Gold Coast Vibez festival ‘disturbance’ attended by cops ferried over to South Stradbroke Island

Police have shut down music festival after using capsicum spray to tackle an out-of-control brawl involving intoxicated patrons at a southeast Queensland island music festival.

Police were forced to shut down a Gold Coast music festival on South Stradbroke Island after an out-of-control brawl involving intoxicated patrons.

Ten additional police officers had to be ferried over to the Gold Coast Vibez festival at Couran Cove where pepper spray was used to diffuse the brawl.

Authorities were initially called to Couran Cove about 8.30pm Saturday after reports an “intoxicated” patron had “accidentally” bumped the gears of a moored ferry causing it to hit the jetty.

While water police attended the event security raised concerns that “a number of intoxicated patrons” had started fighting and it had spilt into the Queensland Ambulance Service tent which was being “overrun”, Acting Superintendent Scott Knowles said.

“There was some capsicum spray deployed by the attending police to stop some of the fighting, to stop some of the invasion of the Queensland Ambulance Service tent,” he said.

Couran Cove on South Stradbroke Island.

“The result was we deployed a further 10 police across to that island. We dealt with the event we effectively shut the event down and had the attendees transported back to the mainland.”

No one was arrested on the night but investigations are ongoing.

Police are now investigating the conditions of the organiser’s liquor licensing arrangements and COVID safe plan and whether they were complied with.

It is not known what sparked the brawl but Supt Knowles said he had “no doubt” liquor had a lot to do with the situation which is “why the investigation will focus on the liquor licensing and what the conditions were”.

The Gold Coast Vibez described itself as the Coast’s “newest beach festival experience”.

“Party with some of the nations hottest urban DJ’s and performers at the ALL NEW Couran Cove Island Resort tropical beachfront venue,” its Facebook page said.

“Cruise the GC waterway in style on a luxury VIP yacht.

“Vibe out with your besties under tropical palm trees to your favourite Hip Hop, RNB and reggae beats or dance the day away on the sand!”

A spokesman for Gold Coast Vibez told the Bulletin via Facebook it was a “major success” despite the police incident.

The spokesman said there was a lot of security present but they were “useless and weren’t doing their jobs properly”.

“They just couldn’t handle the crowd. If we had better security none of this would have happened that was our biggest let down was the security,” the spokesman said.

The spokesman, who said they were assisting police with their investigation, said the resort was in charge of boats and security. The Bulletin has attempted to contact the resort for comment.

Originally published as Gold Coast Vibez festival ‘disturbance’ attended by cops ferried over to South Stradbroke Island