Greenheart can give city space to grow

POST-Covid, the Gold Coast has come back in a big way when it comes to events. Whether it’s music or cultural events, we are now on the map and the big companies are primed to keep bringing their acts here.

If you look back the history of the Gold Coast, we used to have the Big Day Out which would bring together up to 50,000 people and Summerfielddayz at The Spit, which for 12 years would host 35,000 people.

The Gold Coast has always been the place for events, even with a lull.

But now we are becoming the flavour of Australia again.

The great thing is that people do not just come here for the day of the festival, they stay for a while.

This can mean millions of dollars for the local industry and I believe youth tourism needs to be at the forefront going forward and be pushed as much as sporting and cultural events.

The former Parklands venue was amazing and could easily host 50,000 people so it was a real stand out.

Now there is talk about the Greenheart Parklands at Robina and that will be able to host similar crowds.

We have The Spit right now and options like the Broadwater and HOTA for smaller events. But what we really need is a purpose-built venue like this at Robina which can take the big shows.

I really hope this project gets a fasttrack so we can see it happen as soon as possible.

Once you have a site like that the Gold Coast will be able to do everything from DJ festivals to rock and country music events.

We already have Metricon and Cbus stadiums but during the sporting seasons they cannot be used for other purposes.

However, by having this parkland at Robina we will be able to host events there 52 weeks a year.

I see the people who come in for these events and what they spend and it ticks over into other fields, like retail in so many ways – and this is exactly what we need. People have to realise that festivals are an important part of what we do and we need to ensure these are events are maximised for our benefit.