Will Joondalup become one of WA’s must-visit destinations with abundance of cultural events?

Once just the end of a train line to many people in Perth, Joondalup is starting to enjoy the spoils of a burgeoning cultural scene.

Its events calendar now boasts a mini-rally race through the city streets, well-known music acts and now a November appearance from the Duchess of York.

Local leaders hope it’s the start of something that will put it firmly on the map.

Joondalup mayor Albert Jacob described it as “an overnight success that’s taken 20 years to arrive”, while the deputy premier says Joondalup has the potential to be one of WA’s must-visit destinations.

Although an appearance from writer and former wife of Prince Andrew, Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, at the inaugural Festival of Fiction did not go to plan due to King Charles and Queen Camilla’s visit to the east coast at the same time, the Duchess has still committed to a one-off appearance in Joondalup on November 1.

Festival of Fiction director Tess Woods said the event’s creation and the securing of the Duchess’ appearance were as simple as asking the question.

“A lot of people don’t know this but her publisher is a Perth-based publishing house, a small boutique press called Serenity Press that is run by a powerhouse of a woman, Karen Weaver,” she said.

“I am friends with Karen and when I accepted to direct this festival, I got in touch with her and just thought I’d ask.

“I really expected a no, but somehow Karen said yes and that she was thinking of bringing the Duchess out to Australia anyway to promote her books, so the timing just worked.”

Ms Woods, who lives in the City of Joondalup, said she approached the city in March last year with the idea of a large literary event to add to its collection of arts and entertainment programs.

“I thought that was missing from their entertainment, culture and tourism aspect and I felt that there was a real gap in the market for popular fiction being highlighted at festivals,” she said.

Ms Woods said the event, to be held on October 19, had so far been well supported by publishers and sponsors, with a strong spread of Perth-based and national authors.

She initially had doubts whether a 300-ticket event would draw interest from the community but was blown away when the event sold out in a day.

The Duchess of York will now be appearing in her own event with a Q&A on stage at Joondalup Resort with Ms Woods. Festival of Fiction ticketholders are able to access the separate event for free.

Another major event in the city which has already garnered great success after just two years is the Joondalup Festival of Motoring.

The two-day event in the Joondalup city centre is highlighted by a city sprint through the closed-off streets and drew more than 20,000 people in May this year, according to event director Justin Hunt.

“Events are a way to activate and re-energise an area. We couldn’t do it without the local government’s support,” he said.

“Business is only going to invest where it feels activated and alive. That’s what these events bring to these non-Perth-CBD areas; the Joondalup city centre has got so many good assets and I just think it’s great that the city’s working with local businesses and events to activate it.”

Mr Jacob said the rise of high-profile events in the city was a big focus for the council and staff.

“We are supposed to be the CBD of the northern corridor but also we have a desire to be the cultural capital of the northern corridor,” he said.

“People always talk about local government being the three Rs — roads, rates and rubbish — but we always say there’s a fourth R, which is recreation.

“As our capacity is growing, we try spread our cultural events and our activities across all areas of the city — we are a large council.”

Mr Jacob said the variety of events was reflected in the level of funding, from city-led events to large privately funded attractions.

“We spent around $2 million doing up Whitfords Nodes Park and then Zaccaria Concerts and Touring Events came to us with the idea of having Fatboy Slim perform there in 2020 and the last concert played there was Live, who were one of my favourite bands from the late 90s,” he said.

“We’re drawing bands like that in an entirely private capacity through to Sarah Ferguson and Ernie Dingo.

“We pick up on different demographic interests, which has been a real strength.”

Mr Jacob said while the events were enjoying success, it was important for the city to continue to cultivate it.

“We’re permissive, we want to see things happen,” he said.

“If someone comes with an idea to hold an event and have a name like Sarah Ferguson or Fatboy Slim in the park, or the Listen Out Festival at Joondalup Arena, we’re going to try find a way to make that happen.”

He said the city spent about $2.5 million a year on its own program of cultural events — roughly half of what it spends on sport.

“The City of Perth is always going to have the biggest event budget and theirs will be much bigger than ours and we’re obviously not competing with venues like Optus Stadium or Perth Arena,” he said.

“But in that next tier, when there are 10,000 people at a beach or 30,000 young people at a festival, we’re seen as an attractive destination.”

He said the city was willing to spend the money on events if it led to a return on investment for local traders, like those at Hillarys Marina who recently reaped the rewards of a marina light show as part of the Joondalup Festival.

The three-week event in March took out a national award last year when it was named the Best Cultural, Arts or Music event at the Australian Event Awards and Symposium in Sydney, beating well-known tourist drawcard events Vivid Sydney and the Adelaide Fringe Festival.

City of Joondalup co-ordinator of cultural services Laura McKelvey joined the city as a producer for the award-winning 2023 Joondalup Festival.

“The win was unexpected in the context of the industry and the sort of heavy hitters that the award category attracts,” she said.

Ms McKelvey said the event’s re-branding to a three-week festival helped build its identity, which was to transform regular suburban areas into their own makeshift art theatres.

“We don’t have an arts centre, we don’t have a major amphitheatre, there’s a lot of things we don’t have here and we’re trying to flip that and turn it into a strength and the identity of the Joondalup Festival,” she said.

“The strategic positioning of the shift in modelling of the festival to a three-week festival was to be able to start developing audiences, so when in future hopefully there’s a standalone facility in this region, we’ve got an art-literate audience who are there and waiting.”

The visitor base is also growing, with attendees coming from 700 suburbs nationally.

“The interstate visitors happen to come to these events when they’re here, but yes, certainly from the inner-city areas and south of the river,” Ms McKelvey said.

“With our events program, some of it we’re doing knowing that we’re targeting people from elsewhere and then some of it is for more local audiences.

“We’re also offering that in a highly subsidised way and the idea there is that it’s accessible to all.”

Mr Jacob said the city was looking to promote large-scale investment in the Joondalup cIty centre and highlighted it as one of the few local government centres which had no height restrictions in its planning policy.

“In the CBD itself, we now have minimum height requirements in some areas,” he said.

“Not only are there no height restrictions, there are some areas of the city where we are openly saying ‘please don’t under-develop; if you’re coming and investing in the Joondalup CBD, go hard’.

“Sometimes people focus on the CBD and outside of events its nightlife does still struggle, but there’s 22 suburbs in the City of Joondalup.

“We’re seeing real pockets of success in terms of hospitality and tourism, and we want to see investment come back through into the Joondalup CBD as well. It’s still in many ways the missing piece of the puzzle.”

Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre senior research fellow Daniel Kiely said the city’s events and tourism could be also benefiting from a natural recovery after the COVID pandemic, with the high immigrant population — particularly from the UK and Ireland — adding to that.

“We know from the tourism visitor trends that a huge amount of visitors come to WA to visit family and friends and I think the fact that there is a university in the area as well, more people will be coming from overseas to visit,” he said.

Dr Kiely, who is also a City of Joondalup resident, said it was important to tie these events to broader experiences and major events in the State to ensure people would be willing to stay and spend more money in the city.

“More accommodation, hotels and apartments and more of a touristy hub would benefit the city and its development, but the likes of the Ocean Reef Marina development appears to be gearing towards providing that kind of environment,” he said.

Dr Kiely said having a more vibrant central hub would support growth on the back of these events.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be in the Joondalup CBD; the coastlines are probably the biggest drawcard that you have for tourists and visitors here,” he added.

He said a skills shortage was broadly affecting the State, as well as a housing crisis, which could limit or prevent hospitality and tourism infrastructure investment, but recent investment in transport to the northern corridor could offset some of those effects.

Tourism Minister and Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti said Joondalup had a big part to play in WA’s overall events and tourism calendar.

“There’s so much opportunity in the City of Joondalup to continue building on its potential as a must-visit tourism destination for WA,” she said.

“I certainly believe existing successful events like Joondalup Festival have a big role to play in this, but mass-participation events and major events that span right across the city are incredibly important as well.”

She also pointed to the $223 million Ocean Reef Marina development as “one of the most significant projects our Government has invested in”.

“It’s going to be a world-class tourism precinct once complete, with waterfront cafes and restaurants, a state-of-the-art coastal pool, commercial floor space and over 1000 new residential dwellings,” she said.