You may have heard around the traps rumour of a surfing festival to be held this summer down at Kirra. Well, the wraps are now off… Here’s how the news appeared on the goldcoast.com.au website:
A THREE-day lifestyle festival will be held at one of Australia’s best known beaches the Gold Coast’s Kirra beach in November.
The inaugural Kirra SurfStock was officially launched on Tuesday, with the surf, music, movie and lifestyle party from November 6 to 8 to become an annual event.
It was 40 years ago that the Woodstock festival in the United States created history and SurfStock organiser Andrew McKinnon is hoping the cool vibes of the ’60s will wash back on the famous beach.
“It’s got a bit of everything, it’s like a club sandwich,” he said.
“What we’ve tried to do is enhance the incredible Gold Coast beach and surf lifestyle with surfing events, the Australian surf movie festival, beach beauty quests, memorabilia and the grand opening of the Surf World surf museum at Currumbin.
“There’s a beach walk everyone can take part in, and we’re dedicating that to the late and great surfing saint Dennis Callinan who was so instrumental in a lot of surfing fundraisers.”
The Surfrider Foundation will hold its annual national conference during the festival and a fundraiser on the first night will feature a special tribute to legendary Greenmount Beach hypnotist, the late Ronricco, who performed at the famous Greenmount pavilion in the 1960s.
The Kirra SurfStock announcement comes a day after work began on a $1.5 million government-funded project to remove 20,000 cubic metres of sand and restore the once famous Kirra Point and reef.
“This year we’ve had a significant swell period with big waves which have moved some of the sand away,” Mr McKinnon said.
“The Kirra bank is slowly coming back and there’s a real sign of hope there.
“The whole idea of this festival is to celebrate the Kirra culture and make everyone in Australia aware of the management of the Gold Coast beach and surfing amenity.”
A feature of KirraStock will be its environmental management, which will be handled by Climate Wave Enterprises (CWE).
“Our aim is to reduce, reuse, and recycle and then go a step further to neutralise the carbon emissions generated by the festival,” CWE’s Greg Howell said.
- AAP
To say we’re a little bit excited would be an understatement. Oh, and just in case you didn’t know – CWE’s Greg Howell is also our very own Greg Howell, currently serving as Interim President. Go Greg!
