Why Gold Coast actually needs to turn up the volume

The DJ Fisher event at the weekend was loud. Very loud. And hooray for that, writes Keith Woods.

Your columnist was in central Southport on Sunday.

So too was a chap called DJ Fisher.

If you didn’t know he was in town before starting your day, you certainly knew by the end of it.

In the midst of entertaining more than 20,000 fans at the Broadwater Parklands, Mr Fisher made himself heard. Very well heard.

The high tempo and thumping beats could be heard from quite a distance away.

It was certainly loud and clear from your columnist’s Southport perch.

It emerged later that the situation – which also took place on Saturday – offended the ears of some local residents.

“The noise from the Broadwater Parklands is unacceptable,” one resident said.

Another simply intoned: “We deserve to live in peace.”

Having encountered the sounds myself, while trying to work no less, I too found strong emotions welling in my soul.

Not to turn down the volume, though. Rather, wishing I could turn back the clock 20 years and get the hell over there and join the party.

DJ Fisher headlines two day Out 2 Lunch festival at Broadwater Parklands. Photo: Crystal Fox

Fans enjoying the show at the Broadwater Parklands. Photo: Crystal Fox

The DJ Fisher event – officially known as Out 2 Lunch Festival – is the kind of show the Gold Coast needs more of, not less.

This city already caters very well to older residents. We need to do more and better for our youth.

That’s actually something that’s in all our interests.

As things stand, we are staring down the barrel of a demographic crisis. Long Australia’s playground, the Gold Coast is becoming unaffordable and thus quite unwelcoming for young people.

Fewer are able to settle here and start families of their own. Census figures show that the city’s fertility rate has dropped enormously in recent years, while the overall population ages.

It’s also why enrolment numbers at Gold Coast state schools have been falling.

The suburb of Main Beach, not far from DJ Fisher’s performance, is a stunning case in point. Just nine newborns were welcomed to its ranks in 2023, a stunningly low number.

Housing is quite obviously a big part of the problem. A generation of government policies that favour fattening the nest of people who were already quite comfortable, at the expense of younger people who have become a generation of renters, has seen to that.

And now what, we bitterly object when young people let their hair down and have a somewhat exuberant party?

DJ Fisher. Photo: Supplied.

We need to change our ideas.

Sure, the Gold Coast can become a great big retirement village, if that’s what people want.

But even a retirement village needs young people.

After the fun of the weekend, many of those who attended the DJ Fisher concert will have returned to their busy jobs making our coffees, keeping our shops well stocked, providing expert medical care at clinics and hospitals.

If this place is to be liveable for all, the Gold Coast needs to be inviting for all. Including young people.

Part of that is allowing them to let their hair down occasionally. And yes, make a bit of noise.

In a safe and well-managed environment, such as the Broadwater Parklands was at the weekend.

More power to them.

Follow @keithjwoods

Originally published as Why Gold Coast actually needs to turn up the volume