The future of the Noosa Festival of Surfing is in question as festival founder Phil Jarratt Communications steps away from the event it began in 1998.
Festival director, CEO and Phil’s daughter Sam Smith said the family was very sad to say goodbye to the festival but increasing event costs, dwindling sponsorship and other obstacles made it unsustainable.
She said challenges had arisen as a result of the Noosa Council’s new event policy, restrictions from surrounding stakeholders, and site construction issues due to increasing Noosa beach erosion.
Noosa Malibu Club have held the license for the festival since 2009 and are looking at options for its continuation.
Club president Craig Johnson said news of the Jarratt’s pulling out was a”a big shock and a shame”.
“The Jarratts have done a fantastic job,” he said.
“We would be 100 per cent behind the Jarratts if there was an option for them to continue. We would like to see the event continue. As a club we would have to meet to look at running it in a scale-down version.”
Sam said the Jarrett family had been involved in most of the festivals over its 21-year history, since her father Phil co-founded it in 1998.
“We have seen the event evolve from a four-day longboard classic to the world’s largest surfing festival with competitors from around the world,” she said. “We have had many highs but also many lows, and the financial struggle of these past few years has taken its toll. The passion that our family shares for this event is what has kept it running for so many years. The decision to not continue has been one of the hardest our family has had to face.”
Phil Jarratt said it was a sad day for his family but nothing was forever.
“I just hope that the legacy is not lost, that Noosa will continue to celebrate its surfing roots and its proud position as one of only 10 World Surfing Reserves,” he said.
Read more in Phil Jarratt’s Life of Brine on page 38.
