Tara Festival of Culture & Camel Races gears up for record crowds in 2024

The Tara Festival of Culture & Camel Races kicks off today and has continued to grow exceptionally, with organisers predicting another record breaking year. Find out more here.

Camels in action at the Tara Camel Races, 03/08/2019

The beloved Tara Festival of Culture & Camel Races kicks off today, with organisers predicting a record number of attendees through the gate across the three days.

The festival was started more than 20 years ago when former sheep shearer and Tara camel racing co-ordinator Lou Thornbury decided she wanted to build an event to put her town on the map.

Together with her husband Richard Thornbury and fellow sheep shearer Wayne Bishop, Mrs Thornbury noticed the increasing popularity of camel racing and was inspired to bring the sport to Tara.

Tara Festival of Culture and Camel Races

Marketing co-ordinator Sally Bird said it was likely they’d break their previous attendance records, with 15,000 expected to attend the sold-out event.

“It's going great at the moment, we have a lot of happy campers, there’s so much positivity and it's great to see the influx of people into Tara,” she said.

“There’s record numbers here this weekend and we had record numbers in 2022 but we’ve completely blown that out of the park. Our town is packed already and we don't even start until 5pm this afternoon.”

Ms Bird said the event was massive for the town of just 2000 people.

“It's fantastic for the town, the event is only every two years so to see people coming from across Australia for a good time is great, the town in absolutely buzzing,” she said.

“The committee has been planning this since the last event, it’s two years in the making and today’s the day. There's been a lot of hard work by volunteers to welcome everyone to the town and it will have a great impact for the Darling Downs.

“The town last night was packed, the pub was overflowing with people so obviously there will be a very positive economic impacts and we are looking forward to announcing those actual results for the town and region after the event.”

Ms Bird said the program would kick off at 5pm today and run through until Sunday afternoon.

“There is a jam packed entertainment program, tonight we kick off with the Aussie Wildfire Shows, fireworks and live music before the racing kicks off tomorrow at 9am,” she said.

“There are 14 camel races over the weekend, each camel race is followed by a yabby race then we have plenty of live entertainers such as Lee Kernaghanm, Zac and George and Dee Jaye Bux.

“We are just ready to race and have some fun.”

Originally published as Tara Festival of Culture & Camel Races gears up for record crowds in 2024