Residents and business owners in Byron Bay are banding together in protest of the proposed Netflix documentary series, Byron Baes, urging the streaming service to cancel the show.

Netflix Australia announced the series earlier this month, the reality show is set to hone in on the “hot Instagrammers” of Byron Bay, much to the dismay of Byron locals.

In a press release, Byron Baes has been described as a “docu-soap following a feed of hot Instagrammers living their best lives, being their best selves, creating the best drama content, #nofilter guaranteed.” Like an Ex on the Beach vibe except everyone has a 22-inch waist and is clad in hippie-pastiche Spell garb.

Members of the community, including the owners of Byron institutions the Byron Bay General Store and No Bones restaurant, hosted an emergency meeting in an attempt to combat the series from filming. Byron shire mayor, Simon Richardson, has also appealed to the council — asking it to oppose the production.

“We’ve almost got a Truman Show-type portrayal of who we are where everything is quite idyllic and superficial, where out the back it’s an empty parking lot,” Cr Richardson said. “We’ve got a community that is in real stress, we’ve got a community that has real life issues dealing with housing, work, affordability.”

Those in opposition of Byron Baes have highlighted the environmental, social, and housing issues that the town is up against.

“Most of our friends, so many people that we know, have nowhere to live right now,” Comedian, resident and Greens candidate Mandy Nolan told The Guardian. “They don’t really feel like you rolling into town telling a fantasy story that doesn’t exist.”

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In an interview with SBS, Bayleaf Cafe owner Dan Readman emphasised that the community has been under strain the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

“COVID just exploded this place. We’ve probably had five years, 10 years, maybe growth in one year. There’s a lot of pressure on the community here,” he said. “200 million people visit Netflix Global. We have enough spotlight, we don’t think this kind of spotlight is going to do good things for the community.”

A number of Byron Bay residence hit the surf this morning in a “paddle-out” protesting the show. “We are paddling to formally request that Netflix cancels the show immediately!” a social media post read this morning.

Netflix is yet to release a statement acknowledging the protests.

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