On a typical schoolies opening weekend, thousands of teenagers would pack Surfers Paradise Beach for a festival-like party, complete with DJs, dancing and zero social distancing.
But in 2020, Queensland Police supervised just 150 'well-behaved' school leavers on the beach, in a gathering that Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler said "happened fairly organically".
"They were playing games," he said.
"Good thing is they were outdoors, so undertaking that is fine."
When official celebrations on the Gold Coast were cancelled in August, thousands of school leavers abandoned the traditional home of celebrations in Surfers Paradise, in favour of more low-key coastal areas like Noosa.
But is this a blip on the radar, or has 2020 changed schoolies forever?
Surfers Paradise still 'iconic schoolies'
Sunshine Coast friends Brianna Martyn, Ashli Phillips, Emmy Neil and Loula Bensaci travelled to the Gold Coast for this year's celebrations.
"The Gold Coast is the iconic schoolies," Ashli Phillips said.
Brianna Martyn said despite COVID restrictions, "there's still a lot of people and it's still fun".
"Everyone's been here over the years, so we wanted to come here," she said.
Loula Benscai said this year was made special by other schoolies celebrating on the Gold Coast.
"Everyone's here for the same reason, everyone just wants to have fun, we're all finishing school, everyone's just here doing the same thing," she said.
"I think I'd have FOMO [fear of missing out] if I wasn't here."
Emmy Neil said while COVID had changed some of her expectations, she had still been having fun.
"I mean obviously I think it would've been a little bit more fun with the beach parties and stuff, but I still think it's fun," she said.
Schoolies first weekend 'a fizzer'
Around 300 Red Frog volunteers have been in Surfers Paradise this year, offering support to school leavers as part of the State Government's safety measures.
"The first weekend was a little bit of a fizzer on the Gold Coast," Red Frog coordinator Chris George said.
"They're having a good time but there just definitely aren't the 24–25,000 [school leavers] we've had in the past."
But with beach parties cancelled, Mr George said Red Frogs were spending more time with school leavers in hotel rooms.
"There are a couple of bored schoolies already but overall, they're just walking around, getting familiar with the coast," he said.
"Some of the schoolies have FOMO [fear of missing out] — they're seeing all their friends having a good time up at Noosa or somewhere else."
Mr George said he estimates that 40 to 45 per cent of school leavers are over 18 years old, resulting in a "shift to the clubs".
"[At] the clubs on Orchid Avenue in particular, there's a few more schoolies, a few lines out the front and that's pretty consistent all night," he said.
Current numbers 'really manageable'
Queensland Police have committed as many resources to Surfers Paradise this year, as they have in previous years, with 200 officers directly involved in Surfers Paradise operations.
Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler said numbers in the entertainment precinct remained 'normal' on Saturday, increasing above average on Sunday without any 'significant incidents'.
"There are quite a few people around and anecdotally, a lot of them do appear to be school-leavers," he said.
"We're very pleased with the overall behaviour."
But Chief Superintendent Wheeler said with official events cancelled, along with formal registration, calculating an accurate number of school leavers in Surfers Paradise had been difficult.
"They're not registered, they're not readily identifiable," he said.
"If the numbers maintain as they are now, it'll be really manageable."
