November on the Gold Coast: top events in your city this month
November on the Gold Coast opens with Australian Crawl and Men At Work on the sand at Coolangatta, lights up Sea World for Diwali a week later, and closes with Cascada in Burleigh. There's a Cup Day long lunch in the middle if your boss is the forgiving type. These are the thirty we'd actually message the group chat about.
Every pick below links to its live page on Keen, with dates, prices and the ticket link. The links retire once an event is done, so if one tells you it's been and gone, that's the truth doing its job. For the always-current version, what's on across the Gold Coast is rebuilt from the catalogue nightly, and it counts the Tweed side of the border as ours too, so Kingscliff and Tweed Heads are in there. Heading up the M1 instead? Brisbane has its own November picks.
Cup Day, Coast style
Tuesday 3 November is a public holiday in Melbourne and nowhere else, and Queensland doesn't do daylight saving, so the race itself jumps at 2pm up here. That has never stopped the Coast taking the afternoon off. The whole list is on Melbourne Cup Day on the Gold Coast; these are the four we'd book.
Saddle and Spritz
Aviary Rooftop Bar, Southport · Tuesday 3 November, from 12pm
A rooftop takeover with the drinks flowing, a food package, live entertainment and best dressed on the line. $135 a head, and the spritz is in the name for a reason.
Melbourne Cup Luncheon at Nobby's Beach Surf Club
Nobby's Beach Surf Club, Mermaid Beach · Tuesday 3 November, 11:30am to 3pm
Five courses, sweeps, best dressed and the ocean filling the windows. For the crew that wants race day with a side of coastline, $115.
Melbourne Cup at Kaktus
Kaktus Bar, Southport · Tuesday 3 November, 11:30am to 3pm
The cheap and cheerful one: a mini margarita on arrival, a Mexican food package, allocated seats, a DJ and live bongos, with the races on the big screens. $55 a head.
Gold Coast Titans Champions Stakes Day
Gold Coast Turf Club, Bundall · Saturday 7 November
The Coast's own spring carnival finale: live local racing at Bundall with Flemington's Champions Stakes on the big screens, bars and entertainment through the day. Frock up, back a long shot.
The big nights
Red Hot Summer Tour
Coolangatta Beach, Coolangatta · Sunday 1 November, gates 12:30pm · 18+
Australian Crawl back on a stage together for the first time in forty years, Men At Work, Birds of Tokyo, Eskimo Joe, Vika and Linda, Boom Crash Opera and Ella Hooper, all on the sand at Cooly. The month doesn't warm up; it starts at full temperature.
Cascada
Burleigh Town Hotel, Burleigh Heads · Saturday 28 November
Twenty years of Everytime We Touch, and her first ever solo headline tour of Australia stops in Burleigh. Every eurodance anthem you pretend not to know the words to, in one room.
Louis The Child
Elsewhere, Surfers Paradise · Sunday 29 November, 8pm · 18+
The Chicago duo's long-promised Gold Coast debut, in a small room rather than a festival field. Euphoric future bass, up close, on the last Sunday of the month.
The Joe Cocker Express
HOTA, Surfers Paradise · Tuesday 10 November, 7:30pm
Two acts, two eras of Joe Cocker, with Jason Kafoa's gravel voice out front and a full band behind him. A $30 Tuesday that will have the room singing With a Little Help from My Friends whether it wants to or not.
Candlelight: Vivaldi's Four Seasons
Bond University, Robina · Saturday 28 November, 6:30pm
A string quartet, a few hundred candles and the Four Seasons in a university theatre. $41, and if your crew is more Schism than Spring, the TOOL tribute follows at 8:30pm in the same room.
Late, loud and up high
Psychology presents Luis M
Elsewhere, Surfers Paradise · Sunday 1 November, 9pm
A Portuguese headliner from the Iboga Records stable, rolling psychedelic techno from nine until the small hours. $28, and a Sunday night that leaves Monday as somebody else's problem.
Summa Jam
Nineteen at The Star, Broadbeach · Saturday 7 November, 4pm to 9pm
Over-30s daytime clubbing, nineteen floors up: five hours of throwbacks and floor fillers in the sun, done by nine so you can still make dinner. $21.
OUT on TOP ft. Kitty Glitter
Nineteen at The Star, Broadbeach · Saturday 21 November, 2pm to 8:30pm
The rooftop queer day party goes bigger for round two, with Sydney's Kitty Glitter on the decks, drinks and shows above the whole city. $34.
Comedy and theatre
Grapes of Mirth at Tamborine Mountain
Cauldron Distillery, Tamborine Mountain · Saturday 14 November, from 12pm · 18+
Six of the country's best, Tommy Little, Mel Buttle, Rhys Nicholson, Pete Helliar, Merrick Watts and Urvi Majumdar, doing stand-up between courses of local wine, with a DJ and a sunset dancefloor to finish. $99, and the first time the comedy-and-wine party has come to south-east Queensland.
Mickey Wilson: How Ya Goin?
SPEC Bar and Tapas, Miami · Friday 6 November, 7pm
The Darwin-born larrikin who packed the kids in the caravan and did a lap of the country does an hour of fast, filthy, zero-filter chaos in a tapas bar. $27.
Date Night Sketch Comedy
HOTA, Surfers Paradise · Saturday 21 November, 5:30pm
Brisbane's favourite comedy couple bring a sketch show about the aphrodisiac power of doing your farts at work. $32 at HOTA, or catch it at the Currumbin Hotel on Friday 27 November.
Do Not Go Gentle
Griffith University Theatre, Southport · runs until Saturday 14 November
Patricia Cornelius turns Scott's doomed polar expedition into a funny, sad play about growing old, with local actors carrying it. Two weeks left; $29.
Festivals and free days out
Grand Diwali at Sea World
Sea World, Main Beach · Saturday 7 November, from 6pm
Last year's sold out, so this one goes bigger: a Diwali parade, twenty-odd live acts, a bazaar, Indian food stalls and trucks, the rides running after dark and a fireworks finale over the park. Diwali itself falls the next day. From $39.
Gold Coast Greek Festival
HOTA, Surfers Paradise · Saturday 31 October and Sunday 1 November
The city's first Greek festival takes over the arts precinct for a weekend: souvlaki from the community associations, dancing, music, a plate-smashing competition and a proper opa. $10 in.
Cowboys and Country
Historic Rivermill, Mount Nathan · Saturday 7 November Free
The Rivermill goes western for a day: live country music across the gardens, a whip-cracking show, line dancing and family bits by the Coomera River. Free, boots optional.
Marine Expo
Runaway Bay Marina, Hollywell · Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 November Free
Boat displays, marine businesses, food stalls and giveaways, a free weekend wandering a marina pretending you could afford any of it.
GEED UP
CSi Club Southport, Southport · Friday 6 November, 8:30pm Free
Three-part harmonies, hip-hop choreography, breakdancing, a bit of DJing and the biggest hits across every decade, in a club for nothing. A free Friday that beats the couch.
Runaway Bay Carols by Candlelight
Runaway Bay Soccer Fields, Runaway Bay · Saturday 28 November, from 5pm Free
Carols on the grass with a live band, food vendors, Santa and a fireworks finale at 8pm. Picnic rug, kids, the works, and the first excuse of the year to admit it's nearly Christmas.
Movies Under the Stars: The Polar Express
Lionel Perry Park, Surfers Paradise · Saturday 28 November, from 7pm Free
The council's free outdoor cinema does a Christmas classic in the park. Rug, snacks, and a film under the sky; you bring the first two.
Markets
HOTA Farmers and Artisan Market
HOTA, Surfers Paradise · Sunday mornings Free
Farm stalls, makers and local music beside the lake from 6am. Early risers get the best bread; everyone gets the view.
Surfers Paradise Beachfront Markets
The Esplanade, Surfers Paradise · Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights Free
A hundred-odd stalls and live music along the foreshore from 4pm to 9pm, running since 1995. The sea air is included.
The Coastal Markets
Kurrawa Park, Broadbeach · Sundays 1 and 15 November Free
Hundreds of handmade and artisan stalls with the beach right beside you, on the first and third Sundays. Christmas shopping, solved early.
Dreamworld Night Market
Dreamworld, Coomera · Friday and Saturday nights Free
Street food, live music and lights inside the theme park every Friday and Saturday evening, free to walk in. The northern Coast's easiest night out.
Something different
Alcotraz
Surfers Paradise · sessions all month · 18+
Orange jumpsuits, crooked guards and cocktails made from whatever you smuggled into your cell. Deeply silly, played completely straight. From $80.
Global Drone
Cbus Super Stadium, Robina · Wednesday 11 to Friday 13 November
Three days of live flight demos, robots and autonomous everything in a footy stadium. For the mate who has opinions about AI, and the mate who just wants to watch things fly.
Mudgeeraba Gem Show
Mudgeeraba Showgrounds, Worongary · Saturday 14 November
Tables of gems, fossils and jewellery, and silversmiths who are genuinely delighted to explain all of it. $5, and the most relaxing Saturday on this list.
The part where you actually go
That's the list. The gap between reading it and standing in one of those rooms is the same as ever: someone has to pick a date and make the call.
That's the job Keen does. The quickest way in is Find a time: pick two or three dates that could work, add an idea or two from this page, and drop one link in the group chat. Everyone answers from their browser, no app and no account needed. You see which date wins, tap once, and it's a real plan with RSVPs and a chat of its own.
And once your mates are on Keen too, it starts doing the noticing for you: everyone marks the nights they're free, and when yours line up, Keen tells you, along with what's on that actually suits the crew. There's no public holiday up here in November, so the Cup Day long lunch on Tuesday 3 November is the obvious place to start, if your boss is the forgiving type.
November's thirty best excuses are above. Pick one, name a night, and send the message.
Start closer in. See what's on in the next few days, pick a night, send the link.
What's on this weekend on the Gold CoastGet Keen free on the App Store or Google Play.
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