Spilt Milk is just the beginning of the overflowing Gold Coast festival calendar

One of Australia’s biggest festivals is heading to The Spit, and it’s just the beginning of our bumper festival line-up. See the full calendar.

MUSIC festivals are the new frontier of event tourism on the Gold Coast according to one of the city’s biggest event promoters.

Cross Promotions boss Billy Cross confirmed a stacked line-up of big events for the coming months, headlines but the Spilt Milk festival, one of Australia’s biggest music, food and art festivals, landing on The Spit in December.

Spilt Milk has sold out every year since it launched in 2016. Picture: Mackenzie Sweetnam

Mr Cross says it has been a long time coming for the massive event “put their footprint” in the region, which he had a hand in.

“When you talk about Spilt Milk, that’s 36,000 tickets for one day. It’s one of the biggest festivals in Australia with a massive line-up of massive names. And here it comes,” he said.

“These types of events put the Gold Coast on the event calendar.”

Spilt Milk, known for selling out within minutes every year since it launched in 2016, joins an already-stacked line-up of festivals and concerts through to 2023.

Spilt Milk has been a huge success in Ballarat and Canberra. Picture: Jess Gleeson

Mr Cross estimates nine or 10 festivals have committed to making the Gold Coast “their Queensland venue”, with many bringing big line-ups to Doug Jennings Park at The Spit.

And the park has already hosted the Promiseland Festival in the first weekend of October.

Promiseland, Australia’s first dedicated Afrobeats, Reggae and R&B festival, drew more than 20,000 people each day.

Mr Cross said the surge of festival bookings “shows the Gold Coast is the place to be”.

“Ten years ago you couldn’t talk a promoter into the Gold Coast, but now they’re all seeing it as the city to be,” he said.

“The Mayor has always called it the event city. Festivals are another arm of what the event city is all about.

“We’ve got great cultural festivals and community festivals here, this balances out the multipurpose city – that you can do so many things from concerts, high-level events, to festivals.”

The line-up is packed with renowned Australian and international acts. Picture: Jordan Munns.

The accessibility of the Gold Coast to Queensland and across the border boosted promoters’ confidence “that they can put their events here and sell tickets really well”.

Mr Cross estimates the sold-out Spilt Milk will be a multimillion-dollar economic boost, and reflects the changing face of tourism for the city.

“It’s not just branding for youth tourism, the economic benefit young people bring will be massive,” he said.

Young people, Mr Cross says, are the future of Gold coast tourism. Picture: Mackenzie Sweetnam

“We already cope with people from all ages, all people. We get families with the theme parks, and this caters for the 18-25 year old market that is the future of the Gold Coast.

“They’ll know and remember being here in their youth and then this pace becomes the place to go with their kids.”

In the arts space, HOTA programming director Mick Auckland said the Gold Coast had done an “amazing job” putting into place the “scaffolding” to support arts and culture as key pillars.

Picture: Nigel Hallett

“The crossover between culture and our exploding film industry is going to be really exciting over the coming decade as the work becomes more constant,” he said.

“As places like HOTA get more developed, people will see us as a city which is a great place to do their art because they will have a major outlet.

“We need to keep developing our audience who is coming to HOTA but also understand those who aren’t coming, why and what we can do to attract them.”

Paul Donovan, who serves as chairman of Events Management Queensland Gold Coast, which looks after big money outings such as the Gold Coast Marathon and Pan Pacific Games said he was a “big supporter” of the city’s level of events planning.

Paul Donovan is a “big supporter” of the city’s events planning. Picture: Richard Gosling

“They want to populate the 52 weeks of the year – and they are heading that way.

“The commentary on having three major events at one weekend, that happens all the time. It’s a matter of trying to get more than one event a week. 

“Don’t be blindsided by the fact that on one weekend there were three events recently because every weekend there are multiple events. There is no perfect storm – it’s when people want to come and what they want to do.

“The more events the better it will be for the city. We have more hotel rooms than anywhere we have to fill up, more restaurants from Coolangatta to Sanctuary Cove and they all need to be filled up”.

NEXT SIX MONTHS OF FESTIVALS:

Schoolies Nation – Wed, Nov 23 at The Spit

Festival X – Sun, Nov 27 at Metricon Stadium

Spilt Milk – Sun, Dec 4 at The Spit

Good Love – Sat, Feb 4 at The Spit

For The Love – Sat, Feb 25 at The Spit

Lunar Electric – March at The Spit

Ultra Australia – April at The Spit

Red Hot Summer Tour – Sat, Apr 22 at Broadwater Parklands

Originally published as Spilt Milk is just the beginning of the overflowing Gold Coast festival calendar