Annual Schoolies festival begins on Gold Coast with 20,000 school-leavers expected
The annual Schoolies festival is under way on the Gold Coast, with more than 20,000 teenagers preparing to party in Surfers Paradise.
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The annual Schoolies tsunami has swept the Gold Coast as more than 20,000 teenagers begin celebrations at Surfers Paradise.
After two years marred by Covid-19, hordes of Queensland year 12 graduates started pouring into Surfers early Saturday afternoon for the week-long party.
With many of the revellers now over 18, there has been speculation the official Schoolies event, including the carefully managed safety response, will soon become obsolete, but Queensland Youth Affairs Minister Meaghan Scanlon said no one was calling “time” on Schoolies just yet.
She said the extra responders helped take pressure off existing police and other services, but the formal response would be reassessed over time to determine if it was still worth the investment of time and resources.
She had a simple message for the schoolies preparing to kickstart a week of revelry.
“Enjoy this week in Surfers, you deserve it after a really tough couple of years,” she said.
About 130 extra police officers have been assigned to the Glitter Strip for the week, joining thousands of support workers and volunteers to supervise an event which pumps an estimated $30m a year into the Gold Coast economy.
By early Saturday afternoon, large queues had formed outside the official registration centre – where schoolies get the fluoro wristbands that give them access to Schoolies events – and hotel lobbies as crowds checked into their accommodation for the week.
After that it was down to the famous Surfers Paradise beach, where a makeshift Schoolies city has been erected on the sand.
By 9pm, the Surfers Paradise beachfront was a heaving mass of teens hugging, dancing and drinking the night away.
While most are now old enough to get into nightclubs, the beach was the place to be with huge crowds for an open air concert on the sand.
Many schoolies turned out in the remnants of ripped and torn uniforms as part of a “Back to School” theme promoted by a local nightclub.
It took until after 10pm for the night’s first schoolie arrest, with a teenage boy led by police in handcuffs to a waiting van near the beachfront and transported to the nearby police station.
Earlier in the day, Bella Campbell from AB Paterson College on the Gold Coast was one of the thousands of 18-year-olds arriving in Surfers and said she was looking forward to beach parties, nightclubs and hangover remedies.
“We plan on chilling by the pool and beach to tan the hangovers away,” she said.
Among the schoolies at the Surfers Paradise party zone was the daughter of Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll, who said she shared the trepidation of other parents but wanted to reassure them that their children would be safe.
“It’s definitely a very nervous time for parents,” she said.
“My own daughter is here so I will be checking in with her if she’s not checking in with me.”
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