Accommodation concerns won’t deter promoters from Coolangatta SandTunes beach concert

Acommodation is no concern for promoters as a new Gold Coast beach festival is expected to attracted 35,000 a day.

Accommodation concerns regarding the planned SandTunes beach concert at Coolangatta have failed to deter promoters from going ahead with the events at the end of the year.

The beach concerts, expected to attract 35,000 per day on November 30 and December 1, come at a time of the year which is at the start of the peak holiday period on the Gold Coast which also includes the second week of NSW Schoolies.

At a business breakfast organised by the Greater Southern Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce, promoter TEG Dainty representatives took questions form the floor concerning the event, including the time of the year and what benefits it would bring to Coolangatta.

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

TEG Dainty communications spokesman Dan Barr said the festival was timed to cater for big name overseas artists who would be available out of the Northern Hemisphere touring season.

Currumbin MP Jann Stuckey questioned the benefit the event would bring to Coolangatta, given that many of the accommodation houses had already taken bookings for the summer holidays.

She also asked about the noise footprint of the event and raised the point that while the focus of promoters and TEQ had been on bringing visitors to the city and Coolangatta, there had been little consultation with local residents as to the impact it would have on them.

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Mr Barr said the event, which was being supported by Tourism and Events Queensland, was designed not just to bring people to Coolangatta but to the Gold Coast region and the promoters had been assured by TEQ that the Coast had the capacity to accommodate the expected influx of festival goers.

“This festival is designed to bring people here to stay for several days, not the drive market and TEQ has indicated that they expected about a third of those coming would be from out of state or overseas,” he said.

The festival could see as many as 35,000 a day pack the beach.

While acknowledging that many festival goers might not stay directly in Coolangatta, he said the town would benefit from them coming to the precinct and frequenting local businesses prior to and after the music sessions which would run from noon to 9am each day.

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Local Councillor Gail O’Neill, who has opposed the timing of the festival also questioned how SandTunes would deliver significant benefits to Coolangatta given the impact of setting up and bump out of the precinct would take.

TEG Dainty site operations manger Darren Bell said the construction phases had been reduced to 12 days to set up and a week to pack up and restore the site.

“All noise management has to comply with standards set by the Gold Coast City Council and we will be working to address those issue,” he said.