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Wipeout: Coast loses its most iconic event as salt rubbed into pandemic wounds

As well as the economic pain, the Gold Coast has suffered perhaps the most painful dent to its pride amid a trifecta of cancellations over the past 24 hours by being dumped as host of the opening event of the elite World Surfing League tour.

Aug 06, 2021, updated Aug 06, 2021
The Quicksilver Pro will be lost to the Gold Coast until at least 2024 (Image: WSL)

The Quicksilver Pro will be lost to the Gold Coast until at least 2024 (Image: WSL)

After the anguish of losing its leg of the World Surf League tour to Sydney earlier this year, the globally renowned surf-centric city has now been dropped as a host for the top-tier competition completely for at least the next three years.

Instead, the Quicksilver Pro at Snapper Rocks, that has been an iconic event on the World Surfing League tour since 1998, has been relegated to a second-tier Challenger competition.

Mayor Tom Tate said the city would work to recover the event.

But the global surfing snub and bitter economic blow comes as the Gold Coast suffered a slew of cancellations of other major events in just 24 hours.

Bleach* festival, set to run from August 12 to 22, announced late Thursday the city’s biggest arts and culture celebration would be cancelled.

Just days earlier, Bleach* had dropped part of the festival, the popular outdoor Botanic Gardens Concert series that was to have featured jazz legends The Necks, ARIA and J-Award winner Sarah Blasko, The Song Company, and musicians from the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University.

At that time, the remainder of the festival was scheduled to proceed despite restrictions.

But Placemakers* Gold Coast CEO and festival director Rosie Dennis said Thursday “recent COVID-19 developments” across the south-east forced the abandonment of the tenth festival.

“While today’s announcement is devastating for our community and industry, we find ourselves operating within a challenging set of circumstances at an improbable time,” Dennis said.

The Bleach* cancellation hit as the Gold Coast’s new beachside music festival experience, Springtime GC, that was due to hit the sands of Surfers Paradise from 3 to 5 September, was also postponed.

Teen pop superstar Ruel was to headline the new, free live music festival that was to feature more than 40 local and interstate acts, all squarely aimed at the 18 to 34-year-old age group eager for a live music hit-out after pandemic lockdowns.

“The recent border closures and restrictions in place have made it impossible for us to deliver the live music experience our fans deserved,” Springtime GC organisers said.

“Whilst everyone involved in planning this incredible free festival would have loved to go ahead, we are committed to putting the safety of our fans, artists, crew and wider community at the forefront of everything we do.”

Just over the border, the October re-scheduling of Bluesfest at Byron Bay is now also on shaky ground.

Bluesfest was scheduled to rise from its eleventh-hour cancellation at Easter to be held on 1 to 4 October with a host of new Australian artists.

But organisers this week contacted ticket holders to say with the COVID situation in NSW “at large, once again”, another reschedule of the event was looking increasingly likely.

But while lockdowns and travel restrictions in response to the rapid spread of the Delta strain has triggered the rash of event cancellations and postponements, the Gold Coast’s loss of the surfing event will be longer lasting.

It harks back to a dispute in February over who would pay for surfers to quarantine during earlier restrictions that first saw NSW steal the 2021 event away from Queensland.

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In different quarantine circumstances earlier this year, and with government funding to bolster available events, Sydney poached the iconic Quicksilver Pro Snapper Rocks to Narrabeen at Sydney’s northern beaches.

However, rather than a triumphant return to its prime hosting role from 2022, the Gold Coast has now been cut completely from the elite round until after 2024.

The World Surf League (WSL) Thursday announced its new format for the 2022 season, which includes a Championship Tour and a second-tier Challenger Series, and which combines the men’s and women’s schedule for the first time.

The Gold Coast has been cut from the Championship Tour and will instead head the qualifier round, the Challenger Series, in May.

The Challenger Series will feature 96 men and 64 women surfing for the chance to advance to the elite WSL Championship Tour.

The remaining Australian legs of the Championship tour have normally been the Margaret River Pro in Western Australia and the Rip Curl Pro in Bells Beach, Torquay. These two events will be retained for the elite competition, leaving only two events rather than three held in Australia.

“We believe we have arrived at a structure for our tours that makes great sense and is a massive upgrade for fans, partners and athletes throughout the pro surfing ecosystem,” WSL senior vice-president of tours and competition, Jessi Miley-Dyer, said.

But Gold Coast Mayor Tate said the decision was a bitter blow to the Gold Coast economy, already on a precipice due to the latest Queensland lockdown and devastation of the southern tourism markets by interstate travel restrictions.

He said he was disappointed the WSL had chosen to skip the Gold Coast, globally regarded as one of the world’s premier surfing destinations, as host of the top world surfing competition again. He said the city would “work hard to get it back”.

“One of the ways is by hosting the second-tier competition and it’s our way to get back to the top-tier,” Tate said.

“We need to get the crowd to support that down at Snapper but at the same time we need value for money and negotiate the right deal for the city.

“I would encourage Queensland events to put more (money) in.”

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