ORGANISERS of next month’s Great Country Music Duck Race are hoping there is enough water in the Peel River to keep the event afloat.
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Lions club spokesman Glen Myhill says he’s hopeful recent rain – and, importantly, some more before the Tamworth Country Music Festival – will see the next event happen on the river as planned.
“The rain that’s gone through at the moment has given us enough water to run the duck race, but a fortnight ago it was very low,” he said early this week .
A few years ago, organisers had to get creative to run the event when there wasn’t enough water in the river.
They used a concrete mixer, with the first one down the chute dubbed the winner.
“Apparently, they crushed a lot of ducks doing that,” Mr Myhill said.
The 2015 will be the 25th time the event will be held – as always, straight after the Cavalcade.
“It started off as one corporate race and now it’s four corporate races,” Mr Myhill said.
“The corporate duck races are filling up fast.”
There will be four 50-duck corporate races at $100 per duck and one 1500-duck race for the public at $5 per duck.
The 1500 public ducks will be on sale outside Target from January 5.
This year’s proceeds will go to the children’s adventure playground at Marsupial Park, Ronald McDonald House Tamworth and other local charities.
A corporate entry form appears in Wednesday editions of the NDL.
“For the past three years, the corporate ducks have sold out,” Mr Myhill said.
“It’s great to see the local business community support such a fun, worthwhile event which puts money back into the district.”
Prizes per race include: $1000 first, $300 second, $150 third.
Hot dogs will be for sale at the race start and a coffee machine will be in operation for an expected 1000-strong crowd.
Next year’s races start from the footbridge over the river near the Gipps St sporting fields at 11.30am on January 24.