It was announced last month that the Queensland incarnation of the Parklife festival would be moving away from Brisbane, and now the new venue has been officially confirmed: this year’s festival will be held at the Gold Coast Parklands on Saturday 25 September. The Gold Coast Council approved the venue this week.
There’s bound to be people not particularly amused by the prospect of a drive into the heart of surf’n’sun bogandom, but the general consensus appeared to be that the event had outgrown Brisbane’s Botanic Gardens, which have hosted the festival in Queensland since 2005. Festival promoters Fuzzy Entertainment admitted as such in the press release accompanying the announcement, citing a growing demand for a larger venue as the reason behind the move. The Parklands venue can accommodate 35,000 sunburnt punters, and already hosts both the Big Day Out and Good Vibrations.
This year’s festival features Groove Armada, Missy Elliott (pictured, with topical palm trees), Memory Tapes, Soulwax, The Dandy Warhols, Holy Ghost! and a bunch of others. The Gold Coast show is the first stop on its journey around the country; it also travels to Wellington Square in Perth on Sunday 26 September, the Sidney Myer Music Bowl and King’s Domain in Melbourne on Saturday 2 October, Kippax Lake in Sydney’s Moore Park on Sunday 3 October and the Botanic Gardens in Adelaide on Monday 4 October. Tickets are on sale now; the amusingly-named “More Expensive” tickets (VIP tickets, basically) have sold out in Queensland and NSW, but general release tickets are still available for all states. Full dates are as follows: