Recap: Variety Bash’s Weekend At Erldunda Roadhouse

Last week Erldunda Roadhouse welcomed the Variety Bash 2016.

The atmosphere was electric and the air was thick with love for all of the colour characters and cars.

It was the 26th year for the Bash and the collection of more than 250 people drove from Melbourne to Darwin. The event has come a long way since philanthropist Dick Smith famously organised the first trip Sydney to Burketown in Northern Queensland.

For those of you who might not have heard, The Variety Bash is Australia’s largest motoring event with participants travelling through the heart of Australia to areas that they would otherwise not see, and at the same time raising money for children who are sick, disadvantaged or have special needs. It’s about getting these children to live, laugh and learn.

And our team at Erldunda can attest to the way in which those who participate embody this spirit of fun. From the people dressed up (and some very much playing their characters too!) to the spectacular cars and crazy awards given out daily.

There Was A Collection Of Characters To Put A Smile On Your Face

The group of punks with great costumes who were good for a few laughs.

 

The countdown girls were dazzling. They fitted in perfectly too: once the evening rolled on the Variety Bash team has The Countdown Show rolling all night!

The Erldunda staff vote for the best car was “The Camel Chariot”. You can see the camel chariot in the image above with the punks.

A group dressed as the Heroes and Villains of Gotham caught plenty of attention.

The Spongebob car was particularly well painted with some great artwork.

The smoothest crew to come through were the Elvis crew. They even tried to woo some of the girls on site to no avail, and much laughter.

The Beach Boys were well dressed and had a surfing van to boot!

The Indian from the YMCA earned our award for the best dancer.

The best dressed….(drum roll)…. this was not an easy pick but we couldn’t get past David Bowie. Amazingly well done.

The group of minions also left an undeniable impression on Erldunda. Strangely we couldn’t find any photos of them though 🙂

With all the colourful costumes and crazy cars aside there were some wonderful stories shared. Some of which show just how powerful events like this are.

The most memorable story from the weekend was an Akubra hat which was auctioned off at the Erldunda site for the Variety charity by Variety Bash for $700. The hat was donated by a gentleman on the side of the road who had hand-crafted parts of the hat and wanted to contribute something.

The Variety Bash route changes from year to year, but they did visit us back in 2009. It was wonderful to hear recognition from some of those ‘Bashers’ of the changes we have made at Erldunda. In particular, they noticed the growth and change in the site since their last visit and the growth of the business.

In the words of Roadhouse manager Kira Boswell, everyone involved in the Variety Bash weekend at Erldunda “Enjoyed the experienced and felt lucky to be able to contribute towards such a worthy cause.”

 

Some More Fun From The Night Below