Gold Coast pop-up beach club trial: First chance to experience Kurrawa Beach Club

Beachgoers can sip on a seltzer with the sand between their toes from this Saturday at the opening of the Coast's first beach club. DETAILS

 BEACHGOERS can sip on a seltzer with the sand between their toes from this Saturday. 

The pop-up Kurrawa Beach Club opens from noon until 10pm, offering a beach-edge club with licensed bar and kitchen at Kurrawa Terrace.

Staff have been busy setting up white and blue cabanas, sunlounges, day beds and beach umbrellas for the trial beach club. 

Drinks will set you back $9 for a schooner of beer or $16 for a cocktail.

Margarita slushies, cooler packs of seltzer, wine, spirits and beers are also on the menu. 

The Gold Coast City Council has awarded the opportunity to submit an event application for a two-month beach club trial to hospitality giant Australian Venue Co. Picture: Supplied

Australian Venue Co chair Bob East said the trial would run until January 30. 

“It’s going to be a world-class experience on a world-class beach,” he said.

“As we come out of Covid, it’s an amazing opportunity to showcase something new and something exciting to the locals and visitors.”  

The anticipated Kurrawa Beach Club will open at Kurrawa Terrace on Saturday, 4th December. Chair of Australian Venue Co Bob East and Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate toast and inspect the under-construction bar . Picture Glenn Hampson

The club will host acoustic artists on Thursdays from 6pm and DJs will hit the decks on the weekend. 

An official launch party will be held on December 11 from 5pm, where locals are invited for an afternoon of live music, summer sips and lucky door prizes. 

Mr East said the key to a successful trial would be “attendance and enjoyment”. 

“It’s about blending in with this incredible environment,” he said. 

“For us, success will look like a venue that really works for the community, that works for visitors and that residents who live nearby also embrace.” 

Kurrawa Beach Club drinks menu

Breanna Gulleford is looking forward to enjoying a drink on the Gold Coast beach ahead of a new beach club that's opening on the Gold Coast. Picture: Jerad Williams

‘Gamechanger’: Beach club trial approved after location revealed - October 12

A super majority of councillors at Tuesday’s full council meeting backed the Broadbeach beach club trial after a short debate after midday. 

Mayor Tom Tate told councillors he had been approached by residents at Bleach festivals who after seeing a mobile beach bar at Burleigh asked for a permanent attraction.

If the trial worked council would continue with the proposal, if not council could decide to “kill it off”.

Lifestyle committee chair Hermann Vorster said ratepayers had made a “sizeable investment” by creating the Kurrawa terrace during the Commonwealth Games and they would expect council would leverage benefits from it.

“In my view it’s been vacant for too long,” he said.

Planning committee chair Cameron Caldwell described the proposal as a “gamechanger” for the Coast and “step forward in refreshing tourism infrastructure”.

“We want to be famous for fun and not boring and dull,” Cr Caldwell said.

Area councillor Darren Taylor was also strongly supportive, telling colleagues: “I think the trial is going to be a way to see what people want and can get with a beach clubhouse.”

Nerang-based councillor Peter Young asked officers for more details, and they confirmed the area for the clubhouse would extend 20 metres into the sand.

EARLIER:

THE Gold Coast will trial for the first time a beach-edge club with licensed bar and kitchen, providing food and drinks for beachgoers during the peak Christmas-New Year holiday season.

The Bulletin can reveal the location will be at Broadbeach, at Kurrawa Terrace where the foreshore fronts the massive and popular Pratten Park precinct.

Council will call for applications from experienced operators with the trial from December 1 to January 31 next year.

Mayor Tom Tate is to announce details in a mayoral minute at full council starting at the Evandale Chambers at Bundall from 10am on Tuesday.

Councillors are expected to support it.

What can be done in the Broadbeach foreshore area – the Kurrawa Terrace Event Space, designed by 8la Architects, won the Excellence in Urban Design Award 2020.

In the mayoral minute to councillors, he wrote: “As you know I have long been an advocate of keeping an open mind in terms of opportunities to grow and enhance our economy and lifestyle on the Gold Coast. The concept that I’m proposing today is for a council to progress the trial of a beach club as an addition to our city’s tourism attractions. The beach club would be similar to the Moseley Beach that pops up in Adelaide during summer.”

The key features of the Kurrawa beach club would include:

* a licensed bar and kitchen providing drinks and food service.

* live music and entertainment, subject to “reasonable closing hours”.

* free and ticketed community events along with kids activities.

* low impact exercise and well being classes such as yoga, tai chi and meditation.

* public art and culture experiences.

* beach equipment such as cabanas, sunlounges, day beds and beach umbrellas.

Previous attempts to stage events on the beaches in the city’s southern beaches have divided the community.

In 2019 the then-Currumbin MP Jann Stuckey maintained a survey showed 90 per cent of residents had been opposed to the planned SandTunes music festival at Coolangatta Beach.

Lifesavers had voiced concerns about how they could stop some of the 35,000 revellers from entering the surf.

The event was switched to Metricon Stadium at Carrara before being cancelled.

The Moseley Beach Club, beach with blue and white umbrellas and day beds.

The Kurrawa Terrace site has a hand stand area with access to power and lighting, which was used for the Commonwealth Games media centre.

“It is recommended, given that this is a trial, that the city will waive all standard City of Gold Coast fees associated with the use of the Kurrawa Terrace space,” Cr Tate said.

The open hours for the trial will be determined through the event application process.

The operator will be required to obtain community feedback which will determine future similar beach club style events.

Cr Tate said he would write to the state government seeking support and advice.

Councillors at full council on Tuesday will vote on the recommendations.

Broadbeach hospitality king Pat Gennari has previously proposed an eco-friendly pop-up beach club on the Broadbeach sand-edge.

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