Friday, 19 February, 2021
AGENCY OF THE YEAR NOOSA HEADS NOOSAVILLE • SUNSHINE BEACH 12482897-SN08-21
Noosa Surf Festival charges ahead
Ladies and gents: Sam Cutler
Tucker with Trevor
40-page liftout Property Guide
PAGE 7
PAGES 20-21
PAGE 35
INSIDE
PR OP ER TY
Carnival for boats a Noosa first By Ron Lane Last weekend the Noosa Surf Life Saving Club played host to its first boat carnival at Main Beach since the mid-1990s: happy to say it was a great success. One of the highlights was the fact that it was the first time ever, that a boat carnival especially for the u/19s and u/23 crews was held at Noosa. For the Noosa club, (in which the tradition of surf boat competition was started in 1949), it was represented by six crews: all crews made the finals with the u/19 girls, the Kookaburras winning the gold and the u/23 girls, the Spangled Drongos, winning the silver. Noosa boat sweep and coach David Tomba said. “We are very happy with the overall result of the carnival. Approxomately 200 competitors and officials from 30 youth (15-23 years of age) surf boat crews, from the Far North Etty Bay, to Tweed Heads and Coolangatta in the south, were in attendance: the feed- back from competitors , officials and spectators were very positive.” Noosa Boat Captain Anthony Fox was also very pleased. “I would like to thank all involved: in particular the Noosa Shire Council and the Hasting Street Association, for their open and supportive negotiations, thus allowing the event to be a great success.” Continued page 46
New wave events By Phil Jarratt Can events survive Covid-19? Perhaps not as we know them, although while Noosa Council deliberated over the lifting (or at least raising the limit) of the 500-people cap on events on public land this week, at least one longtime Noosa favourite, the Festival of Surfing, scheduled for May, was going from strength to strength. Despite no internationals being able to attend, the surf festival’s amateur divisions were almost full this week, just two weeks after they opened for entries, and new sponsors seemed to be lining up at the door. (See story page 7)
But right now the surf festival is the only major event on the normal Noosa calendar to have applied for a permit. The others, it seems, are waiting until the last minute to ascertain if their event can be viable under whatever restrictions may apply at the time, although, Council’s decisions this week could change all of that. As Queensland came out of its partial lockdown last August, the State government relaxed many of its restrictions on public gatherings, with outdoor events being capped at 1500 attendees. But Noosa Council, at a special meeting on August 31, unanimously voted to cap them at 500, with Mayor Clare Stewart
citing concerns for Noosa’s aged population as the main reason. The ruling was to be reviewed in February. To put this in perspective, every major event in Noosa except the Noosa Triathlon could run at 100 percent with a 1500 cap, although the surf festival would probably lose its wildly popular surfing dogs. At 500, all of them will struggle, and some will not survive without restructuring both the format and the business model. In a wide-ranging first interview with local media this week (see Hot Seat on page 31) Tourism Noosa’s new marketing and events manager Adam Townson revealed to Noosa
Today that many event organisers, and the tourism body itself, are starting to look at alternatives to traditional events, such as staging a series of smaller events, staggered over time. Hastings Street’s 12 Days of Christmas and Noosa Junction’s Sounds Like Summer were good examples of this, while Noosa Alive and Noosa Eat and Drink festivals were also adopting the model in part.Mr Townson said: “Whether it’s a Covid thing or whether it’s here to stay isn’t clear yet, but it’s a way to change the thought processes away from larger events, and it’s proving very popular.” Continued page 5
SUBSCRIBE to our DIGITAL EDITION - It’s FREE 12469656-JW46-20
noosatoday.com.au/subscribe