About us

 

Paws at the Park is the Gold Coast’s original dog market event that will make your tail wag with excitement! Established in 2016, our paw-some event has grown into Australia's largest free dog market extravaganza, earning us the title of Queensland’s “Best Doggie Day Out” and the “Best Dog Market Event - Australia”.

Prepare to be bow-wowed by a paw-some array of over 100 dog-centric stalls, showcasing everything from trendy accessories and fashion for your stylish pooch to top-quality pet food, veterinary services, and even doggy ice cream that will have your canine companion begging for more.

At our stage you’ll witness jaw-dropping tricks, captivating talks, live music that will make your ears perk up and our popular best dressed competitions.

Your pup can also frolic, fetch, and mingle with their furry comrades in our small and big dog off-leash play areas!

Our event is proudly organised by a dynamic duo of dog devotees, Jenna and Lia, along with our trusty canine co-conspirators, Ruby and Piper. We're on a mission to create a doggone good time, bringing together the Gold Coast's canine community and their humans for a day filled with tail-wagging laughter, paw-some memories, and endless opportunities to connect, learn, and celebrate our furry family members.

So mark your calendars, grab your leashes and join us at Paws at the Park, where the doggos reign supreme, the humans have a howling good time, and the fun is off the leash!

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For those of you who are new to Paws at the Park this is our story…

We are self-confessed crazy dog ladies who run our own small doggie businesses.

Our idea to create Paws at the Park came from humble beginnings. We had both attended ‘normal’ markets with our businesses but felt that it would be amazing to create a place where all local doggies business owners (or petrepreneurs!) could show off their products and services to like-minded furparents… so we decided to make it a reality.


The first markets - April 2016

Our first Paws at the Park was held in April at Musgrave Park, with 20 stalls, 1 coffee van and a pancake cook-up raising money for the Animal Welfare League of QLD, all on a non-existent budget. The response from the doggie community and business owners was overwhelming, so much so that we knew that we wanted to do it all again!

Doing it all again, August 2016

We were lucky enough to be invited by the Gold Coast City Council to host our next event in Varsity Lakes in August 2016. With their support we were able to host the Gold Coast’s dogs on the green of the Central Park Oval in Varsity Lakes, with 60 stalls, 7 food trucks and a stage with demos, talks and competitions.


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gold coast dog markets

Our best event yet, August 2017

In August 2017 we took Paws at the Park to Mudgeeraba Showgrounds with the help of some amazing sponsors and major exhibitors, amongst them RACQ.

OUR first christmas market, december 2017

With the support of the Redland Council we held a festive Christmas market in Cleveland. The markets were so well received we repeated them again in November 2018.

A grassroots legacy and what’s to come

Our August Mudgeeraba event has been so well received - we will continue to host it in every year with the support of Councillor Tozer of Division 9 and the Gold Coast City Council. Councillor Peter Young of Division 5 also supports our November event in Nerang.

While we can’t wait to watch our events continue to grow we will always stay true our original vision for Paws at the Park- as a grassroots market with high quality, local small doggie businesses – with the addition of fun competitions, fundraising for AWLQ and other activities along the way. Thank you for all of your support and we can’t wait to start organising our next event!

Paws at the Park has now raised over $65,000 for our charity partner Animal Welfare League QLD (AWLQ).

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