It started as a bit of fun, but the Coonamble Rain Dance is now all over social media, with a reach of more than 300,000 and growing.
In fact, the crew at Coonamble are now receiving support from around the world, with messages of support and videos of rain dances coming their way from as far as Alberta, Canada, New York City, US, and Switzerland.
In Australia, entire schools are jumping behind the cause, getting their dance moves on for the cause of helping farmers. And in true bush legend style, Glen Robbins’ television personality, Russell Coight, has even got in on the action with his own version of rain dance.
Organiser, James Nalder, Coonamble, said the event had generated a lot of interest across television, radio, print and social media.
All the sponsorship raised will go towards subsidising the cost of tickets for farmers and others effected by the drought to attend the Coonamble Rain Dance Ball.
Mr Nalder said the community was aiming to get enough support to cover the cost of 1000 tickets to the evening.
Coonamble Rain Dance will be held on Saturday, October 6, as part of a broader weekend of events in the community, including the annual Coonamble Gold Cup race day, farm tours and farmers markets, all aimed at attracting people into town.
Anybody interested in supporting the event can still buy tickets to help those that can’t afford it to get along, catch up with friends and for a night, get away from the reality of the drought.
“Essentially we’re turning a negative into a positive and there’s a good chance it could become an annual event,” Mr Nalder said.
He said it would help give the whole region’s tourism sector and businesses a boost.
“The main thing though is to get to those that have been a bit isolated.”
- For more information visit the Coonamble Rain Dance Facebook page, or email coonambleraindance@mail.com
