Blues to return in festival’s revival

ONE of the Gold Coast’s biggest festivals is ready to roll — with a COVID-19 safety tick, following new separation zones, patron scanning and extended outdoor seating plans.

Popular Blues on Broadbeach was cancelled in 2020 under COVID-19 restrictions, but the event will return from May 20-23 this year with a different look.

A month out from what is one of Australia’s biggest free festivals, organisers at Major Events Gold Coast were able to get the go-ahead with the Queensland government ticking off on their COVIDSafe plan.

To keep patrons safe, zoned areas have been brought in. Partnering restaurants and bars will also have extra outdoor seating along main Broadbeach dining strip Surf Pde to create a “dine and watch precinct”, according to event director Mark Duckworth.

“Zones are going to be created across the event with perimeters around them, which people will have to check in and out of,” he said.

“That will be the same with all our stakeholder bars and restaurants.

“There will be wrist banding for the park stages, which will be a daily process that once people get their bands they’ll be able to move freely across the zones by checking in and out.

“It will have a real food fes

Mark Duckworth

tival vibe about it.”

In more good news for the festival, the announcement of the travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand means Kiwi roots legends the Black Seeds can make the event.

Mr Duckworth said despite other similar events, such as Byron Bay Blues Festival, being cancelled, artists were still eager to make the trip to the Gold Coast.

“We had the casualty of Tommy Emmanuel from the US, which became too hard for him to come across,” he said.

“Apart from that, everyone is still playing and ready to go. I think everyone wants to get back to work.

“We’ve got acts coming from all different states, so we’ll be able to get some acts in no matter if another state is having issues.

“It’s been really hard and things can’t continue like this forever, we need more stability around what we can do.

“I feel slowly but surely pieces are coming together and I feel confident we’ll see more events go ahead in the future.”

Kirah Maddox wearing a design made from recycled plastic. Picture: Justin Lloyd