HOTA Markets
A Sunday market on land once farmed for cotton and sugar cane, now home to the Gold Coast's cultural precinct.
About this market
HOTA Markets trades every Sunday morning on land with a genuinely layered history behind its current identity as the Gold Coast's cultural heart. A thriving Indigenous community lived on this Evandale site long before European settlement, and by the 1860s the land had shifted to farming, first cotton, then sugar cane, and later dairy, well over a century before it became home to live music, art and a Sunday market.
From cotton fields to a cultural precinct's Sunday market
The City of Gold Coast purchased the land in the 1960s, and the site's public arts identity began in 1986 with the Keith Hunt Community Entertainment and Arts Centre, later renamed the Gold Coast Arts Centre. Following an international design competition in 2013 and a 2014 masterplan, the venue was rebranded HOTA, Home of the Arts, in 2018, and the Sunday market now trades within the same lakeside parklands, blending fresh produce and local creators with the precinct's broader cultural buzz.
Market at a glance
Reviewers consistently describe the market as a genuine Sunday ritual, praising the lakeside setting, live music and mix of local creators, fresh produce and specialty drinks like matcha, with free four-hour parking a specific, appreciated bonus for visitors driving in.
The parkland now hosting HOTA Markets was farmed for cotton and then sugar cane back in the 1860s, more than a century before the same Evandale site became the Gold Coast's leading cultural precinct.
Good to know before you go
Free parking for up to four hours makes it an easy Sunday visit without watching the clock too closely. Combining the market with HOTA's wider gallery, cinema or live event program is a popular way to turn a market visit into a fuller day out.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What time does HOTA Markets open?
- Sunday morning, at HOTA, Home of the Arts, 135 Bundall Road, Surfers Paradise, in the lakeside parklands of the cultural precinct.
- What was this land used for historically?
- The Evandale site has a layered history: a thriving Indigenous community lived here first, and in the 1860s the land was farmed for cotton and later sugar cane, before later supporting dairy farming. The City of Gold Coast purchased the land in the 1960s.
- When did HOTA get its current name?
- The venue opened as the Keith Hunt Community Entertainment and Arts Centre in 1986, later became the Gold Coast Arts Centre, before a fresh rebrand in 2018 turned it into HOTA, Home of the Arts, following a major cultural precinct masterplan developed from 2014.