CoolyRocksOn the rock’n’roll week and vintage car displays over the June long weekend week at Coolangatta, Gold Coast, has returned to the big marque and Christian input.
For as long as memory serves the now closed (asbestos) Anglican church building held a Rock’n’Roll Gospel service and this was followed by CoolyRocksOn agreeing to have their big marque for a 8.30am Sunday morning service which was packed.
Dr Mark Tronson the retired Australian cricket team chaplain of 17 years who lives in Tweed Heads, was the person behind this.
The CoolyRocksOn church service ran for a number of years then CoolyRocksOn decided to disbandon the big marque and the church service was placed into the open air adjacent to the Coolangatta Surf Club.
Then the heavens opened on that Sunday and the entire CoolyRocksOn program went into disarray including the church service. The following year without the big marque the CoolyRocksOn Church Service was relocated to the Uniting Church without any official publicity or support.
Then Covid struck in 2020 and the whole CoolyRocksOn program fell to the State Government’s Covid rules and very little happened. There was much disquiet and many in the community were upset. People from around Australia who made a bee-line for Coolangatta for the June long weekend was – to put it mildly – were very annoyed.
With Qld borders closing on a whim - this was one of the reasons the famous Roxy Pro Am International Surfing event was lost to Queensland held at Snappers Rocks Coolangatta and moved to Sydney. Queensland were losing other such events.
In 2021 CoolyRocksOn decided to run the gauntlet and with reasonable Covid 19 rules in place, the big marque came back and with it organisers realised there was a need for something Christian after much lobbying and they drew a fresh avenue.
The Brisbane City Gospel Choir came to CoolyRocksOn from 10.00am to 11,.00am in the big marque on Sunday 13 June. Very pleasing!