THE much-anticipated Coonamble Raindance on Saturday 6 October did not disappoint, drawing a massive crowd who took advantage of the well-organised drought distraction to eat, drink and be merry.
Volunteers spent days ahead of the event setting the scene at the Showground and nailing down the final details before calling in an army of paid local staff to make the night a delight for the 884 lucky people who came through the gate.
Earlier on Saturday, following in the footsteps of the donated Dresses for Drought, a team of four Mary Kay make-up artists who had driven from Sydney to donate their time to help 30 drought-weary local ladies put on their best face for the ball.
From around 5pm a fleet of 11 buses and coaches began to gather up party goers along 16 main roads into Coonamble and deposited them at the Showground before doing the same thing for rain-dancers around the township. Those arriving in self-drive vehicles were welcomed and parked by Coonamble’s State Emergency Services volunteers.
The northern lawn at the Showground was cordoned off and made glamorous and inviting with the use of tray-back utes, hessian and roly poly romantically lit by festoon lights. Three bars were operating and 30 local teenage waiters delivered a continuous stream of canapes and boxed curries to the milling guests.
Throughout the night an enormous four metre screen played a loop of the more than eighty video dance clips posted for the #CoonambleRaindance challenge and a series of thank yous to the sponsors whose generosity flooded in to allow the committee to keep their heads well above water.
Coonamble’s emerging artists Castlereagh Connection opened the entertainment with a set including Creedence Clearwater’s classic ‘Have You Ever Seen the Rain?’ that they learnt for the occasion.
Eight year old Travis Jones was lead singer, with eight year old Braydon Dodd on drums, eleven year old David Jones Jnr on lead guitar and David Jones Snr (age undisclosed) on bass guitar.
They played a set of five songs plus an encore before heading off to play a set at a family wedding.
After an Acknowledgement to Country from Gamilaaray and Weilwan woman Lorraine King and a Drought Prayer from Stephanie Borowski, master of ceremonies Scott Parry welcomed the President of the revived Yesterday’s Heroes Committee James Nalder to the back of the truck.
“We are all here tonight for the best of reasons,” Mr Nalder said in his speech.
“Bringing all of community and our city cousins together for a chance to have a laugh, wash the dust from our throats and, most importantly, to forget about the drought.”
“As we all know drought doesn’t just impact farmers, it impacts all of community, amplifying and exacerbating day to day stresses and pressures,” he said.
“Those of you who have travelled from afar to come to Coonamble today, I would not be surprised if at some stage you have asked yourselves or those you have travelled with why would you live out here?”
“The answer I have for you is a simple one,” Mr Nalder said. “Take a good look around where you stand here tonight – the people that surround you here are this town’s community and although you are seeing our district looking possibly at its worst you are also seeing its community at their best.”
“It is for this reason that so many of us call Coonamble home, and it is why so many who have left Coonamble still call it home,” he said.
“There have been numbers of droughts come and go before, and the one constant that remains after each is our community.”
“We are still here and we will still be here after this one ends, thanks to the support each of us are offered and carried through by this community,” Mr Nalder said.
“This is like any other number of events and efforts seen here on a daily basis carried out by committed locals for their community,” he said.
“Actions such as raising much needed funds for numerous worthy community causes through to standing together against CSG and pipeline developments, this is the same response you will see in all events and causes that affect our community,” said Mr Nalder.
“Simply put we stand together really well.”
Mr Nalder thanked the businesses and individuals responsible for making the Raindance real in the record time of ten weeks since the idea was first floated.
He also extended an open invitation for visitors to return to Coonamble when the drought has broken “To see both our town and land at its best again.”
Hundreds of people took to the dancefloor with Canberra-based band ‘Brewn’ delivering on their promise of ‘the right kind of music’ for the Raindance event. Once Brewn had been exhausted Newcastle DJ took over to keep the crowd on their feet.
A courtesy bus ferried thoroughbred racing enthusiasts to the Coonamble Bowling Club to join in the Gold Cup Calcutta and returned them to the Showground afterwards.
Just before midnight, the coaches re-appeared to gather the gaggle of rain-dancers and deposit them safely home, bravely dodging the hundreds of kangaroos along the district’s rural roads.
Huge crowds of well-fed, well-watered and sore-footed party-goers. Tick. Lots of visitors to town spending their money in local businesses and lots of local people employed by the raised funds. Tick. Raindance guests funnelled into the Gold Cup Races the next day. Tick.
Drought – what drought? Forgotten for the night.
Mission accomplished.
