16 October 2025
PALETTE’S MELBOURNE CUP LUNCHEON: DON’T GET LEFT AT THE STARTING GATE!
Don’t miss your chance to be part of, Palette’s Melbourne Cup Luncheon, the newest, most sophisticated event on the calendar, guaranteed to deliver an unmissable race day experience.
This elegant luncheon promises a dazzling atmosphere, meticulously crafted menu, including a 3-course meal paired with a 3-hour beverage package, complete with champagne on arrival and lively entertainment. Perfect for fashion lovers, food connoisseurs and racing enthusiasts alike. Step into a world of refined glamour and exhilaration and join Palette’s newest and exclusive race day gathering!
Secure your spot now!
CALLING ALL ARTISTS AND CREATIVES! EOI’S CLOSE TODAY FOR EGC ARTS FUND 2026
Expressions of Interest close today for the Experience Gold Coast Arts Fund, with $1.5 million in funding available to support local artists, collectives and organisations.
This initiative is designed to bring bold, innovative and community-connected creative projects to life across all artforms. Successful projects will be showcased at some of our city’s most iconic festivals and events, including BLEACH*, Kids Take Over, Blues on Broadbeach, Groundwater CMF and more.
The Arts Fund features three key grant categories:
Gold Coast Stories – Support for the development of new, culturally significant content by local artists and communities for presentation across EGC platforms and events.
Gold Coast Creates – Funding to attract high-calibre artists with strong ties to the Gold Coast to return and create bold new work in partnership with local creatives.
Gold Coast Presents – Support for the presentation of high-quality, readymade local works, including:
Local Works – Theatre, dance, installations, digital projection
Local Music – Performances alongside headline acts (Tier 1 only)
Expressions of Interest close at midnight (AEST) tonight, 16 October 2025.
A BOLD NEW BALLET EXPERIENCE PREMIERES NEXT MONTH AT HOTA
Get ready for a groundbreaking performance that redefines contemporary ballet.
From 6–8 Nov 2025, Elastic Hearts will make its world premiere at HOTA, the first of three exclusive productions born from the landmark partnership between Queensland Ballet and HOTA.
Directed by acclaimed choreographer Garry Stewart, Elastic Hearts blends the power of dance with the music of global pop icon Sia, performed live by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. This genre-defying production promises to be a bold, emotional, and unforgettable experience.
This performance is part of a three-year collaboration between Queensland Ballet and HOTA, announced in June, aimed at pushing artistic boundaries and positioning the Gold Coast as a premier destination for world-class cultural experiences.
KIDS TOOK OVER HOTA, AND IT WAS OUT OF THIS WORLD!
The Kids Take Over festival has wrapped, and what an incredible cosmic journey it was!
From the world premiere of Into Space by ARC Circus, hands-on adventures in our very own Space Station - Space within Space - and entering the world of Bin Chicken Universe created entirely of cardboard, HOTA was buzzing with creative energy.
Kids and families indulged in creative play with an epic LEGO brick battle, creating their own spacecrafts, and launching their entrepreneurial dreams at Mini Marketeers all captured by our Kids Take Over TV crew, a group of 10 budding journalists who excitedly reported seeing the rings of Saturn during the astronomy workshop.
Over 13 action-packed days HOTA welcomed:
• 30 events
• 650 shirt prints
• 1,000 space illustrations from 12 local schools
• 200kg of cardboard and 10 litres of slime
• and 6,098 children aged 3 to 11
The HOTA foyer was buzzing for Arcadia, where friends and families challenged each other in old school games like Space Invaders, pinball, Dance Dance Battle and Fruit Ninja creating hours of entertainment.
A huge thank you to all the families, little adventurers, the team of 32 creatives, and all the HOTA staff who made Kids Take Over 2025 a stellar success.
VIEW THE 02 OCT 2025 ARTS & CULTURE UPDATE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY
Experience Gold Coast acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we are situated, the Kombumerri families of the Yugambeh Language Region.
We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging, and recognise their continuing connections to the lands, waters and their extended communities throughout Southeast Queensland.