Coolangatta Beach: Giant music festival planned for May 2024 during WSL Gold Coast event

Some councillors have raised serious concerns before a critical vote on a giant beach music event for Coolangatta. FIND OUT THE FESTIVAL’S FATE.

Some councillors have raised safety concerns and called for wider public consultation before giving final approval to a giant beach music festival during an international surf event at Coolangatta.

The unnamed festival is earmarked to be held at Queen Elizabeth Park and Coolangatta Beach on May 4 next year and is predicted to inject more than $5m into the economy.

Gold Coast City Council officers in a report presented to the economy, tourism and events committee on Tuesday recommended approval of the festival, which has been pitched by events giant TEG Live, headed by Paul Dainty.

Council officers in a report said “electronic dance music will be played, and food trucks, bars and market stalls will be included”.

“The proposed concert would be a significant play for the Coolangatta region,” an officer told councillors.

But the debate and vote by councillors showed they were strongly divided.

The proposed music festival will be held at Queen Elizabeth Park and Coolangatta Beach in May 2024.

The planned seven-hour concert, to be held on the final day of the World Surf League series at Snapper Rocks – both in the park and on the beach – would be second only to Cooly Rocks On in terms of large events for the area.

Area representative Gail O’Neill, after speaking to surf lifesavers, residents and businesses, urged colleagues to oppose it. She could not vote at the committee.

“I won’t be able to support this at full council. I don’t feel it is the right location,” she said.

“I’m disappointed the World Surf League is backing this event to be on the beach – and it’s not a small amount of beach.”

Cr O’Neill said Coolangatta Surf Lifesaving Club would not operate on the day of the concert. The Rainbow Bay club had written to her saying the electronic music beach concert would be “hugely disrespective of the area” and create safety, security and traffic issues.

Officers said council lifeguards services would undertake a safety review and recommendation on numbers to be provided on the beach, with their services billed to the promoter.

Councillor Glenn Tozer urged for the promoter to also help fund lifeguards handling extra crowds on the edge of the concert event fence line.

Officers confirmed the “out of pocket costs” for council would be funded by event organisers.

Councillors were told community consultation would occur before “official approval”.

If approved, the new concert will be become part of the World Surf League event which is expected to be held annually at Snapper Rocks and “delivered at no cost to Council”.

Paul Dainty’s TEG Live has approached council with plans to hold the event.

Councillor Donna Gates said Queen Elizabeth Park was an excellent venue, and promoters should be “embraced” for bringing in beach events.

The Deputy Mayor put up a motion which supported wider consultation before the presentation of the final event management plan.

“We will suffer great reputational damage if we don’t support an event like this. We are striving to be the events capital of Australia,” Cr Gates said.

Cr O’Neill maintained there would be no reputational damage if the event was stopped, and suggested the concert organiser should have undertaken community consultation earlier. Her other concerns included damage to the park if a rain event occurred.

“I’m protecting my area. If you are going to have it on the beach, I think the perfect place is Surfers Paradise,” she said.

The committee vote to progress the event application was 3-3. Chair Bob La Castra, who believed enough beach safeguards would be put in place, used his casting vote.

Those councillors opposed were Pauline Young, Brooke Patterson and Darren Taylor. Cr La Castra, Cr Tozer and Cr Gates voted in favour.

How TEG expected SandTunes to look.

Councillors at a full council meeting next Monday will make a final decision.

TEG Live say the event would attract 30,000 fans, most of them aged 18-35 years.

“With approximately 70 per cent of attendees expected to travel from outside the Gold Coast (based on benchmarking similar concerts), the projected total visitor spend of the event is over $5.5m and a $4.7m value add (economic impact) into the Gold Coast economy,” the report to council reads.

TEG Live working with Gold Coast events promoter Billy Cross, was behind plans in 2019 to hold music festival SandTunes at the same beach with that event scrapped after residents and some businesses staged a marathon protest.

Council will retain the right of determining similar events proposed for Coolangatta or Greenmount Beach, with applications considered on a “case-by-case basis”.

Mr Cross declined to comment when approached by the Bulletin on Monday but said the festival, if held would be “huge”.

SandTunes was cancelled weeks out from being held.

SandTunes was first proposed in September 2017, with plans to hold a two-day event in December 2018 and cater for crowds of 35,000 people across two stages.

However, the event copped a significant backlash from traders and political leaders who argued it would shut down the beach from public access just months after the difficult conditions faced during the Commonwealth Games.

Rapper Travis Scott was named as the headline act.

The event was then moved to Carrara Stadium for 2019 before TEG pulled the plug just three weeks out because of poor ticket sales.

Officers in their report listed several reasons why the event would be different to SandTunes.

The concert would be much shorter, cater for less than half the crowd and involve a quick bump-in and bump-out turnaround along with much less use of the beach.

The concert “will create a unique opportunity to promote the Gold Coast – and specifically the southern Gold Coast region – as a tourism and events destination to a significant global audience”, the report said.