Hinterland Tourism Sunshine Coast has unveiled a new Event Sponsorship Program that will reinvest member funds directly into festivals and events that drive overnight stays, regional dispersal and year-round visitation across the Blackall Range and beyond.
The Sunshine Coast Hinterland has long punched above its weight as a tourism destination, celebrated for its rainforest villages, artisan culture, farm-to-table dining and spectacular escarpment scenery. Now the industry body that champions the region is putting its money where its mouth is.
Hinterland Tourism Sunshine Coast (HTSC), the member-funded association representing operators from the Blackall Range to the Glass House Mountains, has launched a formal Event Sponsorship Program designed to channel funds into events proven to attract visitors, extend their stays and stimulate local spending.
The program is being positioned as transparent and evidence-based. Applicants will be assessed against published criteria, and successful recipients will be required to provide post-event reporting covering visitor numbers, length of stay and economic impact. The approach mirrors the accountability frameworks increasingly demanded by government funding bodies and aligns with Sunshine Coast Council’s own Major Events Sponsorship Program, which calls for measurable returns and regional dispersal as conditions of support.
HTSC president Wayne Parcell, who founded the pioneering Rangebow Festival in 2022 before being elected to lead the association in late 2025, says the program is about reinvesting member contributions into the region as a whole.
| “This is about reinvesting member funds for the Hinterland as a whole. We want events that bring people up here, keep them here overnight and send them home wanting to come back.” — Wayne Parcell, President, Hinterland Tourism Sunshine Coast |
Complementing Council Support
The new industry-led program is deliberately designed to sit alongside, rather than replace, Sunshine Coast Council’s Major Events Sponsorship Program. Council’s scheme focuses on events with the scale and profile to generate “substantial economic benefits” for the region and targets events hosted in “distinctive and captivating locations, including our Hinterland.”
HTSC’s program is intended to help smaller and niche hinterland events build their audiences, reputation and visitor-night counts to the point where they can eventually qualify for council-level funding. In practical terms, it creates a pipeline: an emerging festival receiving industry support one year may become a candidate for major-event sponsorship the next.
The Sunshine Coast’s Major Events Sponsorship Program has already delivered notable results at a regional level. In 2024–25 it generated $106 million in direct economic impact and supported more than 1,100 full-time equivalent jobs across the events and tourism sectors, according to figures released by council. For the hinterland, which draws visitors seeking a different experience to the coast, events that extend the tourism season into shoulder periods and pull visitors midweek represent a particularly valuable economic dividend.
Visit Sunshine Coast CEO Matt Stoeckel has previously noted that the hinterland “plays a vital role in making the Sunshine Coast a premium tourist destination, renowned for its natural landscape, outstanding accommodation, rich food culture and dynamic arts and cultural scene.” The new HTSC program is a concrete mechanism to reinforce that role.
Anchor Events for 2026
The sponsorship framework comes with an immediate showcase of what it is designed to support. Four events are already on the radar as exemplars of the kind of programme that could benefit from industry backing, events that celebrate the hinterland’s creativity, sustainability and community spirit while demonstrating genuine visitor appeal.
Montville Timber Trail | 2–3 May 2026
Montville’s historic village centre becomes the setting for a free, all-ages two-day celebration of timber, craft and sustainability. Furniture makers, designers, woodworkers and educators will take over multiple venues within easy walking distance, offering stalls, demonstrations, workshops, tool and timber sales, and a Makers’ Design Fair at The Edge. The event sits at the confluence of artisan culture, environmental education and community engagement, precisely the kind of distinctive, place-based experience that drives visitors to make the trip up the range.
Sunshine Coast Wootha Prize | 1–4 May 2026
Now in its 15th year and hosted by Barung Landcare, the Wootha Prize has earned a national reputation as a prestigious woodworking competition with a rigorous sustainability ethos. The 2026 edition enters a new chapter as the feature exhibition of the Montville Timber Trail, with finalist works displayed at the stunning Glass House at Montvale. Named for the Kabi Kabi / Gubbi Gubbi word for Red Cedar, a species once abundant across the Blackall Range and now making a slow comeback, the prize carries the guiding ethos: “Sustainable by Nature, Beautiful by Design.” Works must be crafted from sustainably harvested, recycled or weed timbers. The overall winner receives a $10,000 cash prize, sponsored by Sunshine Coast Council. Entries close 20 March 2026; for competition guidelines visit barunglandcare.org.au/woothaprize
The Rangebow Festival | 9–18 October 2026
Described by Visit Sunshine Coast as a festival to “go somewhere different, no barriers, no boundaries, everyone on stage,” the Rangebow is a not-for-profit multi-venue festival spread across Maleny, Montville, Flaxton, Mapleton and wider Sunshine Coast locations. Now in its fifth year, the festival has grown from a four-day local celebration into a ten-day programme featuring more than 30 events. Past programmes have included First Nations culinary and cultural experiences, world premieres, cabaret, drag, outdoor opera, and nature-based music events. Its themes, community, diversity, inclusivity, reconciliation, sustainability and creativity, have made it a distinctive fixture on the Queensland events calendar and a previous recipient of Sunshine Coast Council’s Major Events Sponsorship. That it now runs across ten days in October, a classic shoulder-season period, makes it an ideal candidate for a program focused on extending visitation and filling accommodation gaps.
Maleny Wood Expo | 16 October 2026
Established by Barung Landcare in 1996, the Maleny Wood Expo is recognised as one of the best wood shows in Australia, having attracted up to 10,000 visitors in its peak years. The 2026 edition marks a significant transition: under new management, the expo continues as a standalone event while the Wootha Prize, previously its centrepiece exhibition, moves to the new Montville Timber Trail format for its May showcase. The expo retains its core programming of native timber sales, mobile milling, furniture, sculpture, woodworking tool demonstrations, educational talks, sustainable living displays and family-friendly activities, providing a practical complement to the more fine-art focus of the Wootha Prize.
Sculpture on the Edge | 27 November – 6 December 2026
Arts Connect Inc’s annual outdoor sculpture prize returns for what will be its 17th year, once again hosted at the iconic Flaxton Gardens, perched on the escarpment with panoramic views stretching from Noosa to Moreton Island. The nine-day event has grown to feature works by more than 90 artists selected from across Australia, combining indoor and outdoor gallery spaces with workshops, artist talks and the award-winning Flaxton Gardens restaurant. With a total prize pool that has exceeded $23,000 in recent years, including a $10,000 major prize, the event attracts artists of national standing. Its late-November timing positions it as a summer-season drawcard that fills the post-school-holiday calendar gap, exactly the kind of strategic dispersal that the new HTSC sponsorship program is designed to incentivise.
| “Come on up — the hinterland has extraordinary things to offer, and these events are a genuine reason to make the journey.” — Winston Johnston, Visit Sunshine Coast |
Industry Meets Minister: Networking Evening at Flaxton Gardens
Operators across the region have an early opportunity to engage with the new program, and with the Queensland government, at a joint networking evening being hosted by Visit Sunshine Coast and Hinterland Tourism Sunshine Coast on Tuesday, 17 February 2026, at Flaxton Gardens.
The evening will bring together tourism operators from across the Sunshine Coast and hinterland in one of the region’s most celebrated settings: Flaxton Gardens is an award-winning events and wedding venue positioned on the Blackall Range escarpment with sweeping coastal views stretching from Noosa to Moreton Island.
The Hon. Andrew Powell MP, Member for Glass House and Minister for the Environment and Tourism and Minister for Science and Innovation, is among the confirmed attendees. Mr Powell’s electorate covers the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast and Moreton Bay, and his portfolio gives him direct responsibility for regional tourism development, environmental management and innovation policy, all of which intersect with the hinterland’s economic and ecological identity. He has publicly championed nature-based tourism and sustainable regional events as part of the Queensland Government’s Destination 2045 plan.
Registration for the networking evening is handled via Visit Sunshine Coast’s event platform. Places are limited; hinterland operators are encouraged to register promptly.
| EVENING DETAILS AT A GLANCE Date: Tuesday, 17 February 2026 Venue: Flaxton Gardens, 313 Flaxton Drive, Flaxton Hosted by: Visit Sunshine Coast and Hinterland Tourism Sunshine Coast Guest: The Hon. Andrew Powell MP, Minister for the Environment and Tourism Registration: via Visit Sunshine Coast’s event platform Further information: visitsunshinecoasthinterland.com.au |
Looking Ahead
The launch of HTSC’s Event Sponsorship Program is a signal that the hinterland tourism industry is maturing in its strategic ambitions. Member-funded associations in destination tourism typically direct resources toward promotion and marketing; a formal sponsorship program that backs events with measurable visitor outcomes represents a step-change in how HTSC is deploying its resources.
For local event organisers, the message is clear: if you can demonstrate that your event brings visitors to the hinterland, keeps them overnight and generates spending in local businesses, there is now an industry-backed mechanism to help you grow. Applications will be assessed on evidence, projected visitor nights, off-peak timing, economic impact, and recipients will be expected to report back with results.
For residents, the practical dividend is a richer events calendar across the year: more reasons for friends and family to visit, more local businesses supported, and more occasions to celebrate the creative, ecological and cultural character that makes the Blackall Range one of South-East Queensland’s most distinctive places to live.
For membership and sponsorship programme enquiries: info@hinterlandtourism.com.au | visitsunshinecoasthinterland.com.au
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