The world’s most popular surf festival adds a new string to its bow (literally!) in 2010, when violin virtuoso Richard Tognetti and members of the Australian Chamber Orchestra kick off an extraordinary week of entertainment in “Surf City” (Noosa Lions Park) at the Global Surf Industries Noosa Festival of Surfing, presented by Golden Breed.

Festival director Phil Jarratt said this week that months of negotiation had finally resulted in the Surf Festival securing the best lineup of music, film and other surf cultural entertainment ever seen in Noosa. Among the highlights:

• Glide – Australian Chamber Orchestra creative director Richard Tognetti brings to Noosa a unique vision of the correlation between his music and his surfing. This intimate concert in an all-weather marquee will be choreographed to cinematic vision by Jon Frank. Tognetti’s sequel to Musica Surfica has trialled in Europe to critical acclaim, and this Australian premiere is sure to be memorable.
• Surf City: The Concert – The Beautiful Girls headline this sensational six-hour celebration of surf-synched rock, featuring some of the hottest acts on the planet. Blues-oriented Ash Grunwald will play support, with other bands on the bill to include Tijuana Cartel, Band of Frequencies and Pico.
• “Going Vertical” world premiere – the long-awaited story of the shortboard revolution, shows for the first time in the theatre on the park, with stars Bob McTavish, Dick Brewer and many others in attendance.
• Gidget’s Girls Night Out, presented by Noosa Longboards – the original Gidget, Kathy Kohner Zuckerman, who kick-started the whole surf craze at Malibu more than 50 years ago, hosts this incredible night of retro beach fashion, film, music and fun. Just like Malibu in the summer of ’56.

Jarratt said that he and the Noosa Festival’s entertainment director Mark “Pico” Pickering were delighted at the entertainment lineup they had managed to sign. “The main focus of this event has always been and always will be surfing, but the cultural cross-overs between surfing, music and film have become so strong that we also wanted to give surfers who come to the festival an additional level of entertainment, and for those who come for the music, well, we hope they get turned onto surfing too.”

Surf City in the Lions Park will also house Private Collections, the best exhibition of historic surfboards ever assembled, “Ours” Surf Expo featuring core surf industry exhibitors exclusively, a surf memorabilia auction and surf collectors’ fair, plus numerous talks, book launches, spontaneous jams and art exhibitions. Said Jarratt: “The lifetime surfers involved in putting the 2010 festival together are very excited about what we have planned, and we think every surfer who comes will be too.” Surf City will also house Pico’s Surf City Bar and Grill, featuring affordable drinks, snacks and meals in a cool, family-friendly environment.

Surf City will be open to the public throughout the week. Event tickets will be available on-line from Monday, November 30, with huge early bird savings offered until Christmas. For further information visit www.noosafestivalofsurfing.com or phone the Surf City ticket hotline on 54735676.