Glow-ing pains as festival packed out
COUNCIL will consider extending the GLOW light festival to two nights next year after an estimated 20,000 Gold Coasters packed Bundall for this year’s event.
The fourth annual light festival held on Saturday night was so popular it put pressure on parking and led to long waits for the free water taxi service and at food stalls.
A Gold Coast City Council spokesman told the Bulletin it would consider extending the festival to become “a twonight celebration” in an effort to “improve patron experience” in 2018.
“Indications are up to 20,000 attended ... up by around 3000 on 2016,” he said.
“Council apologises for the inconvenience. Perfect weather, the power of social media and the city’s support of free family events has made GLOW a huge draw card.”
Surfers Paradise resident Amanda Schmac, who attended GLOW with her family, said she waited more than two hours to get the ferry across to Bundall’s Cultural Precinct, missing most of the main attractions.
“We spent more time in the line for the water taxi than we did at the festival,” she said.
“It was the first time we’d been and I’d really been hyping it up to the kids but it was just a total nightmare.”
Ms Schmac said one woman she met had her car “boxed in” at the Art Centre carpark and was forced to take the water taxi home.
“I understand it was a big event but it was just a massive disappointment. You could see other parents with their kids crying or whingeing.”
The Council spokesman said “every aspect of the event” would be reviewed before next year’s festival.
“The event is amazing, almost a victim of its own success but we will look at how to improve customer service and patron experience for 2018,” he said.
“The key focus areas of this review will be the number of stalls to service patrons and how to continue to better encourage people to use active travel options to get to GLOW, such as walking or cycling.
“The water taxi service is exceptionally popular so the possibility of additional water taxi access points and services will form part of the review.”