Ride The Night Away: Jimmy Barnes named headliner of Surfers Paradise LIVE

Jimmy Barnes was announced headliner of Surfers Paradise LIVE, four days and nights of free entertainment over the precinct May 3—6.

Barnes joins Daryl Braithwaite at the main stage on Saturday May 5, while Kate Ceberano and Jon Stevens perform the day after.

Other names for LIVE are Justice Crew, Reece Mastin and Bobby Alu.

LIVE is preceded the night before by the Gold Coast Music Awards.

Go to surfersparadise.com for full LIVE festival program.

The new LIVE announcement shows what amounts to a blitz by Barnes on the Gold Coast of late.

He returns with his sold out Spoken Word theatre tour to The Star Gold Coast on April 14.

On February 10, he topped the names of the new outdoor festival Under the Southern Stars at Southport’s Broadwater Parklands which drew close to 5000.

Also at the show were Ian Moss, Tex Perkins, Diesel, Richard Clapton and local outfit The Rich And The Famous.

The Barnes set was a family effort with son Jackie on drums and daughter Mahalia and wife Jane on backing vocals.

Barnes’ addition to the LIVE bill is a reflection of organisers

Surfers Paradise Alliance (SPA) to use live music, not only to invigorate the area but to also bring tourists in.

Last year LIVE won bronze in the Major Festivals and Events category at the Queensland Tourism Awards.

In January 2018, the Queensland Government confirmed $796,300 in funding to 22 events across the state.

These included music, food, film and lifestyle festivals.

Of the music offerings from the Sunshine Coast were $30,000 for LIVE, and $10,000 each for the two-day Mitchell Creek Rock N Blues Fest in September and nine day NOOSA Alive! in July.

The Government estimates that the events calendar will be worth $780 million in 2018 and vital to Queensland’s economy.

It will also increase funding to the Queensland’s tourism industry from $2 million to $3 million from 2018-19.

An additional $30 million will be invested to secure new major events for Queensland over three years

An earlier report by Surfers Paradise Alliance found that attendance at its events shot up 320% over five years, from411,000 in 2010 to over 1.5 million in 2015.

The success came from focusing on smaller events which ran for a longer period.

It said its top tier events had a $80 million economic return to local businesses through the 2015 – 2016 financial year, with 50% of visitors to events coming from the drive and interstate markets.