Carrot Bay donkey race a ‘no-go’ after 2 attempts
The late start to the event, slated to begin at 2pm, was no surprise to this news site. There were complaints that the sun was too hot to play the traditional sports of Lime and Spoon race, Three Legged race, and Tug-o-War and such like.
However, the first attempt at the donkey races was around 5pm. But save for a few warm up trial runs by donkeys and jockeys there was no race. The trial runs offered much laughter and even screams, however, as every now and then a donkey would start heading to the crowd.
There was also an incident where a donkey and his jockey both fell. How that occurred is still not known.
Meanwhile, there was a solitary female police officer trying her best to control traffic, which was coming from both sides as there was no arrangement in place for the road to be cleared for the donkey race.
The officer was heard complaining that she was the only one assigned and it was impossible for her to be at both ends of the street at the same time.
With attempts being abandoned, the action shifted into the Festival Village with the traditional games and races.
Once these were complete, DJ Push Pop (Craig A. Lake) announced that there will be a second attempt at the donkey races.
He acknowledged that there had been traffic control issues the first time out and that these had now been resolved. "We had one officer trying to control a thousand people," Mr Lake joked.
However, when the action again moved to the road way it was more or less a repeat of the first attempt, with no racing taking place save for a few warm up runs.
Eventually children were being offered rides on the donkeys as it was clear that there was to be no donkey races this year.
When this news site caught up with the Carrot Bay Festival Committee Chairperson, Judy Ann Wade, she acknowledged that there had been no official donkey race but could not at the time say why this was so.
Things took a turn for the worse when those who had ventured outside to witness the donkey races were then asked to pay in order to get back into the venue. Some of them had their children to collect from inside and were told that they could not get in unless they paid.
Festival activities this year have been marred by ridiculously late starts and poor participation in certain main activities.
On the positive side, however, there were hardly any reports of unruly behaviour by patrons compared to previous years.
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17 Responses to “Carrot Bay donkey race a ‘no-go’ after 2 attempts ”
The horses should take lessons from the we donkeys and refuse to be tortured.