Inaugural much-hyped SandTunes festival on Coolangatta Beach delayed a year

The much-hyped SandTunes festival at Coolangatta won’t be making its debut this year.

The event was to stage on December 1 and 2 and draw 35,000 to see major international and Australian names play two stages on the stretch of sand between Kirra and Greenmount.

It was to be the Australian version of Alabama’s HangOut, presented in a consortium including TEG Dainty, US partner AEG and Queensland partner Cross Promotions.

According to the Gold Coast Bulletin, the promoters have decided to delay until December 2019.

The newspaper said local businesses were happy with the call, saying it would give them more time to plan for the event.

The Gold Coast Council greenlit the event last spring, keen that it had the capacity to generate $14 million in average visitor spend during the off-peak tourist season.

At the time, Paul Dainty said “This is a mega event. Once the Commonwealth Games are over, it will build on the city’s strong profile for staging international events.

“This is big. We’d be bringing 40 or 50 bands into the country plus locals, plus 500 or 600 staff. An event like this touches everyone in the business community. Economically it’s brilliant.”

The promoters secured a five-year deal with a five-year option on condition SandTunes is the only HangOut brand festival in Australia for the term of the agreement.

At the time some councillors were reluctant to give their approval, saying that the event was too big for the area and that council had not thought it through.

Dainty at the time insisted SandTunes was to be a Gold Coast exclusive – but speculation was that Byron Bay, Fremantle and St Kilda were possibilities if the Gold Coast proposal was turned down.