The Jerilderie BnS Ball turns 60 as events across the country go into 'hiatus'

In the immortal words of country music icon Lee Kernaghan, “There ain’t nothin’ like a country crowd – A little bit crazy and a little bit loud – We’ve got our own way of turning things upside down”.

Love them or hate them, the Bachelors and Spinsters Ball (BnS) is a rural Australian tradition that has seen young farmers and townies getting together to cut loose for more than a century.

This weekend the county crowd will descend on Jerilderie Race Course to let their hair down at the Riverina’s longest-running BnS.

“The BnS has been going for a bit over 60 years but this will be the 60th time it’s been held,” said Apex club secretary Andrew Gillette.

“Apex took it on about 20 years ago and it’s our biggest fundraising event for the year and is a good money-spinner for the town as well.”

But with liability insurance and tightening liquor laws making things increasingly tricky for organisers, the Jerilderie Ball is now one of the last in the region.

“Getting insurance this year was very challenging and we’ve actually had to go offshore to get it,” Andrew said.

“We do everything we can to look after people and mitigate risk and we’ve never had a major issue and we’ve never had to make a claim, but no one wants to cover it anymore.”

BnS Balls in Ariah Park, The Rock and Hay are all in ‘hiatus’ due to rising costs and Andrew says that off the back of COVID-19, the number of events across the state has dwindled to a handful.

Shane Williams, better known as Rippy, describes himself as a ‘bit of a grandfather figure’ on the BnS scene.

He’s attended hundreds of events across the last couple of decades and has become the unofficial BnS photographer.

“I’m 63 now but I was 47 when I went to my first BnS Ball with my wife and I just fell in love with them,” Rippy said.

“I started taking a few photos and sharing them with people online and it got bigger and bigger.

“In 2019 before COVID I did 11 BnS balls in one year all over New South Wales and Victoria.”

His extensive Facebook page features everything one would expect: food dye-stained faces and formalwear, country music bands, big hats heavy with ear tags, swags, utes, burnouts and ‘key-banging’ and groups of dusty Gen Z farmers sitting around early morning fires.

“I just love the camaraderie of catching up with people and sitting down and having a yarn, and of course it’s a party, but unlike the pub, you can be as loud as you like and no-one’s going to throw you out!” he said with a chuckle.

“It’s changed over the years and it’s not just the old s–t-box holden utes leaking juice all over the place and people sleeping in the dirt.

“People have got better cars and gear and camping setups, but I just love the community as you wander from camp to camp yarning to people.”

Rippy agrees that the difficulty in securing insurance and tighter regulation is seeing a rapid decline in the number of events.

“We saw with one event that usually gets over one thousand people that they did manage to get some sort of coverage but they had to follow these strict rules and people just didn’t buy tickets,” he lamented.

Andrew Gillette agrees that the future of the BnS is uncertain but in the meantime, he’s looking forward to hosting the party in Jerilderie.

“It’s great for young people in the country to let their hair down and listen to some country music without having to go to the bigger towns and the city,” he said.

“So while we’re able to still get insurance and we can still hold the balls, we’ll welcome them here.”