After a brief hiatus, one of regional Australia’s most fabulously unexpected events is back, with the tiny central west NSW town of Trundle once again transformed into a sea of sequins, feather boas and pure pop joy.<\/p>\n
For one day each year, the town of 335 people swaps tractors for tribute acts, grain trucks for glitter and everyday life for an all-out ABBA extravaganza.<\/p>\n
“It’s nowhere else in the world,” coordinator Gary Crowley said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
“This is the only ABBA festival in the world and it’s here in Trundle.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Annette and John Treloar travelled from Sydney to attend the festival.\u00a0 (ABC Western Plains: Catherine James)<\/p>\n
Crowds travelled from across New South Wales and beyond, packing the main street for the return of the Trundle ABBA Festival, a celebration that began as an unlikely idea and grew into one of country Australia’s most beloved events.<\/p>\n
“We’ve had people from Western Australia, Darwin, Adelaide, Townsville, Melbourne come along,” Mr Crowley said.<\/p>\n
“It really draws people together and it’s just so much fun.”<\/p>\n
Annette Treloar and her husband travelled from Sydney to attend.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“This has been on our bucket list for a while and we thought let’s give it a go,” Ms Treloar said.<\/p>\n
“We’ve been to the Parkes Elvis Festival before but wanted to come to Trundle.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
People travelled from interstate to attend the ABBA festival. (ABC Western Plains: Catherine James)<\/p>\n
From quirky idea to country icon<\/p>\n
The festival began in 2012, when residents took a chance on the odd concept of celebrating a Swedish supergroup in a wheatbelt town better known for silos and sunsets.<\/p>\n
What followed was a regional success story few could have predicted.<\/p>\n
“At our peak, we had around 6,000 people in attendance,” Mr Crowley said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gary Crowley started the ABBA Festival in Trundle back in 2012. (ABC Western Plains: Catherine James)<\/p>\n
But in recent years, the COVID pandemic, bad weather and money troubles meant the festival almost met its Waterloo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last year’s event was cancelled when Parkes Shire Council ended its funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But it returned this year under new management, with a local community group answering the festival’s SOS.<\/p>\n
“A couple of people got in touch with me and said, ‘What can we do? Can we do something?’ and I said, ‘You can have a festival, we’ll just start again’,” Mr Crowley said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dee and Craig Green have been married for more than 40 years and renewed their wedding vows on the day. (ABC Western Plains: Catherine James)<\/p>\n
Dancing in the street<\/p>\n
This year’s program proved the festival, held on Saturday, was as playful as ever.<\/p>\n
There was a world record attempt for the most people dancing to Dancing Queen in the middle of the main street, while nearby couples said “I do” all over again to the soundtrack of I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do.<\/p>\n
“The vow renewal is a lot of fun,” Mr Crowley said.<\/p>\n
“It’s a great chance to renew your wedding vows in front of 2,000 of your newest best friends.”<\/p>\n
Dee and Craig Green were one of 20 couples to renew their vows.<\/p>\n
“We have been married for 41 years,” Ms Green said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hundreds of fans rocked into Trundle for the ABBA Festival. (ABC Western Plains: Jen McCutcheon)<\/p>\n
Economic benefits<\/p>\n
The festival also delivers a major boost for local businesses.<\/p>\n
Every year the event is held, it attracts visitors, boosts the economy and draws attention to a community that often has to work hard to stay visible.<\/p>\n
“It’s like a mini harvest for the town,” Mr Crowley said.<\/p>\n
“The showground is booked out and everyone packs into the pub after we finish.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a brief hiatus, one of regional Australia’s most fabulously unexpected events is back, with the tiny central…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[296008,64,63,134,312716,312717],"class_list":["post-646337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-abba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-trundle","tag-trundle-abba-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}