Tim Chuma's Photos

with MC John Von Goes, Teeny Tiny Stevies, The Merindas, Gut Health, Close Counters, Our Carlson, Cosmic Psychos
Victoria Park, Sunday 18th June 2023

Final score:
Megahertz 6.6.42
Rockdogs 6.3.39

I know what I said about my involvement with this event coming to an end. At the time I had been going to it for 16 years in a row even managing to make it the two years I wasn't even living in Melbourne. All this eventually must move on and I thought it would be best if new people covered it and not me. RRR BBQ Day officially ended in 2019 and I have been going to paint a Christmas window on Sydney Rd for the last four years on the same weekend Queenscliff Music Festival is on and they like having me do that.

Still the 30th anniversary is the 30th and I could make an exception. Even decided to take the next day off as I knew I would be stuffed due to all the walking and ended up going out the two nights before which I usually would not do. I can't believe they used to have the Rock Dogs Pie Night the night before and I would be up until 3am and then back up in time to get there before the gates opened the next day.

I have a blog post up with all the stories and photos from the previous games so you can go look at that. For this year I decided to volunteer and go through the official process as in 2017 and 2018 I was not allowed to go onto the ground. Even with a photo pass this year I was not meant to be in the rooms but it seems I was the only person who did not end up in there anyway.

As JVG said the day is a big social event and hardly anyone plays attention to the game. I did enjoy being able to bag out JVG while he was on stage as an MC. I got to take a family photo of the RRR Station manager and he said it was the best one they ever had.

Was great to see the Teeny Tiny Stevies again as it had been a while and also seeing the Merindas for the first time I had heard them around.

Gut Health and Close Counters were OK but I did not stay for their entire set as I was running around taking photos of dogs and getting food.

I can't really get any decent photos of the actual match since I do not own a giant telephoto lens. There were other people doing that. It seems there was some footy played. If you were actually interested in footy you would come to see the rebel pub footy league once a month at Vic Park.

I thought Our Carlson was pretty fun, especially when he climbed onto the fence and onto the stage. Was getting pretty tired from such a long day by the time the Cosmic Psychos came on so only stayed for a couple of songs. My plan to kick-on after the match ended up being the one cocktail at Fee Fee's Bar and then get the bus to the city and go home. It did take about three nights to go through all the photos.

It was a great day still even though I don't really care about the result as much. A bit pox the head of Reclink trying to do historical revisionism as to which charity it was supporting when it first started, not yours. There may have been people involved in it we don't mention these days but it is still part of the history. I will have to see if I will volunteer again to take photos as a Working With Children Check will be compulsory next year, not sure if it will be worth it just for the one event for me for the year.

Links:
https://reclink.org/
https://www.teenytinystevies.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TheMerindas/
https://www.facebook.com/guthealthband/
https://www.facebook.com/closecounters/
https://www.instagram.com/our.carlson/
https://www.cosmicpsychos.com.au/