Big Day Out To Remain On Gold Coast After Locking In New Home For 2014

The cats behind Big Day Out are clearly planning big things for the 2014 return of the Australian musical institution and now we have word that a venue has now been locked in for the Gold Coast leg. This time round, the festivities will be going down at Metricon Stadium, after being shunted from previous venue Parklands.

The Parklands site is being given up in order to make way for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Athlete’s Village, which is currently under construction. The announcement of the new venue comes after a deal was struck with the Queensland government to ensure the festival has a future in the state and the deal struck with Metricon will ensure that Goldie gets the annual influx of punters and the economic benefits that go along with it for at least the next five years.

The Gold Coast event is traditionally the first event on the Australian leg of the touring festival, once BDO leaves NZ. The importance of this has not been lost on organisers, with CEO Adam Zammit stating:



“Big Day Out founder Ken West, myself and our partners C3 Presents are very excited to be moving into a great new venue for 2014, a year which will see our biggest and best lineup in years.

“The Gold Coast show is the first stop on the Australian run of Big Day Out dates and for the many international acts who have never visited Australia, it’s always great to fly them into the Goldie first.

“Our new venue meets the highest of our expectations and standards and we hope will be the home of Big Day Out for years to come.”

Zammit previously confessed that he feared that the Gold Coast leg of the festival was “as good as gone” when news of the impending Athlete’s Village construction was first announced. Since that time, Big Day Out had been petitioned by regional Queensland centres, including Townsville, Cairns, Mackay, and Woodfordia, to bring the festival to them and thus keep the festival in Queensland.

In other BDO 2014 venue news, the event will definitely be returning to NZ next year after missing out on a 2013 date as the festival “streamlined” its schedule to battle in the competitive Australian music festival market.

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