The festival will kick off on Thursday August 3rd with a night of fun and laughter at the Comedy Gala featuring 2 of Brisbane’s top comedians Mark McConville and “The Bogan Prince of Australian Comedy”, Steven J Whitely and hosted by Steady Eddy and Jolly Jingo.
Airlie Beach’s favourite family-friendly event, the Whitsunday Reef Festival, will open the regions festival season from August 3rd – 6th. Held in Airlie’s Main Street and foreshore the four-day event will include a jam-packed program of mainly free entertainment.
The festival will kick off on Thursday August 3rd with a night of fun and laughter at the Comedy Gala featuring 2 of Brisbane’s top comedians Mark McConville and “The Bogan Prince of Australian Comedy”, Steven J Whitely and hosted by Steady Eddy and Jolly Jingo.
The free fireworks on the foreshore kick off the fun on Friday night, with a pyrotechnical spectacular over the Coral Sea. With market stalls bordering the beach, carnival rides, live music and entertainment and food and drink on offer, there is a celebratory feel as locals and visitors mix and mingle with one another. The Beach Music stage on the foreshore will be pumping out the vibes throughout the evening headlined by 5-piece gender-bending band King Social with an electric live show to launch their new album “In Colour”. They will be supported by beatboxing champion Joel Turner and up and coming Brisbane DJ Jess Ne Ville.
Main Street is the focus on Saturday starting at 10:00am with the ‘Revvin’ The Reef’ Car Show.
The free event will see “rev machines” from as far afield as Townsville and Rockhampton line up in their shining glory down Airlie’s “Main Drag”, complemented by a Miss Pin-up competition and rock ‘n’ roll music.
The popular Rotary Street Parade takes over Airlie’s main street at 4:00pm Saturday afternoon. Themed “All Aboard the Reef” the parade will feature a fun and colourful array of entries from the region’s most flamboyant businesses and community groups. This will be followed by the inaugural Mantra Mile Run running event down the middle of Main Street.
The action will be on the foreshore Saturday night for the Beats on the Beach Party. The pop-up bar with the best view in town will be open on Airlie Point and there will be a variety of food stalls on offer. The event will be headlined by one of the country’s most successful dance music acts, The Potbelleez. Supported by 8 Ball Aitkin and Hamilton Island’s Kiki the atmosphere of this free event is sure to be electric.
Families love the Telstra Family Fun Day on the beautiful Airlie Foreshore on Sunday from 10am to 2pm. The day includes a huge variety of free activities, from the more traditional face painting and jumping castles to the modern texting and selfie competitions with the highlight of the event being the Telstra “Wacky Races” including the egg and spoon race, the sack race and three-legged race. There will also be a reef themed treasure hunt, circus workshops and special performances by professional stunt bike rider Borys Zagrocki.
The live entertainment continues into Sunday afternoon with Chill in the Park, an afternoon of laid back music in the warm Whitsunday winter sun featuring The Dazeychains, David Flower & Caroline Trengrove and The Natural Culture. This will be followed by Flickerfest short film festival, a special one-off opportunity to experience the best in short filmmaking Australia has to offer.
The festival also includes the Wilmar Wearable Art parade 2pm on Saturday, helicopter joy flights and late night parties in Airlie’s top bars and nightclubs.
“The festival is for all ages and has something for everyone,” event organiser Margie Murphy said. “Most of the events are free so it is very affordable entertainment for families. We are looking forward to the whole community and our visitors coming out to celebrate together over this amazing weekend”.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
