Remote towns in Australia are partying. Not because the rains have finally come — sadly, they haven't — but because festival spirit is spreading fast.

Right across the country, music festivals are popping up and bringing communities together.

Some are large events well-known to a national audience, like the Big Red Bash in Birdsville, which this year boasts Midnight Oil as a headliner.

Others are small, homegrown affairs, like Music in the Mulga, held on a cattle property 900 kilometres west of Brisbane.

Country halls bring locals together

The Festival of Small Halls travels the country, run by the festival heavyweights behind Woodford Folk Festival in Queensland's Sunshine Coast hinterland.

Organisers came up with the idea to help revitalise small towns through their local halls, which festival producer Eleanor Rigden says are a precious part of regional communities.

Bronwyn Hatty updates the sign outside the Ganmain community hall. ( ABC: Haline Baczkowski )

"Every building that we go to, people talk to us about the memories that are engrained in the walls of those halls, and they're too special to let go," she said.

"Regional Australia is a fantastic place full of thriving communities and they need access to the arts in the same way that people in the cities do."

The latest festival ran from March to Easter this year and took place in halls across regional South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales.

In the small town of Ganmain in the Riverina region of New South Wales, locals couldn't wait for the much-anticipated event.

"When you're in drought, it's particularly hard because you do withdraw a little bit," Hall Committee secretary Bronwyn Hatty said.

"That's why events like this are good — a burden shared is a burden halved.

"It's great for everybody's mental health to still maintain that community."

Eudlo, a small inland town on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, has also hosted the festival and has since leveraged off its success.

Local organisers created Eudlo Music Nights, a three-day event showcasing local talent that first launched in April 2018.

Funds made from the festival go towards maintaining the local historic hall and town assets.

The Eudlo Hall Committee organises the three-day festival, with all the funds going back into the town. ( ABC: Halina Baczkowski )

Diversifying in tough times

In the remote town of Karumba in the Gulf of Carpentaria, the local council has made the most of government grants to promote outback tourism.

The region is known as one of Australia's best barramundi fishing spots, but locals wanted to give tourists more reasons to visit than just wetting a line.

The Council launched its inaugural Barra and Blues festival in April this year.

It's the brainchild of Verena Olesch, tourism manager at the Carpentaria Shire Council.

"It creates an event where [though] it might not be school holidays, it could be a little bit outside the normal seasons, [it] provides more economic growth in the region," she said.

Music in the Mulga attracts visitors and volunteers from all over the country. ( ABC: Halina Baczkowski )

At the other end of the scale are Carmel and Dave Meurant, owners of Wandilla Station outside Eulo in south-west Queensland, who run their Music in the Mulga festival completely on their own.

It was born from a need to diversify as drought set in.

"There's not a lot of things you can do in this district for diversification, it's all just sheep and cattle," Mrs Meurant said.

"The tourism industry is something that we can use to attract them in this area for a bit longer."

The festival has been a triumph, running for 12 years and attracting people from all over the country.

Ms Meurant's festival has been running for 12 years. ( Supplied )

Jeanine Martine runs a cafe in nearby Cunnamulla, but this year, she closed up shop so she could attend the festival.

"It boosts everyone's morale to walk away from their properties and all their troubles to come to something like this," she said.

"I've seen so many people today and kids I went to school with who come back for just this."

Not in it for the money

Mr and Mrs Meurant calculated that last year, Music in the Mulga raised about $500,000 for the region through tourism.

Despite this success, the festival itself isn't a money-maker.

It costs nearly $200,000 a year and in drought time, money is tight.

"We panic some years and we have had to sell stock to pay for it in years when it hasn't broken even," Mrs Meurant said.

Big hats and red dirt are key features of Music in the Mulga. ( ABC: Halina Baczkowski )

In Ganmain, the Festival of Small Halls also ran at a loss in its first year.

"We're prepared to run at a loss or break even, we don't expect to make any money," Ms Hatty said.

"It's a great community event and I think it's important to run with these opportunities and say yes, even if you think you might run at a loss."

Watch this story on ABC TV's Landline this Sunday at 12:30pm or on iView.