Queensland hospitality giant expands into festival space

The Gold Coast hospitality group behind Cali Beach Club, Surfers Pavilion and Bedroom Nightclub is making its move on the city’s evolving festival space as the group continues its strategic expansion into new markets.

Artesian Hospitality has announced its partnership with Major Events Gold Coast’s (MEGC) new free music festival, SPRINGTIME, in what it says will be the first of many experiential activations.

Artesian has been progressively diversifying its business model to include off-premise partnerships that bring the venue brands to life collaboratively with key events across music, lifestyle and brand activations.

“As part of Artesian’s expansion into the festival and event space, we are delighted to be partnering with MEGC to help bring to life SPRINGTIME for its very first year of operation,” said Artesian Hospitality’s founder and managing partner, Matthew Keegan.

“The excitement of a beachfront festival, and the activation opportunities it presented, felt like a natural extension of the good times our venues celebrate year-round.

“We have some really exciting things planned, so we can’t wait until September when we can welcome our new and existing customers to celebrate a weekend of fun, sun, food and drink on the sands of Surfers Paradise.”

The SPRINGTIME partnership will see Artesian Hospitality deliver two pop up bars to the Surfers Paradise beachfront, designed in the company’s signature Surfers Pavilion and Cali Beach Club branding.

The ‘Surfers Pavilion Bar’ will be an all-ages tropical oasis perched in the sand of the Surfers Paradise beachfront, complete with Hamptons-style sun lounges and bean bags for guests to soak up the sunshine and entertainment.

The ‘Cali Beach Bar’ will be a strictly 18+ area perched at the southern end of the festival, overlooking the main stage and showcasing the signature Cali Beach orange and white furnishings and decor.

“The team at Artesian Hospitality have been so supportive of this brand new festival, and we are excited to partner to release SPRINGTIME on the beachside in Surfers Paradise,” said Festival Director, Mark Duckworth.

“The wonderfully creative team at Artesian have created some exceptional venues on Gold Coast and we look forward to seeing their ‘pop-up' energy across the three days.”

Although the activation will only be in place for the duration of the three-day festival, Mr Keegan is hopeful the inaugural festival partnership paves the way for a business evolution that sits outside the traditional venue model and harnesses the group’s focus on delivering experiential brands.

“We are excited to carry Artesian into a new and exciting space and we can’t wait to continue recasting the mould for experiential hospitality, ” said Mr Keegan.

The SPRINGTIME partnership comes just weeks after the company announced its expansion across Southeast Queensland with the acquisition of its first Brisbane venue, the historic Fortitude Valley GPO, and a seventh Gold Coast multi-venue location that will also be Artesian’s new corporate headquarters, aptly named ‘Artesian House’.