US-based Pacific Airshow boss Kevin Elliott on Gold Coast 2025 cancellation
We talk to US-based Pacific Airshow boss Kevin Elliott about the abrupt cancellation of the event that was scheduled for August and attended by 300,000 last year.
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We talk to US-based Pacific Airshow boss Kevin Elliott about the abrupt cancellation of the 2025 Pacific Airshow Gold Coast that was scheduled for August and attended by 300,000 last year.
ASHLEIGH JANSEN: Crazy news. Last time we spoke it was sounded so positive, like everything was on track. What happened?
KEVIN ELLIOTT: We believed everything was on track. We’ve been working very closely with the City and we did believe we could get the beach back to the 90 per cent bar for our show this year. But it sounds like there’s been some massive storm surges, some swells and these huge king tides coupled with pretty bad rain. It sounds like it’s been the perfect confluence of storms that has further eroded the beach and really kind of dashed our hopes that Surfers Paradise would be ready for the Pacific Airshow.
AJ: It’s so disheartening isn’t it. You said you wanted the beach at 90 per cent. Do you know what stage the beach is currently at?
KE: My understanding is the beach is basically gone. I think there’s a big difference between a beach that’s accessible for tourism versus the beach that is going to be able to hold 250,000 or 300,000 people for an airshow. The beach is probably accessible in that they’ve knocked down the cliffs and made them into berms, it’s just not suitable for the capacity required for the Pacific Airshow and my understanding is it’s actually gotten worse as time has gone on due to the swells which obviously hasn’t helped the City’s valiant efforts.
AJ: Any concerns this will just continue happening and maybe Surfers Paradise beach will never be accessible again in the capacity suited for the Pacific Airshow?
KE: I’m not a sand expert, but sand is a very dynamic environment even here in Huntington Beach. It’s typical for the tides to take 50m of sand one year to the next and deposit 50m of sand one year to the next, and so my understanding is it’s quite possible all that sand that's gone gets put back in place by next year particularly given that’s what happens on a natural occurrence, plus all of the City’s efforts. I have a lot of confidence by next year we’re going be in a good place and really that’s what this boils down to. For us after looking at this very rapidly and assessing the situation, there was no really great answer here. The best case scenario was to cancel the show early to try to do the responsible thing, to communicate very early rather than waiting to see how it goes. I feel like that would be a very inappropriate and irresponsible thing to do and you know I’m in it for the interest of the ticketholders, the patrons are the fans that have supported us. I’m sure this is going to be very disappointing to them as it is to us.
AJ: Did you consider doing a scaled-down version of the event?
KE: We did we consider all options. One we looked at was we could do the entire thing on the Esplanade and not build anything in the sand and try to take over the street, but it’s not conducive to the experience. People expect Pacific Airshow to be an experience where they bring their family and feel the sand underneath their feet. Then that creates somewhat of a safety concern if the beaches are not as accessible, we have to create areas preventing people from accessing the beach because of capacity limitations. That creates a whole host of other safety considerations on top of the fact even if you were to take over the Esplanade in the street capacity estimates would be something around 50 per cent of what we had last year, so it becomes really not a viable solution. It will impact access to businesses. It becomes a very compromised experience on the ground and that’s just not something the Pacific Airshow is comfortable in delivering. We’ve got a certain reputation, I like to think a really good reputation, and a serious commitment to the community. I’m not going to deliver a substandard product or substandard experience and I’d rather be very honest and upfront based on my observations and based on our team’s professional recommendations. Even more frustrating, since Covid events have had a really tough go. There’s been a changing dynamic landscape with the economy and disposable income and events that have been around for a long time are no longer around because ticket sales haven’t been strong. What’s really frustrating for us and for the city is Pacific Airshow has been a breakout phenomenon – our ticket sales this year were twice as strong as they were last year. We’ve done exactly what we said we would do – build this event year on year, make it better every year. Unfortunately there are some things outside of our control and the weather is one, but I just want to highlight the community support has been incredible and that makes it even more difficult to have to make this decision.
AJ: This gives even more time to make next year bigger and better, right?
KE: Bigger, faster and louder – that’s what we’re saying. Going into 2026 we cannot miss a beat and we’re bringing it back bigger and faster.
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