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Chinchilla Melon Fest 2025: More than 4500 in attendance at biennial Melon Rodeo

Chinchilla’s Melon Rodeo has boasted record breaking numbers with guests enjoying the festivities from the gate opening until deep into the night.

Action from the 2025 Melon Rodeo.
Action from the 2025 Melon Rodeo.

Chinchillas' Melon Rodeo has celebrated record breaking crowds with over 4500 through the gates and 400 campsites snapped up.

The attendance numbers blew expectations out of the park with organisers initially forecasting 3000.

The event featured bulls, broncos, barrels, mini bulls for the kids, food and live music and drew in crowds from across Queensland.

Chinchilla Rodeo Committee president Darryl Chong hailed the event a massive success.

“It was the talk of the town, they reckon it was one of the best events they ever had,” he said.

“We had over 4500 in attendance and we were expecting 3000, my wife has a meeting with the committee on Thursday to finalise everything, but they are thinking it is the biggest one to ever be run here.

“The crowd was unbelievable they really got behind it, to see how many people come out was unbelievable, obviously the bull riding was really good watching, everything was a highlight for us because of how well it ran.”

Melon Rodeo 2025
Melon Rodeo 2025

Mr Chong said successful events such as this helped safeguard the future of rodeo.

“It gives us a lot of confidence for the future of rodeo, our next one is on May 24 and we are trying to make Chinchilla one of the best rodeos around South West Queensland, our goal is to set the pace for all other rodeos,” he said.

“We got really good feedback from the cowboys, they loved it and thought it was an unreal show. Ben Bode who is currently leading the PBR Australian title won our bull ride on the weekend and his partner won the barrel race so they walked away with $6500 between them.

“We had a big screen this time around and that helped a lot, we extended the bar a bit so people weren't so crowded and we promoted the hell out of it and kept our promoters happy and got them involved.”

Nav and Ben at Melon Rodeo
Nav and Ben at Melon Rodeo

Mr Chong said he hoped the success of this event would encourage people to come to their next show in May.

“We stayed until the end and the crowd was unreal they stayed and watched the whole rodeo, some people left to go to the street party but it worked out really well,” he said

“We are now hoping to get a good following come out for the show rodeo in May, that will be massive and we are expecting to top last year’s rodeo.”

Originally published as Chinchilla Melon Fest 2025: More than 4500 in attendance at biennial Melon Rodeo

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Original URL: https://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/queensland/chinchilla/community/chinchilla-melon-fest-2025-more-than-4500-in-attendance-at-biennial-melon-rodeo/news-story/1c56752157f8010388f78f215bb8e53b