Mundi Mundi Bash reopens to day-trippers after record rain chaos
After the biggest rain dump in Broken Hill's history forced devastated Mundi Mundi Bash organisers to turn away thousands of fans before the event kicked off, the sun dried out the muddy plains to allow day-trippers to come back for free on Saturday.
Those who remained in Broken Hill and Silverton rejoiced they would be able to join more than 10,000 campers who made it onto the site before the muddy conditions destroyed about 30 per cent of the camping grounds and carparks.
Artists including Troy Cassar-Daley, Shane Howard and Furnace and the Fundamentals kept spirits high on Thursday and Friday for those stuck outside the festival with free pop-up gigs in local pubs.
All those who were turned away on Wednesday will receive full refunds but were also welcomed by promoter Greg Donovan to come back for the final day.
Disappointment lingers for some fans
But not everyone was happy. Several disappointed punters who had left Broken Hill after they were turned away hit out at the last-minute decision on social media.
Having just pulled up in Horsham, the FOMO and frustration is real, commented one fan.
Donovan said reassessing the waterlogged site was an hour-by-hour proposition and they were only able to make the decision on Friday afternoon to allow day-trippers back for the last day.
It's a day-by-day proposition managing the festival through these challenging times and as soon as we saw it was sunny, we thought if we can look after the people that couldn't come, it's just something we can do to make up for the massive inconvenience and disappointment that they have, he said.
We understand that maybe they'd have known earlier, some people would want to hang around, but we couldn't let people know earlier that this was going to happen.
A miracle on the plains
It has been a miracle, after 75mm of rain in 11 days that all acts played their sets and much-loved annual activities including the Bash Choir and Mad Max parade.
The choir, a fundraiser for the Royal Flying Doctor Service featured thousands of campers gathering in Tina Turner wigs to raise their voices to Simply The Best.
Donovan, himself decked in leathers, led the hilarious Mad Max parade through the Mundi Mundi Plains in celebration of the iconic Aussie movies filmed in the unique outback setting.
Wendy Matthews, Tim Finn, Wes Carr and Boy and Bear were among the artists who entertained the crowd who danced in the mudpit at the front of the stage or set up camp chairs across the huge concert area.
Backing the outback spirit
Backing many of the acts in the house band and helping to lead the Bush Choir were husband and wife musicians Robyn Loau and Jak Housden.
Loau, who rose to fame in the early 1990s in the pop group Girlfriend, and Housden of the Badloves and The Whitlams, have been playing at Mundi Mundi and its sister event the Big Red Bash for the past seven years.
They have to learn 80 to 100 songs for each festival.
Loau said the outback festivals are special because of the community feel of the events and more than 10,000 people descend on the red dirt plains for the weekend.
It doesn't matter where they've driven in from, everyone has this singular mentality which is to have a real outback celebration, she said.
We're all getting dirty, we're all getting smell and tired, there's no argy-bargy, so I feel as though we're all in this together.