after the band formed, gave them their first number one on the ARIA Albums Chart. The same year they were inducted into the Australian Songwriters Hall of Fame, having joined the West Australian Music Industry Hall of Fame in 2011.

In 2019 they won Live Country Act of the Year at the National Live Music Awards, and in 2023 they released a version of 'I Was Only 19' with John Schumann. Over the years the members have lived in different countries, with Vikki in Utah, Donna in Minneapolis and Josh in California as of 2011, but the band has kept returning to tour Australia.

The Waifs Australia Tour 2027: touring the regions

What sets The Waifs apart from most Australian acts of their size is how far they go. A single year can take them from Darwin and Cairns to Mount Gambier, Launceston, Mannum, Busselton and Broome, often to venues that rarely see national tours: a gaol in Mount Gambier, a ski club in Darwin, a golf club in Mannum, town halls in Meeniyan and Queenscliff.

The 2023 anniversary tour shows the pattern clearly. Alongside capital city theatres such as the Palais, the State Theatre and The Tivoli, it played Townsville, Wollongong, Newcastle, Alice Springs, Bunbury and Broome, and two outback festival sites.

For fans outside the big cities, that is why any Waifs tour announcement is worth reading closely: the regional rooms are often small, and a town may get only one night.

The Waifs Australia Tour 2027: Western Australia, home ground

The band was formed in Albany, and Western Australia remains central to its touring. The 2020 Western Australian Tour began at the Albany Entertainment Centre on 25 January 2020, and the state has since hosted shows at the Mundaring Weir Hotel, Fremantle Park, the South Lawn and Freo.Social in Fremantle, Kings Park in Perth, the Perth Concert Hall, Bunbury, Broome, Busselton, Metricup, Denmark and Sandalford Winery.

Fremantle in particular has become a regular stop: the Fremantle Arts Centre in 2020, its South Lawn in 2020 and again in 2024, Fremantle Park in 2022 and Freo.Social in 2025. Their history with the town goes back to the Union of Soul shows with the John Butler Trio at the Fremantle Arts Centre in 2008.

Their most recent show in the archive, at Sandalford Winery on 6 December 2025, was also in Western Australia.

The Waifs Australia Tour 2027: the winery and racecourse circuit

A large share of The Waifs' recent Australian shows have been outdoor afternoon and evening concerts at wineries, racecourses and parks: Sirromet Winery at Mount Cotton, Bimbadgen Estate and Roche Estate in Pokolbin, Mount Duneed Estate near Geelong, Lake Breeze Wines in Langhorne Creek, Rochford Winery in the Yarra Valley, Castelli Winery in Denmark and Mornington Racecourse, which they played in March 2025 and again in November 2025.

These shows usually come with shorter sets than their own theatre concerts, often eight to twelve songs, built around the best-known material: 'Highway One', 'How Many Miles', 'London Still', 'Ironbark', 'Bridal Train', 'Fisherman's Daughter' and 'Lighthouse'.

If 2027 follows the same pattern, it is likely to include some outdoor dates in the warmer months, but no such dates have been announced.

The Waifs Australia Tour 2027: New Zealand and the Tasman

No New Zealand concert by The Waifs appears in the records used for this page, and Wikipedia does not mention a New Zealand tour. Their overseas touring has centred on North America, from the Newport Folk Festival in 2001 to the Bob Dylan support tour of 2003.

That makes this an Australia-first story. If a New Zealand date is ever announced, it will appear on this page with venue and sale details.

The Waifs Australia Tour 2027: what to expect live

A full Waifs concert runs to about 20 songs. On the Up All Night 20th Anniversary Tour they played the album at the heart of the set: the Tivoli shows in Brisbane on 20 and 21 July 2023 opened with 'Fisherman's Daughter', 'Flesh and Blood', 'Nothing New' and 'London Still', took in 'Fourth Floor', 'Highway One', 'Since I've Been Around', 'Rescue', 'Sun Dirt Water', 'Lighthouse', 'Love Serenade', 'Ironbark', 'Sweetness', 'The Swing', 'How Many Miles', 'Three Down' and 'Up All Night', and closed with 'Heart in the Game', 'Gillian', 'Bridal Train' and 'Crazy Train'.

Festival and winery sets are shorter. At Port Macquarie on 5 April 2025 the archive lists 12 songs, from 'Highway One' and 'How Many Miles' through 'Born to Love', 'Love Is Like a T-Bone Steak' and 'Done and Dusted' to 'Lighthouse' and 'Crazy Train'. At Taronga Zoo in February 2024 the set stretched to 20 songs, including 'Pony', 'Willow Tree' and 'Dark Highway'.

Across the archive, the most played songs are 'London Still', 'Lighthouse', 'Fisherman's Daughter', 'Bridal Train', 'Highway One' and 'Ironbark', with 'Crazy Train' a frequent closer.

The Waifs Australia Tour 2027 tickets and presales

There are no tickets on sale for a 2027 Waifs tour of Australia or New Zealand, because none has been announced. Any site offering 2027 seats or a 'presale code' is not official.

The Waifs' shows are sold through each venue's official ticket outlet, and many of their regional theatre and winery concerts have small capacities. When dates are announced, buy only from the official outlet named for each venue or from the venue box office, expect name-linked mobile tickets at larger venues, and be careful with anyone selling codes.

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The Waifs Australia Tour 2027: questions and answers

Are The Waifs touring Australia in 2027?

No 2027 tour has been announced as of 9 October 2026.

When did The Waifs last play?

The most recent show in the concert archive is Sandalford Winery in Perth on Saturday 6 December 2025.

Have The Waifs played New Zealand?

No New Zealand concert appears in the records used for this page.

What was the Up All Night 20th Anniversary Tour?

A 2023 national tour marking 20 years since Up All Night, from Queenscliff in May to Broome in September, including the Palais Theatre, the State Theatre, The Tivoli and the Perth Concert Hall.

Where are The Waifs from?

Albany, Western Australia, where they formed in August 1992.

What is The Waifs' most successful album?

Up All Night (2003) went double platinum and won four ARIA Awards; Ironbark (2017) was their first number one album.

Did The Waifs play the Big Day Out?

Yes, in 2003, the year they also supported Bob Dylan on his Australian tour.

What songs do The Waifs usually play live?

'London Still', 'Lighthouse', 'Fisherman's Daughter', 'Bridal Train', 'Highway One' and 'Ironbark' are the most played in the archive.

Is there a presale code for The Waifs?

No 2027 shows are on sale, so any code offered now is not genuine.