On the east coast of Australia, the Southern Gold Coast’s world-class surf breaks provide the perfect backdrop to a film and photography festival that brings together surfers, filmmakers, photographers and ocean lovers to experience inspiring stories related to beach and surf culture.
Entering it's 3rd year, Flotsam Festival 2024 will be a two week-long event in May celebrating surf culture through a diverse program of short and feature length ocean-themed films, photography exhibitions, workshops and art projection works.
A successful pilot run from 1-8 May, 2022, featured:
• 22 Event sites
• 82 Film makers + photographers exhibited
• 13 Live music acts
• 52 Accommodation providers and 34 restaurants, cafes and breweries spanning Currumbin to Coolangatta actively participated in festival ticketing
Surf culture is at home in the Southern Gold Coast region. The area from Coolangatta to Burleigh has produced an unprecedented 21 surfing World Champions across various surf disciplines, and spawned an industry hub that still influences global surf fashion and board design. Since the dawn of surfing in Australia in the 50’s-60’s, photographers and filmmakers have immortalized the waves that roll into the Southern Gold Coast shores. Their images and films have documented and in some cases propelled the world champs, the surf brands, and the board designers.
Timed to lead into major surf events in the region, Flotsam creates a platform for local and international surf and ocean-inspired creatives to, in turn, be celebrated for their craft.
All films selected for programming are supplied with digital laurels and paid screening fees.
Several categories including photography will also be subject to various prizes and awards - these will be announced at the festival's closing event, FLOTSAM Homegrown.