04/02/2023
Interview with Major Events Gold Coast CEO Jan McCormick on 4BC Weekend Breakfast Show
4BC Radio Brisbane
Interview
But let's get on to what we're here for today. We're in the air next leading into the Gold Coast Air Show. We're going to talk about what is going on down there. I'm very excited that the Gold Coast has announced the Pacific Air Show is set to fly in August. And it is, I think, possibly the first time I've seen an air show being marketed in Australia in at least a decade, if not longer. Who loves aerobatics out there? Who loves planes doing real loop de loops? The guys in the studio here with me today had not even seen anything other than River Fire in the last decade. They just don't even know what it's like to see these gorgeous blue planes flipping up through the sky, chasing each other around in squalls and coming back. You know, that's what an air show is. And the show that's coming from the US is coming from the US It's an air show on steroids, hardcore aerobatic events that we just dream about, seeing hundreds of thousands of people travel to this event from all over the country. In America, it's held in Huntington Beach and there's Carnival shows and music festivals and things that go on all around it. And it's coming to the Gold Coast. We've got Jan McCormick, the CEO of Major Events Queensland, here to talk to us about it today. Jan, I'm excited. Can you tell us about this event? Oh, thanks.
More than the introduction. It is truly exactly as you said, I was lucky enough to go to Huntington Beach and see it in October and believe me, it is going to blow people's minds. Oh, I'm excited. It's just so extraordinary. It's 5 hours, non-stop aerobatics in different countries represented. It's just amazing. It truly is amazing and it's fully entertaining. And I sat on a beach for three days and saw the same show for three days in a row, and I could have had more. It was wonderful.
Oh, and there's a whole generation of Australians that have not seen an airshow, and I'm not even sure why they stopped. But, you know, let's not get into the negative. Let's stay with the wonder of its coming back. When is it on? Tell us what we can expect
Well, it's on in August 19 to 21 and we can expect wonderful acrobatics over Surfers Paradise Beach. The planes will be flying from Coolangatta to perform over Surfers Paradise and around. There'll be a flotilla the other side of the flight envelope where people with boats will be parked The real excitement with this event for me was when you actually sat on the beach in the ticketed areas. They had commentary about what was going on and who was flying and why the planes were made. And then they added It was great music and some of the music actually was Phil Collins music, and it was just extraordinary. It was all curated and it's narrated and it's so, so exciting and so different from anything that's been in Australia.
Oh, bless you for bringing this to town. How did it come about?
I started on it in 2019 and it took myself and Kevin Elliott from Code for approximately two years to get it across the line. We had to, obviously, as you can imagine, get a lot of support from the federal government the state government, local council, of course, and they were wonderful counsellors really stepped up the Gold Coast, city councils really stepped up. So we had a lot of processes we had to do, we had to get the Defence departments involved and so on. And it took us two years, but it was two years of what I believe is going to be the best investment this city has ever made. And this will be within the three or five years, I believe, the biggest event in Australia. Oh, I can't wait.
And people will go down and stay there for a day for a couple of days.
Absolutely. They're going to be having all sorts of things that be happening around the festival. The event of the airshow, and there'll be music and there'll be all sorts of things going on. It'll be it's just such a buzz. It's such a buzz.
Do you expect the tickets to sell fast?
Well, I had a call from Kevin Elliott on, I think it was Wednesday, the day they launched the tickets. And he said in three and a half hours, they sold more tickets to this airshow than they would sell to their Huntington Beach one in 24 hours.
I told my husband about it last night. He said, let's get tickets right now.
Look, let's get tickets right. I'd be encouraging if you've got a lot of mates and you're really into this sort of thing and you want to have a great time, there's general admittance admission tickets, which is great. You can take the family, put a brolly up, sit on the beach and watch the show, but you're not in front of those speakers and you're not hearing the story. But if you get a group of friends together and get either a cabana or a chalet, I think holds 20 people and just have it for one day. I would for one day have that experience. And then if you want to stay and this is what happened apparently in Huntington Beach, people come for one day, then they go home like you and go to all your mates. You've got to come and see this thing. Let's go down again tomorrow and don't sit on the beach for free sort of sounds.
It sounds phenomenal and like a multi-generational family opportunity as well, where you can get the grandparents and the kids and get on down there.
It was, you know, the 2 million people that turned up last year. I walked the beach a few times. Mind you, it was a really long stretch of beach and there was just families having parties. And yeah, it was wonderful to see. It really is. It's a family event and it's also very exciting, high adrenaline.
So those are all supreme athletes for people who want to get some tickets. It's called the Pacific Airshow and you can look that up online. Jann McCormack from Major Events Queensland, thank you very much for joining us today.
Read More
