Matthew Abbott/Panos Pictures

Live music in the beer garden at very busy Byron Bay Beach Hotel.

The Byron Bay community is at war with a proposed Netflix reality TV show called Byron Baes, which locals feel does not represent their town. A petition calling on business owners to refuse the use of their premises as a location has attracted thousands of signatures. The town has become wildly popular in the last couple of years for celebrities and influencers living a laid-back lifestyle which has only been exaggerated with the COVID-19 pandemic that has seen young professionals leaving the city to work from the iconic destination, forcing rents and property prices to rocket. The Mayor, Simon Richardson says ''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.''