Overview

Program Overview

The Festive Season Program includes a broad range of activities including events, pole and tree decorations, and banners, which are all supported by Council. The Festive Season covers Christmas, New Years Eve and Australia Day celebrations across the Sunshine Coast.

The Festive and Commemorative Events Grant Program funds community-led festive events. This has been key to the success of long-standing events and also gives new communities the opportunity to celebrate.

Community Engagement

We invite feedback from our community members to ensure that festive events are meeting community needs and expectations. The data and information gathered through this process will be used to inform future programming and delivery.

Feedback will help us understand:

  • marketing and awareness for Council events
  • awareness of community funded events
  • demographic and location patterns
  • broad festive attendance pattens and motivations.

In addition, a targeted survey will be conducted with community groups, who receive funding under the Festive and Commemorative Grants Program, to deliver their own community events. The targeted survey will assist in measuring the effectiveness of the current funding program. This data will be combined with the broad community survey to inform future festive season programming and funding.

Between Monday, 4 November and and 5pm Friday, 20 December 2024, you are invited to provide feedback by completing the online survey. Click on the 'Feedback Survey' tab to access the survey.

Background

Council currently provides funding support under the Festive and Commemorative Events Grant Program to over 30 community organisations to deliver their own festive activities. We deliver a New Years Eve event at Mooloolaba and also install festive decorations across the region.

To test the effectiveness of these activities and to inform Council’s future direction and planning, we have conducted several broad and targeted surveys in the last six years:

  • 2023- sought feedback on Council support for festive season celebrations
  • 2023- sought feedback on Council's Festive and Commemorative Grants Program
  • 2020- sought feedback on Council support for festive season celebrations
  • 2018- sought feedback on the New Years Eve event in Mooloolaba

To ensure we have a future delivery model that meets community needs and expectations, a councillor festive workshop was conducted in August 2024. A key outcome of this workshop was the identification of several planning and delivery elements for the Festive Season program and funding. These elements included:

  • the timing of the fireworks event
  • festive events funding through council grants
  • the effectiveness of council’s marketing of the program.

We aim to validate and test these planning and delivery elements through the community surveys.

Next Steps

After community consultation closes, we will review and analyse the data received from the survey, which will inform future festive season programming and funding. We will report back to the community in March 2025.


Timeline

  • Timeline item 1 - active

    November - December 2024

    Community consultation is now open.

  • Timeline item 2 - incomplete

    December 2024

    Analyse feedback from community.

  • Timeline item 3 - incomplete

    February 2025

    Report presented to Council with a range of options based on the community data gathered.

  • Timeline item 4 - incomplete

    March 2025

    Report back to the community on the outcomes of the engagement.

  • Timeline item 5 - incomplete

    April 2025

    Festive Season Program is finalised.



Contact Us

Have questions or want to learn more about a project, contact us below:

Name Colin Potter
Email Events@sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au

Feedback Survey