Film
One or two screening pavilions (scope-dependent), 8–20 feature films across the weekend, shorts blocks, an outdoor Saturday-night feature, and a curatorial through-line tied to the year's theme.
For partners, sponsors, councils, press
The Case for Backing a Horror Festival on the Sunshine Coast.
This is the page where we drop the spooky voice for a minute and lay out the business. If you're a civilian — go back to the homepage. If you're at Council, Tourism Queensland, a brand looking for a partnership, a journalist, or just someone who wants the spreadsheet view — read on.
TL;DR
- What: Boutique horror festival on the Queensland Sunshine Coast. Film, community, and live theatrical performance across three days each Halloween weekend.
- When: Pilot October 2027 at Majestic Theatre Pomona. Main festival launch 27–29 October 2028 at Nambour Showgrounds and Mooloolaba beachfront.
- Scale: 200–500 attendees Year 1, growing year-on-year. Three scope tiers ($35–55k / $60–90k / $80–150k) with final scope decided early 2028 after the pilot.
- Differentiator: Each year is a completely different curatorial theme, sub-branded under the parent. Year 1 is Dark Carnival. Year 2 will look nothing like it.
- No competitor in Queensland. Melbourne has Monster Fest. Sydney has A Night of Horror. Beechworth has AsylumFest. South-East Queensland — one of the country's fastest-growing population centres — has nothing.
The Defensible Idea: Annual Reinvention.
Most festivals pick an aesthetic and stick to it. We pick a new one every year.
The institutional brand stays constant — same name, same Sunshine Coast home, same Halloween-weekend timing, same three-pillar structure, same mascot, and a recurring opening-ceremony moment whose specific staging changes year by year. But each year's theme — a horror subgenre or tonal mode — completely repaints the festival. New posters. New programme. New MC character. New aesthetic.
For long-term partners: the parent brand builds equity year over year. Sponsorship and grant relationships attach to Sunshine Ghost Festival as an institution, then evolve their activation each year alongside the theme. Multi-year sponsors get a continuously refreshed creative brief. Returning audiences get a new experience. New audiences get a new entry point. The festival can run for decades without ever feeling repetitive.
What This Brings to the Sunshine Coast.
Visitor Economy
Halloween-weekend timing pulls Brisbane drive-up audience — a 90-minute trip from a ~3 million-person metro. Pilot year is regional; Year 1 main festival expands to interstate horror cinephiles. Multi-night accommodation, hospitality, retail. The Sunshine Coast doesn't currently own the Australian Halloween moment — this festival makes that ours.
Cultural Calendar
A genre-led arts festival is missing from the regional cultural calendar. Sunshine Ghost Festival fits alongside Caloundra Music Festival and the regional film festival circuit without competing for the same audience or season.
Local Creative Scene
Film, theatre, costume, music, makeup, dressing, photography, performance — every year cycles a fresh creative brief through Sunshine Coast and South-East Queensland talent. Programming committee and crew sign-ups deliberately prioritise local creative collaborators.
Tourism Alignment
Aligned with Visit Sunshine Coast and Tourism and Events Queensland strategy: distinctive boutique events that bring out-of-region overnight spend during shoulder calendar windows. October is exactly that.
Where Sponsors Fit: Activation-First.
The festival's tone is too specific for generic logo-placement sponsorship to work cleanly. A car-dealership logo on a banner next to a fire breather breaks the world. Our sponsor model is activation-first: every sponsor does something inside the festival rather than just appearing in it.
The activation is the brand placement. Sponsor money funds an experience that becomes part of the festival's content; the sponsor's name attaches naturally. Tonal coherence stays intact, sponsors get something memorable instead of a banner, and activations get press in a way logo placements never do.
Illustrative Activation Ideas
None of these are locked — they're directional examples to show the shape of the conversation.
- An auto sponsor branding a cursed haunted-hayride looping the showgrounds (test drive language subverted).
- A real-estate sponsor running a haunted open house — actual listing converted to a haunted-house attraction, agent in costume conducting spectral inspections.
- A craft beer partner launching a Gary-branded Halloween-weekend limited release.
- A tattoo studio running a flash day in the vendor market with festival-themed designs.
- A regional newspaper publishing a Halloween-weekend special supplement as an in-kind printing partnership.
Specific activations get developed conversationally with each sponsor, customised to what that brand uniquely brings. We'd rather build the right activation with you than pitch a fixed package off a deck.
The Funding Stack.
A festival of this scale runs on a mix of revenue streams:
- Ticket revenue: 30–50% of total budget
- Sponsorship (activation-led): 20–40% of total
- Grants: 15–30% of total — Sunshine Coast Council Major Events Sponsorship, Tourism and Events Queensland, Arts Queensland, RADF, Screen Queensland, Creative Australia
- Vendor and food truck fees: 5–15% of total
Pilot year (2027) operates at a much smaller scale — roughly $5–8k all-in, funded by personal capital plus small local sponsorship plus a community grant. The pilot exists primarily as the credibility builder for the 2028 funding campaign.
How the Festival Is Programmed.
Three pillars run in parallel every year. The form each pillar takes is determined by that year's theme.
Live Theatrical Performance
The festival's signature differentiator. Year 1 form: circus and sideshow. Future years vary. Programmed deliberately between film slots so performance is a reason to come outside, not competition for screenings.
Convention / Community
Vendor market themed to the year, food trucks, bar, panels and Q&As, SFX workshops, atmospheric dressing throughout.
The Pilot's Job.
The 2027 pilot at Majestic Theatre Pomona is intentionally small — single day, single venue, ~250 capacity. Its job is threefold:
- Operational test. Practise ticketing, programming, run-sheet management, AV — at a scale where mistakes are cheap.
- Audience seeding. Every 2027 attendee becomes a 2028 ambassador. Mailing list and social grow.
- Credibility builder for 2028 funding. Photos, audience numbers, testimonials, and press become the centrepiece of every grant and sponsor pitch in late 2027 and early 2028. Without the pilot, those applications are speculative; with it, they're proven.
Team and Structure.
Founder and organiser: Will, based in Mooloolaba. Currently solo, actively seeking a co-organiser with programming or operations focus. Advisory and crew sign-ups are open via the get-involved page.
Legal entity form is in research — sole trader, Pty Ltd, or incorporated association. The decision affects grant eligibility and will be locked before Phase 3 funding applications begin in late 2027.
Get in Touch.
For sponsorship conversations, press, council or grant enquiries, or programming partnerships:
Email Will direct: will@sunshineghost.com
Put sponsor, press, or council in the subject line and you'll get a same-week reply.