Vroom with a view: supercar events adding more with music offering

Motorsport event organisers are increasingly calling on music stars to amp up the experience on offer to race fans, creating mini-festivals within their events to draw younger consumers.

The most recent event to tap into the music scene is the Vodafone Gold Coast 600, who have just announced the Broadwater Sounds powered by Sea FM, scheduled for this October.

The Hilltop Hoods, Violent Soho and Delta Goodrem will be performing at Broadwater Parklands over the Friday and Saturday nights, along with Sydney songwriters Montaigne and Dean Lewis, and DJ Trials.

The event has also hinted that an act which has a couple of international hits under its belt will be announced shortly to face the crowd, estimated to be 18,500 strong.

There is also the on-track Club 600 which will run for all three days, with Gold Coast DJ Brooke Evers on the bill to keep the over-18s crowd entertained, while it is believed that organisers are also negotiating with The Stafford Brothers.

Supercars CEO James Warburton said that the music aspect was partly why the Gold Coast 600 drew 200,000 eventgoers in each of the past three years, as well as generating more than 90,000 visitor nights and injected over $40 million into the local economy.

“This is more than a motor race, it is a massive major event on and off track,” he said. 

“The Gold Coast 600 is a festival of the best motorsports categories on the planet combined with world class music which appeals to a very wide audience and demographic. 

“It is why this event continues to grow in stature as one of the biggest and best in the country.”

The Hilltop Hoods are old hands at supercar gigs – they headlined at the Gold Coast event in 2015, the Townsville 400 race last year with The Living End and Birds of Tokyo, and the Adelaide Clipsal 500 earlier this year with Hunters & Collectors and Baby Animals.

“A lot of the car races have picked up the slack where a lot of the festivals have disappeared," MC Suffa from Hilltop Hoods added.

“So as the festivals are shrinking back, it seems live music in places like these are growing, which is great to see.”

Cold Chisel are headlining the inaugural Newcastle 500 Supercars event in November on the Saturday night, with Delta Goodrem performing the night before.

Goodrem signed on as the sport’s ambassador this year. At the time of the announcement, Warburton said, “We are delighted Delta is joining our sport as we continue to broaden our fan base and introduce Supercars to new audiences.”

She will also perform on the starting grid of the Bathurst 1000 in October.

An international act is also in discussions to play Newcastle, while the Hilltop Hoods are also tipped to make an appearance.