The Scone and Upper Hunter Horse Festival provides the local communities with economic and social benefits. But, the committee members considered the social benefits to be more important. S3, who was adamant that the festival assisted in building a community spirit, spoke of the “wonderful buzz in town” saying that there was “... a great feeling when all of these people are here and people are happy and waiting to go to the next event... Everyone feels good … it is such a feel good moment and we are all involved”. He continues:
It [the festival] creates an identity as opposed to an identity crisis. It creates a sense of belonging. It helps bring together that sense of community and a sense of belonging and social interaction. I think that it’s really hard to put a price on that, and it’s really hard to put a finger on what that means for everyone because everyone will have different views as to what that means for them.
S8 stated that the King of the Ranges brought people who lived in remote rural areas surrounding Murrurundi to town for a few days to reconnect with other local residents. S3 was of the same opinion, speaking of the events held in Scone:
The festival brings the country people into town for the day. They wouldn’t normally come in on a Saturday morning, as such. A lot of the country people would come in on a Tuesday or a Thursday as it is sale day. The cattle sales are on and the other commercial- related activities that bring them to town, where this is purely a social related activity. A fun day out, yeah it’s a fun day.
This bringing of people together was also reflected in the race meeting, which is considered to be a homecoming event. In the words of S3 and S2:
One of the, I suppose one of the big things, the social aspect is that the festival brings families home ... it’s a huge homecoming. It’s like an annual family reunion, with the family in this particular occasion being the whole town. You know it’s unbelievable.
And they all get on Facebook and say they are coming home for the Cup. It’s mostly people in their 20s and 30s ... they all say on the website ‘see you at the Scone Cup’.... So it’s very much a sort of homecoming event. But that is the Cup Day, not necessarily the festival or the parade.
The committee members were also of the view that the festival provides economic benefits to Scone; but, this was based on anecdotal information. Peter Scott, a former President of the Festival Committee, writing in 1991, expressed the view that the “Horse Week provides an essential boost for the Scone district, particularly during these difficult economic times when many country towns are ‘dying’” (Scott 1991, p. 3). However, the economic returns were not distributed equally amongst Scone’s business owners. The hospitality-based businesses derived most of the economic benefit.
S10 mentioned that a discussion with one of the bottle shop owners revealed that the shop’s turnover increased by 30 per cent during the festival. He added that the week leading up to the Scone Cup race meeting was also the biggest week in the year for the Scone Golf Club, and that the hospitality industry benefited as accommodation and the town’s restaurants were fully booked for the period. With regard to the King of the Ranges, S8 commented that: “the butchers, the grocery store, motels and the pubs” all benefited from holding the event in Murrurundi. However, while some of the community benefited economically from the festival, others did not.
Informal discussions with a couple of local business owners at a social function revealed that their businesses did not profit from the festival. One said that he may as well not have opened up on the Saturday of the parade: people packed the streets to view the parade but once it was over, they headed off to other events. The other business person commented that while they did relatively well leading up to the sales and race day, the
previous weekend, which was parade day, was one of their quietest. Once the parade was over people headed off to the School fète in search of food.
While there was unequal distribution of economic returns for local business owners, a number of the local schools benefited from the festival by holding fund raising events. The Scone High School, for example, held a trivia night, while the Picnic by the Lake was organised by the Scone Public School and sponsored by Invermein, a local thoroughbred breeding stud. The Picnic is a family event with fireworks, which normally attracts between 500- 800 people depending on the weather. The Scone Grammar School fète, which began in 1991, was held immediately after the completion of the parade: it attracted large crowds who had come to town for the parade. The food stalls displayed local produce, wines, barbequed steaks, hot dogs, and Indian, Sushi, Thai and Middle Eastern food, which, S11 said, reflected the ethnic diversity of people employed in the thoroughbred breeding industry. Some of the children of these families attended the Scone Grammar School. She also said that this type of a food was a treat as there were only a small number of takeaway food outlets in Scone.
One of the questionnaire respondents provided an insight into the economic benefits of these fundraising events:
The Scone Festival provides the opportunity for the local schools and community groups to raise money that they would not be able to do at any other time. The local scout group raises $3000 pa ...the Grammar School raises $2000 pa & the Primary [Public] School $8000 pa at the festival. This amount of economic activity cannot be generated any other way.
These fundraising events are extremely important to the community. As the above questionnaire respondent observed, the festival provides them with an opportunity to raise significant amounts of money. This is a new(ish) source of funding for the schools, which are otherwise reliant on the generosity of parents and the wider community for financial contributions.
In sum, while there was recognition that the festival provided economic benefits, it was the ability to bring people together, to reconnect and to celebrate community and
human-horse relations that were considered its main benefits. The festival was based on an informal economy, which was reliant on the support of the community, especially for resources; financial and exchange of goods and time. One of the most significant resources was that of the volunteers. The focus of the next section is upon the important role that volunteers play in community-based festivals.