Gold Coast Eisteddfod: Untold story of city’s biggest entertainment success story

It’s 38 years old and has touched generations of Gold Coasters. It has launched glittering careers. But it takes an incredible amount of work to organise. This is the untold story of our greatest festival.

THE Gold Coast’s biggest entertainment success story remains largely unwritten, rarely getting the limelight or featuring in the headlines or reviews.

At 38 years old, three generations of Gold Coasters are touched by it, some recalling being a little frightened while others were hypnotised by the spotlight. Many have been inspired to pursue careers overseas.

National Academy of Performing Arts at the Gold Coast Eisteddfod. Move Photography by Ryan Kettle.

General manager Judith Ferber is still lost in the magic of the Gold Coast Eisteddfod.

For seven weeks she watches as the heartbeats of waiting parents stop while their children’s begin to speed up as a performance starts on stage at HOTA.

“People say to me what’s the best part of the Eisteddfod,” Ms Ferber says.

“I say standing back stage watching a child who’s never been on stage, who has come from the front of the theatre to the back of the theatre. We put them in a dressing room and we take them on a stage and they go ‘Ooh!’

“That’s the thrill, that’s why we do it. They go outside their own sphere, outside the school, outside entertaining for their parents. They’re on a big professional stage in front of an audience. It’s quite incredible.”

Judith Ferber and Kerry Watson, the force behind the Eisteddfod. Picture: Regina King.

Photo galleries at the Bulletin reveal Gaven MP Meaghan Scanlon, the State’s youngest female MP, has been among the performers. She started at five and continued to perform until 17.

“I did all the speech and drama, and I definitely did all the dance events,” she says, chuckling at the thought of her mother driving to eisteddfods.

“It was a fantastic opportunity to get up on stage with so many of my friends and see so many other children from dance schools across the state.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for kids to step out on stage and get rid of those nerves and hone their craft, taking advice on board from adjudicators and improving your performance.”

Gaven MP Meaghan Scanlon when a student at an eisteddfod (far right) with Crystal O'Rourke and Megganne Smits.

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But those moments could have been lost if Ms Ferber and the late entertainer and television personality Paul Sharratt had decided not go on with the show.

Back in 1982 they ran Tropicarnival, the city’s first festival which included a big street parade in Surfers Paradise, free concerts and teddy bear picnics.

It was a much friendlier time for staging events, when organisers rather than police directed floats to take left turns towards The Esplanade and the beach. The eisteddfod was attached to the program.

“Keith Hunt was the mayor and he proposed that the Gold Coast needed a festival to bring the Coast together because we were a series of little villages,” Ms Ferber says.

“I hadn’t had much experience with eisteddfods. It grew each year. When the festival finished in 2000, the board and I thought it was too important not to continue.”

Guardian Angels Band at the Gold Coast Eisteddfod. Move Photography by Ryan Kettle.

In that first year at Miami Hall, 600 students performed.

Judith Ferber hunts around her busy office, searching for the numbers for this year for the not-for-profit event. At several venues across the city there will be 350 bands, 175 choirs, 2500 solo dancers and 1100 dance groups.

Performers, aged 20 and under, will come from everywhere, including down south. About 40 dance soloists are booked from Singapore, Hong Kong and China.

EISTEDDFOD 2019: DAY ONE IN PICTURES

City councillor Bob La Castra, who is a singer and before his local government career was an actor in television series, marvels at the Gold Coast Eisteddfod’s growth and standard of performance.

“It’s getting bigger and better. It’s got to the point where it is so big it’s very hard to contain,” Cr La Castra says.

“It’s spread out to other venues. It’s too much to hold at HOTA. It’s a very prestigious thing now. The competition is so high.

Rize Dance Company at the Gold Coast Eisteddfod. Move Photography by Ryan Kettle.

“It’s wonderful. Judith and Kerry (Watson) are iconic Gold Coasters. All too often people just get caught up with the negative about our youth. It encapsulates everything that is positive about them.”

Mr Watson, the founding chairman, has been on the musical journey with Ms Ferber from the start. They have visited Wales, the home of eisteddfods, returned and rated the Coast.

“I say the Gold Coast is the biggest in the world. Eisteddfods are made up of different things around the world. But in terms of the disciplines or genre that we cover, there is nobody else in the world that has such a huge variety and over a length of time. When you think about it, for little old Gold Coast we haven’t done too bad,” he says.

Danielles Studio Academy at the Gold Coast Eisteddfod. Move Photography by Ryan Kettle.

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Much like his successful involvement in the Gold Coast Marathon and Pan Pacific Games, for Mr Watson the key had been assembling the right team.

“In all the things I’ve been involved with, my first thing is you get the right people, then the second thing you do is everything you touch is quality. With Judith, we were lucky to pick the right one there from day one,” Mr Watson says.

“Judith has run that place like a machine, with absolute discipline and quality, but also a clear understanding of the needs and wants of the people participating.’’

Consequently, people knew the eisteddfod was well run.

“And they know it’s not run on any snobbish styles or anything. Every square is equal. The reputation has just grown,” he says.

Mr Watson is under no illusion of how southern audiences once judged the Coast on culture.

KOTB Performing Academy at the Gold Coast Eisteddfod. Move Photography by Ryan Kettle.

He is a realist about the Coast’s youth as a city and potential of its youngest residents.

“The Gold Coast is the new city. Let’s not kid ourselves, it’s not a Sydney or Melbourne. And one of the things it keeps coming back to – because it’s new it has no background, it’s a cultural desert,” he says.

“I’ve always been keen to try to instil in the city a sense of pride in terms that we can compete with anybody. It’s just a matter of how we get in and start to organise ourselves to educate our kids.

Sheridans Studio 1 at the Gold Coast Eisteddfod. Move Photography by Ryan Kettle.

“That’s what the eisteddfod is doing. There a huge genre of disciplines. When they go and perform they get confidence. It’s turning out citizens into the community I would hope that have confidence in their own ability to achieve things.”

Judith Ferber is backstage. Her own heart, as a parent of this big show, skips a beat at the bright uniforms.

“Look at these kids, aren’t they fantastic,’’ she says.

“We’ve had a few kids who have fainted and felt sick and nervous and we have had the occasional wet floor.”

AB Paterson Choir at the Gold Coast Eisteddfod. Photograph supplied by Move Photography.

She laughs at the memories.

“That’s all part of it. I believe it’s totally underrated, people don’t understand how fantastic it is. They gone from being kids playing to what you would hear in a full-blown Boston symphony orchestra.”