STRIP BACK SCHOOLIES

Calls to cut iconic student festival in half as revellers ‘can’t handle it’

SCHOOLIES should be cut back to just three days because the week-long celebrations are too much for students to handle, according to one of the nation’s leading drug and alcohol experts. Mayor Tom Tate is among those backing the call, saying the annual right of passage for school leavers is leaving them burnt out.

WEEK-LONG Schoolies celebrations should be reduced to a long weekend under a radical revamp backed by political and business leaders.

On the eve of the annual right of passage for school leavers, the founder of Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia says it is time to shorten the Glitter Strip’s celebrations to just three days.

The move, he said, would bring the Coast into line with South Australia and Western Australia.

“On the Gold Coast, the only booking option is for a full-week package, it’s too much,” he said.

“A week is a long time for anyone to flat-out party.

“It’s too much time to experiment with risky behaviours, it’s too much time away from home and up all night, which is when we see kids really burn out emotionally, mentally and physically.”

Schoolies has been held on the Coast for more than 30 years and evolved through the 1980s as a week-long event.

More organised events were introduced through the 1990s to curb violence and chaos.

Mayor Tom Tate has backed calls to cut the event’s running time, citing his two decades at the helm of the Islander Hotel in Surfers Paradise, which was long a popular hub for Schoolies.

“I would have 500 Schoolies at my place and they would be excited and polite the first night as they looked forward to things but after the third night they would have had enough and generally a lot of them would start going home,” Mr Tate said.

“By the end they are burnt out – the fact is three days or a long weekend is plenty.

“There would be a lot of wins out of this – it would cost less for the Schoolies, there would be less wear and tear for hotel owners and it would be less intense for police and volunteers, too.”

Gold Coast Central Chamber of Commerce president Martin Hall said there was the potential to leverage more out of a smaller event.

“Schoolies for a long time is something businesses have been keen to see reduced,” Mr Hall said.

“You have to consider the return you get from it as well as historically the damage which has been caused by some of the kids attending.”

The Safer Schoolies Response Gold Coast Advisory Board provides services to Schoolies during the week.

Longtime chairman Mark Reaburn said the same level of services would continue regardless of any changes to the event’s length.

“We don’t control how long the school leavers stay here. Commercial operators such as accommodation houses and booking agents and the schoolies themselves have the flexibility to decide when they come and how long they stay,” Mr Reaburn said.

“We will provide the current level of support services whether the period is seven days (as it is now) or whether it is three days.”

THE INTERVIEW P32