Newcastle's Surfest is set for an international upgrade with the inclusion of the event on the World Surfing League tour.
The long-running surf event has been added to the Challenger Series, World Surf League's second highest tier under the Championship Tour, and will involve 120 of the best up-and-coming surfers on the planet competing at Merewether Beach from June 1-8, 2025.
World Surf League president Andrew Stark flew into Newcastle to make the announcement on September 11.
"It'll be the first Challenger Series of the international series around the world, one of six events globally," Mr Stark said.
"We have always loved this town.
"We're working in partnership with Warren Smith from Surfest and essentially upgrading Surfest from a regional qualifying series event to an international Challenger Series event, which is one of the highest tiers of our sport."
The World Surf League last came to Newcastle in 2021 when COVID-19 disrupted scheduled tour locations.
"World Surf League really understood not only the power of Surfest but the power of this town and the surf fans here and the following of surfing and the sense of community," Mr Stark said.
Surfest founder Warren Smith said the event would be a "magic moment".
"The QS 5000 events we've been running, they've been a regional event, so we've been attracting surfers from not only in Australia nationwide and New Zealand, China and Indonesia.
"Now, we're going to have 19 countries here, we're going to see the flavour of the world coming back from Newcastle. It's going to be a spectacle and a half.
"While we will welcome all the internationals, I hope we can bring a home town victory again."
High-profile Newcastle surfers Philippa Anderson, Jackson Baker and Ryan Callinan, who all competed in the Newcastle World Surf League event in 2021, were on hand for the announcement at Merewether Beach.
Anderson and Baker are both expected to take part in the Challenger Series event and said they were thrilled they would have the chance to compete at home again.
"I'm over the moon," Anderson said.
"This is going to go a long way, not just for myself, Jackson and Morgan [Cibilic] if they don't qualify [for the Championship Tour] this year, but to see what the little kids in Newcastle are going to be able to witness right in front of them is just so amazing.
"I'm a huge fan of the Matildas so when they came to Newcastle, I just couldn't believe that I could see them and be so close, but we have such a different sport.
"Every morning they're going to be practicing and you're going to have all the little groms out there literally surfing right next to their heroes."
"Hopefully we get some good waves."
Baker won Surfest as a regional qualifier event in 2022 and said he'd love to repeat the feat.
"I'm super excited," Baker said. "I mean look at the day today, it's beautiful. We call it God's country here, so it's good to have this event back on the world stage.
"Competing at home is the stuff you dream about. Even when it was a regional event here, to win at home was one of the most special days ever and the crowd was pretty big then but I would say this next year coming as an international event it will be a lot bigger."
Callinan competes on the Championship Tour but has previously featured in the Challenger Series.
"To have that kind of event here with that level of surfing, it's just insane," Callinan said "It's the stepping stone to the world tour and to have it in that time of year the waves should be really good."
The announcement came after lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes received unanimous support for her call to elevate Surfest to a Challenger Series event.
Cr Nelmes said the 2021 WSL event injected more than $15 million into the local economy.
"There are literally millions of viewers of these international events worldwide," she said. "It has a huge audience and a huge exposure for the City of Newcastle, which is just phenomenal in terms of our growth as an event city."
When asked about whether shoreline infrastructure would be upgraded to handle the event and crowds, Cr Nelmes pointed to previous investment in the Bathers Way.
"We've spent at least $40 million over the last seven years upgrading all the Bathers Way, the pathways, the seating and the lighting to be able to host events along the coastline of this international standard," she said.
The agreement to hold the event in Newcastle is for one year, however Mr Stark said he hoped for Newcastle to continue to feature on the tour.
Mr Smith said Surfest community events would all continue, but be moved to May to coincide with the event.
