35,000 music fans expected to converge on Coolangatta Beach for new festival ‘Sandtunes’

MUSIC fans from around the world are expected to converge on the Gold Coast for the debut of a new two-day outdoor music festival that’s massive in the US. Here’s how we landed it.

MUSIC fans from around the world are expected to converge on the Gold Coast for the debut of a new two-day outdoor music festival in December next year.

Council yesterday gave TEG Dainty, US partner AEG and local partner Cross Promotions approval to bring mega US music brand HangOut to the Coast next year.

To be known as SandTunes, the groundbreaking two-day offshoot of the popular US event will play Coolangatta Beach on December 1-2, 2018.

The largest event of its kind to be staged on a Gold Coast beach, the festival will feature two stages and cater for up to 35,000 people on the stretch of sand between Kirra and Greenmount. People will still be able to access the beach and surf during the event.

Hangout festival in the US. Photo: Hangout

Organisers estimate the event will generate at least $14m in average visitor spend (about $400 per patron) during the off-peak tourist season.

The Gold Coast Bulletin understands the event will take up at least twice as much space on the sand and foreshore of Coolangatta as Opera Australia’s Opera on the Beach — Aida.

Two councillors voted against the proposal at yesterday’s full council meeting — Division 14 councillor Gail O’Neill and Division 12 councillor Pauline Young.

Hangout festival in the US. Photo: Hangout

The promoters secured a five-year deal with a five-year option on condition SandTunes is the only Hangout brand festival in Australia for the term of the agreement.

The exclusivity clause will help ensure the licensed, 18+ festival is a major drawcard with music tourists from Australia and overseas, the same way Splendour in the Grass has powered visitors to Byron.

TEG Dainty president and CEO Paul Dainty told The Gold Coast Bulletin the Coast was the optimal location for SandTunes.

Opera on the Beach, Coolangatta. Image supplied Sunday Escape

“This will be a destination event exclusive to one site within Australia,” he said.

Mr Dainty said the consortium’s collective experience would help ensure a sustainable and successful event.

The partners will now finalise marketing and ticketing campaigns and develop a detailed site plan through consultation with local stakeholders.

The Bulletin understands SandTunes will be advertised as a no-parking event, with 300 buses to ferry people to and from the precinct. Marine Parade will be closed to traffic on the two event days.

The Hangout Beach, Music and Arts Festival

Major Projects and Economic Development Committee chair Cr Hermann Vorster said the festival would inject “tens of millions of dollars” into the local economy “at no cost to council”.

“We get everything we want as a city without having to put our hands in our pocket.”

Local area councillor Gail O’Neill said she strongly objected to the event being held on the beach.

“I love the Gold Coast, I love festivals, I love music events but this belongs somewhere else, not on Coolangatta Beach,” she said.

Deputy Mayor Donna Gates said SandTunes was too great an opportunity for the Coast to pass up.

“We are extremely lucky and this is a major coup.”

HELLO HANGOUT

THE three-day annual US HangOut Music Festival, known as HangOut Fest or HangOut, is a beach, music and arts festival first held on the public beaches of Gulf Shores, Alabama, in 2010.

The event features a mix of rock, indie, hip hop, and electronic dance music across two stages located at opposite ends of the beach as well as the Boom Boom Tent.

The festival, the first major music festival held on the beach in Alabama, usually takes place on the third weekend in May.

SandTunes promoters: Cross Promotions' Billy Cross, TEG Dainty president and CEO Paul Dainty and SandTunes production manager Colin Skals.

Acts that have performed at Hangout Fest include The Flaming Lips, Florence and the Machine, Ellie Goulding, Fetty Wap, The Weekend, Queens of the Stone Age, The Avett Brothers, Foo Fighters, Paul Simon, Widespread Panic, Jack White, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dave Matthews Band, Kings of Leon, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Stevie Wonder, OutKast, The Killers, Paramore, The Black Keys and Twenty One Pilots.

The festival markets holiday ticket and accommodation packages from a range of providers designed to encourage music tourists to extend their stay — from options within walking distance of the event site through to others located along easy-access public transport routes.