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Thursday, September 30, 2010

Boorowa's Irish Woolfest















Next Sunday I will be off to the Boorowa Irish Woolfest and the now popular "Running of the Sheep".

Up to 15,000 people are expected to line Boorowa's main street to watch the town's annual Running of the Sheep and celebrate the district's Irish heritage. It will be the 13th time the event, part of Boorowa's Irish Woolfest, has been held.

The day will also feature a street parade with about 40 floats. There will be live music, shearing activities, dancers, an animal farm, a growers' market and craft and wool stalls. Boorowa's Irish history stemmed from when two convicts sent to Australia from Clonoulty, Ireland, were ''given a ticket of leave to get some land in the area''. They asked all their friends and relatives to come and live here and before long we got this huge Irish contingent.

The Woolfest events kick-off with a billycart derby at 8am, which, initself is a real hoot, as there is only one suitable hill in the area and its on the Main Road to Cowra, so some improvisation needs to occur.

















Here's a link to the program - Boorowa's Irish Woolfest

6 comments:

John Going Gently said...

john
reminds me of one of my favourite movies
!"Australia"!
have you seen it?

JohnD said...

Yep! Sure have - biggest BS Aussie Movie ever made - right up there with "Woop Woop" (if you can get a copy of it, watch it, it's great! Even has a 20foot aboriginal design painted ghost kangaroo! LOL!)

Actually, Boorowa is an ultr-conservative grazing region, blue ribbon Liberal and all "Old Money", You cannot buy rural land out there unless you are an Asian Multi-Corporation!

JohnD said...

Actually, that's "Welcome to Woop Woop" - 1997 Australian comedy listed as 'mixed genre' - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120491/

Shammickite said...

The running of the SHEEP??? Really? Sounds like a whole lot of fun. Wish I could be there, I'd buy you a beer!

JohnD said...

Truly - The Running of the Sheep! I linked the program in the post so open it and have a look. I'd drink the beer if we could get served! LOL!

Jo said...

I hadn't heard about that - looks like fun.