Coronavirus Gold Coast: The Main Beach Flower Festival to go ahead despite COVID-19 pandemic

Thought to be the world’s first event of its kind, this Gold Coast festival will forge on in June.

NOT even a blooming global pandemic can stop the Main Beach Flower Festival from flourishing, with the Gold Coast event running on June 27 and 28.

Throughout the weekend floral magic will be brought to Tedder Ave in the form of street installations, with stores dressed in flowers. Virtual workshops will be held across the weekend with floral designers from Japan and Singapore beaming in.

Margot de Groot making paper butterflies at Flowers on Tedder ahead of The Main Beach Flower Show. Picture: Jason O'Brien

Organisers say the pièce de résistance will be a repurposed shipping container covered with artwork and filled with thousands of handmade butterflies. Gold Coasters are being asked to make butterflies, using materials found around the house, to help decorate the container.

Once completed, a 3D digital photographer will film inside the container and the footage shared online, giving people the opportunity to “walk around inside’’ the artwork through their computers and search for their butterflies.

The new-look event is thought to be world’s first “phygital’’ flower festival, in which physical space and digital technologies combine.

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Organising committee member and owner of Flowers on Tedder Margot de Groot said she hoped the new style of festival would uplift and rejuvenate the community.

“Given today’s circumstances of COVID-19, which followed Australia’s catastrophic bushfire season, we decided to design a festival that had the potential to truly involve the entire community and bring joy to their lives,” said Ms de Groot, who conceived the idea to hold

the inaugural festival in 2019.

The Main Beach Business and Tourism Association Incorporated, of which Mrs de Groot is president, is running the event.

Main Beach Business and Tourism Association Incorporated president Margot de Groot among the flowers decorating her shop. Picture: Jason O'Brien

She said it was hoped the festival would encourage Gold Coasters to support businesses in Tedder Ave affected by the coronavirus restrictions. Last year the festival attracted more than 10,000 people.

The festival’s artistic director and renowned floral art designer, Julia Rose, said she had already received hundreds of butterflies from art lovers across the globe, which she would place inside the shipping container at her Uki property.

“Butterflies are a symbol of re-emergence and growth so we felt they were ideal to feature.

Margot de Groot and Cr Darren Taylor at Flowers on Tedder. Picture: Jason O'Brien

“We want these butterflies to be as brilliant and bright as possible so this can become a magnificent immersive art installation made entirely out of butterflies,” she said.

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She said while the public was invited to attend the June festival, organisers did not want to encourage large crowds because of social distancing requirements.

The festival was given a grant from the Gold Coast City Council, and support from Division 10 councillor Darren Taylor and local businesses such as Corbett and Co Property Specialists and image consultant Rita Noon.

Butterflies can be posted to Julia Rose C/O Uki Post Office, 1464 Kyogle Road, Uki, NSW 2484, with those received after June 20, either digitally or physically, displayed in Tedder Avenue’s shop fronts. Visit mainbeachflowerfestival.com.au to learn more.