Page 26 - Wategos Beach News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

The Byron Bay Surf Festival will be a welcome break for lovers of all things waves, ocean and surfing.

Premium Content Subscriber only Surf's up in and out of the water as the 2021 Byron Bay Surf Festival is set to offer a stoked three days for surfers of all levels from February 26 to 28. Surfers will be swarming from across the state and over the border to compete in the wave riding events. The festival is also a well-loved event for friends to catch up and relax while watching a film, listening to music or attending a Q&A session. Tickets are on sale for some amazing events in this year's line-up but don't wait or you could miss out.

Zac Efron is rumoured to be planning to permanently move to Australia after falling for Byron Bay waitress Vanessa Valladares.

  "It's the most bizarre holiday period we've ever seen," says Michael Visser, who manages the retro Bay Motel that looks out over Main Beach. "Byron is now a meme," concludes a lanky hipster resident. His name is Snake. We're sitting in Wreck Surf - one of the last-standing long-running businesses that remain in town - in a part of the shop that owner Bert Reid has converted into a cafe to keep up with the increasingly trendy demo. "If it's a place where celebrities go, then rich people go there and then vacuous people who follow celebrities will go there and wanna be seen," Snake co...

Byron Bay has transformed from a laid-back coastal town to a Hollywood mecca as successful businessmen and celebrities flood the region. While the northern NSW town is now an internationally acclaimed destination, locals are being priced out as the popularity drives real estate prices up. Little shacks from the 1960s have been bulldozed in to build mansions that span three blocks, and rental availability has plunged to an all-time low. Locals say there is no way for them to compete with city-sized budgets from people moving from Sydney or Melbourne, and celebrities appear to be snapping up la...