Peter Noble (music promoter)

Peter Bruce Noble
Peter Noble at the Bluesfest office in Byron Bay
Occupation	Director Bluesfest Byron Bay
Years active	1960s–present
Website	Bluesfest Byron Bay; Bluesfest Touring Byron Bay; AIM Records

Peter Bruce Noble OAM is an Australian entrepreneur active in the music industry for almost 50 years. He is best known as co-founder and festival director of the annual Bluesfest Byron Bay, which has been running since 1990. The 5-day festival is now held every Easter at the Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, just north of Byron Bay, a New South Wales beachside town.

Peter Noble’s significant contribution to the industry was recognised in 2014 when he was awarded The Rolling Stone Australia Award for his services to Australian Music. On Australia Day 2016, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to live and recorded music, to tourism, and to the community.

By the time Bluesfest turned 25 years old it had won 27 awards including four Australian Helpmann Awards for Best Contemporary Music Festival and Australian Event of the Year at the Australian Event Awards, nominations at the prestigious Pollstar Awards for Best International Music Festival, received 17 further award nominations. It was the only Australian festival listed in Billboard’s 2014 Top 10 festivals.

Peter Noble has been a music industry professional for over forty years and his contribution to the industry has been recognised with many accolades including the Rolling Stone Award for his services to Australian music.

Drawn to music from an early age, the Sydney-born bassist played in rock, soul and blues bands during the 1960s and '70s, taking leading roles with artists including Clapham Junction, and Marcia Hines. Following extensive national and international touring, Peter settled in the USA and set up Portland, Oregon’s first International Jazz Festival, and was house booker at The Earth venue.

Peter returned home to Australia at the beginning of the 1980s, and became a pioneer for blues touring in Australia. As a direct result of Noble’s efforts, soul, jazz, blues and reggae artists found a promoter, and a wide audience in Australia for the first time.

He began booking international acts in Byron Bay with the East Coast Blues Festival in 1990, and became a director in 1993. Peter coined the term "Blues & Roots Music Festival" in 1996 to encompass the growing reach and flavour of the festival – a term which would soon find common usage throughout the Australian music industry - typified when within 12 months the ARIA Awards created a Blues & Roots category as one of their major awards.