Struggling with drought for ten years, Australian country towns have invented some unique fesivals to come together, support each other and to bring tourists and to support their towns and improve their economy.
The Deni Ute Muster, started as a group of utility owners would gather and show off their pride and joy and compete in burnouts, drag races and generally chill out.
The Ute Muster now runs over two days and attracts visitors of all ages from all over the country and with numerous attractions other than the utilities their is plenty for all the family.
The Piglet races raise money for charity, with a calcutta auction held for the right to “own” the chosen pig for the race. The winners’ owner getting half of the prize pool, the other half going to charity.
The course is rectangular and the pigs must learn how to operate the gate at each corner to progress. The prize is a bowl of mash, milk and cereal, placed on a bale of hay in the centre of the course.
Each piglet is identified by the colour of his saddle cloth.
Styled in the fashion of the Ascot Races, the trumpets blast and the crowd roars and they are off. The run and the pen are built of iron mesh and the piglets make their way through the first gate, with the leader able to nuzzle the latch up and the gate springs open.
At the second gate the lead has changed and the piglet in front can’t work the gate. Eventually he is nudged out of the way and the gate is opened. When they have reach the centre where the mash mixture is the group of piglets are hugging the outside of the mesh rails and trying to find then next gate, when one of the last pigs to arrive, heads straight for the bowl and he is declared the winner.
