Red dirt never quite washes out, as crowds and performers at Australia's biggest outback music festival know.
Thousands of red dust-coated campers will pack up their chattels on Sunday and form an orderly motorcade through Broken Hill as they head home, far and wide across Australia, after three days of music and fun in outback NSW.
The famed Mundi Mundi Bash music festival dialled up the fun to raise funds for great causes on its third and final day on Saturday, with a successful Nutbush World Record attempt and a Mad Max Gathering in tribute to the two George Miller films shot on the festival grounds.
The music and camping escape sold out before gates opened this year, prompting the question: is there a limit to how big it can get?
"There is," festival director Greg Donovan says.
"And I think we're around about that limit at the moment."
The festival is staged at Belmont Station, 9km north of Silverton and 35km from Broken Hill, and has become an annual pilgrimage for many.
Friday's highlights included stellar performances by Birds of Tokyo, Missy Higgins and Iota's tribute to David Bowie while Leo Sayer, Kate Ceberano and the Hoodoo Gurus topped the bill on Saturday.
Sayer, making his Mundi debut, asked if he could come back next year; ditto Dragon vocalist Mark Williams. It's an oft-repeated refrain.
After five events in four years, word has spread among punters too, with this year's bash welcoming some 6000 vehicles and almost 15,000 people.
"I think that's the limit where everyone can have a good time," Donovan told AAP.
"We still have a good number of people and a great atmosphere.
"If you go too big and get too greedy, that might work for a year or two, but then you're on a slippery slope and you get people going 'I don't want to go to that, it's too crowded', 'you can't do this, you have to wait in line for this and that', 'we're camped too far away' - you know, all that."
The festival - which Donovan says has a population "close to the size of Broken Hill itself" - has become a welcome lifeline for the region, generating an estimated $20 million in economic activity.
It's a huge operation that transforms the red-dirt plains of far-west NSW into the pop-up community of Mundiville - a Burning Man-style mobile phone reception-free utopia for families and grey nomads.
There are market stalls, food vendors, an on-site mechanic, medical centre, prescription delivery service, yoga and kids' activities and all things camping and caravanning trade fair-style stalls.
Donovan said the bash was attracting more young people and families "even though it's not in the school holidays".
"More pushbikes. More dogs," he said.
"The kids have a good time here and they learn a lot being in the outback. They can see what happens around here."
While Mundiville won't be growing in size, Donovan says its future is assured.
"We've got a lease for the next couple of years and we're starting to talk about the longer term now," he said.
Sister event the Big Red Bash, will return to Birdsville, in western Queensland, in 2026 after sitting out 2025, but Donovan ruled out adding other events to his roster - despite interest from other states.
"We're happy to focus on the two events that we've got and make them the best we can," he said.
