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A PROMOTIONAL company owned by nightclub baron Billy Cross (pictured) has won a two-year contract to provide bar management services for all Gold Coast Parklands events in Southport, including the 2012 Big Day Out.
Broadbeach-based events management company Cross Promotions already services 90 per cent of Queensland festivals, including Summafieldaze, Future Music, Parklife and 600 Sounds.
“We have also done more than 40 concerts at the Royal Botanical Gardens and Riverstage in Brisbane during the past 2.5 years,” says Cross.
Cross would not budge on the value of the deal, but highlighted that it would keep 600 Big Day Out music festival jobs on the Coast.
“It really puts us up to one of the leading bar operators in Queensland. We are local company and want to work at local places,” he says.
“We also want to use our relationship with promoters to get more events held here, because they inject a lot of money into the economy. Big Day Out alone generates $20 million.”
From January 20 to February 5, Big Day Out will provide a melodic mix of Kayne West, Soundgarden, Kasabian, The Living End, My Chemical Romance, Girl Talk and Tony Hawk, among others.
Cross believes the Gold Coast Parklands facilities are under-utilised.
“We should bring more concerts, rock bands and shows to be more like the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne and ANZ Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park,” he says.
“There is great infrastructure in terms of traffic management at the Parklands. You can do a Big Day Out for 50,000 people or a concert for as few as 5000 people. There is such a great events structure.”
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