HISTORY

Launched in 2015 by the team behind the Gold Coast’s own award-winning independent media platform, Blank Street Press, the Gold Coast Music Awards have grown into a recognisable, stand-alone brand representing Gold Coast music to a national audience.

The event has sold-out every year since launch and with 2020 bringing COVID-19, the awards made a quick pivot to a digital format, which has enjoyed over 29,000 views.

From humble beginnings, the awards have grown from being hosted in an empty warehouse in Burleigh’s industrial precinct, to see organisers close the main street of Surfers Paradise, build a festival sized stage at the end of Cavill Mall and celebrate the successes of local musicians with a ticketed awards ceremony in a marquee on the beach as well as a mini-festival of the city’s best talent. 11,000 people attended in the year that Amy Shark headlined (2017) and other years saw up to 8,000 people come along for the free live music.

The baton has now been passed to the GCMA and we are hugely excited about what is on the horizon…

The Gold Coast Music Awards are also much more than just a kick-ass event. The Awards are the home of Gold Coast music and the culmination of an annual program of activities developed to build a thriving and resilient, live, original music scene on the Gold Coast.

At the heart of the Gold Coast Music Awards is recognition of the value of artists, and the ecosystem that supports them, and the important contribution they make to our society and our own quality of life.