# Groundwater Country Music Festival Broadbeach > The Groundwater Country Music Festival returns to Broadbeach on 16 to 18 October 2026, free across more than a dozen stages spread through the suburb. From Viscount the festival is a 15-minute walk south along the Oceanway, no road crossings. - Tag: Local guide - Published: 2026-05-18 --- The **Groundwater Country Music Festival** is back in Broadbeach on **16, 17 and 18 October 2026**: three days of country music spilling out of parks, malls and beachfront bars, with no gate and no ticket. More than 60,000 people moved through the suburb across the 2025 weekend, the organisers put the economic lift above $15 million, and this is the thirteenth running. Entry is free. For a guest at 1 First Avenue, the detail that matters is the path outside the door. Viscount sits at the southern toe of Surfers Paradise, right where the towers thin out and the 2 km Oceanway begins. That path is the whole trip to the festival, and it is the reason to stay this end of the beach for the weekend. ## What is the Groundwater Country Music Festival? [Experience Gold Coast](https://corporate.experiencegoldcoast.com/) runs it with backing from the Queensland Government, and the format is the unusual part: no single arena, no wristband, no perimeter. Broadbeach itself is the venue. Stages go up in parks, on the Victoria Avenue mall, along the boulevard, and inside a long roll of pubs and bars. The 2025 program filled 14 stages with more than 40 artists; the 2026 lineup lands in the months before October. The [official site](https://groundwatercmf.com/) and the Groundwater CMF app carry the live program, the precinct map and the stage-by-stage times. The music plays through the day and into the evening rather than building to one headline slot, and stages run in parallel, so the weekend is something you walk through. Beginners' line dancing on the Beach Deck, a bluegrass breakfast, the Farm Angels charity tent at Kurrawa Park, country cocktails on the mall: children are as welcome as anyone, and the daytime program is built for them.
Late sun over the Gold Coast beach, looking south toward Broadbeach
## Straight down the Oceanway Cross First Avenue, turn south, and you are on the Oceanway. It runs a paved 2 km down the coast to Broadbeach, lit after dark, with not one road to cross. Prams, scooters, cyclists and a steady stream of festival-goers share it; on festival Saturday you can follow the crowd the whole way and never open a map. The first stages meet you at the northern end of the precinct, where the path arrives at Kurrawa Park. The Kurrawa Big Top, the main outdoor stage, stands right there beside the surf life saving club, mostly under cover on flat grass. Keep walking and the festival deepens inland: the mall stage on Victoria Avenue a couple of minutes further on, Surf Parade one street back in the dining row, the Oracle Boulevard stage at the southern edge. You take the precinct in the order it was built, from the sand inward. The G:link is there for a hot afternoon. Florida Gardens station is a six-minute walk from the door and sets you down a few minutes south at Broadbeach North, the festival's official stop. The walk is the more direct trip, though, and on the way home, moving past the crowd rather than into it, it is the better one. ## Every apartment faces the ocean Every Viscount apartment looks straight at the water, each with its own balcony, air-conditioning and ceiling fans, and a full self-contained kitchen. That kitchen earns its keep on festival weekend: a real breakfast on the balcony over the surf before the bluegrass set, rather than a queue for a cafe table on the mall. The heated outdoor pool holds 27°C year-round, ocean-facing, with a shallow end for kids after a long day on grass. Parking is free, one space per apartment, 1.95 m clearance: park once on Thursday and walk for three days.
Covered rooftop BBQ at Viscount with the Pacific behind
## The rooftop after the last set The Viscount rooftop BBQ is where a festival day should end. It looks clean out over the Pacific and catches the late sun, so you can cook dinner up there as the light goes and the country band down on Surf Parade carries faintly up the coast on the breeze. After a day standing in a crowd, a quiet beer at the rail with the ocean in front of you is the right full stop, and the walk back up the Oceanway to reach it is a short one. ## Book for festival weekend **16 to 18 October 2026.** Check-in is 2:00 to 11:00 PM, so tell the team ahead if you will be late, and check-out is 10:00 AM. A Thursday-to-Monday stay lines up cleanly: a slow Thursday before the precinct is fully rigged, the three festival days, and a quiet Monday to walk the Oceanway one more time before the flight home. [**Check availability and book your stay**](/broadbeach-accommodation/index.md), or read more about the [Superior 3 Bedroom Ocean View](/broadbeach-accommodation/3-bedroom-superior-ocean-view/index.md) (the 120 sq m flagship on the upper floors, room for six) and the [2 Bedroom Ocean View](/broadbeach-accommodation/2-bedroom-ocean-view/index.md) (100 sq m, ocean from every room, right size for two couples). The full 2026 lineup, the precinct map and the schedule go live on the [Groundwater Country Music Festival](https://groundwatercmf.com/) site and its app as the dates approach.