This Queensland Music Festival Just Set The World Record For People Doing The 'Nutbush'
"Many of the competitors said it was the best thing they have ever done."
The Birdsville Big Red Bash has claimed the World Record for the most people dancing to Tina Turner's 'Nutbush City Limits' (All pics by Matt Williams)
A new World Record has been set a Queensland music festival but it's already got some competition coming for it!
The much-loved Birdsville Big Red Bash returned to the Simpson Desert earlier this month and has again claimed itself a World Record.
Back in 2019, the event - which is the world’s most remote music festival and this year featured John Williamson, Daryl Braithwaite, Wendy Matthews, Ian Moss and more on the line-up - took out the World Record for the most people participating in the Nutbush City Limits dance with a total of 2,330 people dancing to the Tina Turner classic at once.
This year the tradition has continued on, with a total of 2,878 joining in for the Largest Nutbush Dance record.
That's not all though - the festival has also set a new record for the most people performing the Twist, with all 2,878 Nutbush dancers joining in.
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While the Queensland event has the hold on the record for now, it might not be for long with New South Wales Mundi Mundi Bash planning to compete in September.
"Breaking the Nutbush World Record has become a hugely popular part of the Big Red Bash event, and we’re expecting our festival-goers to get on board with similar enthusiasm at the inaugural Mundi Mundi Bash," Greg Donovan, GM of the Outback Music Festival Group who are the founders and organisers of both the Birdsville Big Red Bash and Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash, told The Music.
"I think there will also be a bit of State Of Origin type rivalry now we have an event in Queensland and in NSW to see which state can take out the record.
"This year we were thrilled to once again beat the Nutbush World Record with 2,878 participants verified by The Australian Book Of Records adjudicators. This also netted a huge fundraising windfall for the Royal Flying Doctors Service of $49,000.
"As with everything we did at the 2021 Big Red Bash a strict COVID safety plan had to be developed to allow us to safely run the Nutbush World Record attempt. We’re grateful that space is on our side. The concert space at the event is huge - it’s nearly as big as nine footy fields - so we used this space as a large outdoor arena to set up for the Nutbush attempt," he continued.
"We had a socially distanced queue to enter the concert space, and entry to the arena was done slowly to also allow for accurate counting. Everyone was lead in by COVID Marshalls in 50 rows that were about 200m in length with two metres in between each row. So the area we took up for the Nutbushing was about 15,000 sqm.
"With 2,878 people involved this allowed each participant to have more than 5 sqm to channel their inner Tina Turner and break a World Record in the process.
"The drone vision from this year’s Nutbush really gave the perspective of how much more spaced out everyone was compared to previous years. But it worked, was a lot of fun, looked fantastic, raised a lot of money for the RFDS - and most importantly we smashed the previous record of 2,300!
"We’re looking forward to doing it all over again at the Mundi Mundi Bash in September and seeing if a new record can be established on New South Wales soil."
"A lot of coordination went behind the World Record attempts," explained event director Steve Donovan, "including numbered and colour coded rows marked with signage and irrigation flags, clothing stickers for every participant, 32 adjudicating stewards and much more.
"The records were undertaken in a very controlled environment, which made it easy to keep it COVID-safe. It was set out in an enormous grid like pattern.
"The participants would load themselves into pre-allocated rows and spread along each row to give them space in between. Each row was also spaced 2 metres between. This would enable all participants to be spaced at least 1.5m from the next."
"To see 2,878 people break the Nutbush dance World Record at the Big Red Bash, in the Simpson Desert, was a phenomenal sight," The Australian Book Of Records' Helen Taylor told The Music.
"The adjudication ran smoothly thanks to the help of the organisers, in particular Steve Donovan. Such an incredible achievement, set in a COVID safe environment. Many of the competitors said it was the best thing they have ever done. This world record will be hard to beat."
The Nutbush dance holds a special place in the hearts of many in Australia and it turns out that's for good reason because we're actually the only country in the world that does it. The Music shared a look at this surprising trend back in 2019, read all about it here.
The first-ever Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash runs from 23-25 September with acts like Paul Kelly, Ian Moss, John Williamson, Kate Ceberano, Russell Morris, Vika & Linda, and more all locked in to perform. Head to theGuide for all the info.
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