Sunshine Coast Mayor Rosanna Natoli not ‘actively considering’ private takeover of Caloundra Music Festival

Thrown a funding lifeline a little over a year ago, the Caloundra Music Festival’s 2024 canning came as a shock to many, but the region’s newly elected mayor maintains bringing in a private company to run the event is not being “actively considered”.

Kings Beach Park and Community Precinct during the Caloundra Music Festival.

The newly-elected Sunshine Coast Mayor has claimed bringing a private company in to run the Caloundra Music Festival, following news of it’s 2024 hiatus, is not something she is “actively considering”.

The Sunshine Coast Council announced Tuesday the long-running music festival held annually at Kings Beach, Caloundra would not be going ahead in 2024 due to an increase in costs.

A council spokeswoman said it was estimated a 21,224-strong crowd attended the 2023 festival, failing to live up to the pre-covid years where attendance regularly surpassed 30,000.

The move to “pause” the event came after the council made a controversial commitment in February last year to provide an additional $275,000 per year in funding to the festival, despite its poor performance in 2022.

This additional funding was intended to keep the festival up and running a further three years.

Although the funding increase was eventually passed with unanimous support, some Sunshine Coast councillors argued it was worth looking to private entities to ensure the festival’s success long-term.

Councillor Maria Suarez argued the council should considered bring in a private company to run the festival in the future.

Councillor Maria Suarez said the council should consider the delivery model of the festival and whether it was more financially viable for a private company to come in and take over.

“I argued that council needed to look at all options to make the festival more financially viable, such as reviewing the delivery model for the festival which could include allowing a private entity to take over the festival,” Ms Suarez said.

When it was put to councillor Taylor Bunnag whether he would support a private company takeover of the festival he echoed the thoughts of Ms Suarez.

“Yes, that should be considered as part of the overall discussion in terms of the long-term future of the festival,” Mr Bunnag said.

Isabella Depold and Nicky Palmer at Caloundra Music Festival. Picture: Patrick Woods.

“The message I heard loud and clearly from the community is that there must be a balanced outlook from council on getting our service basics right, while also looking at ways to support major arts, cultural and sporting events like the Caloundra Music Festival.”

However, Sunshine Coast Mayor Rosanna Natoli said allowing a private entity to take over the Caloundra Music Festival into the future was not currently being considered.

“This is not something we are actively considering currently, and any funding model would ultimately be a decision of council,” Ms Natoli said.