Outback Spectacular

Recently we attended the “Outback Spectacular.”  We have seen it advertised on tv but we had never been.  It was certainly spectacular.
Someone asked if there was such a thing in the US.  Personally I think there would be, but as they do not reference their west a “Outback” I imagine it would be the Prairie Spectacular or something like that.
The way they do it is very clever to me.  They have an area where all sorts of events (horses, cars etc) happen, and project other things onto a big screen at one end.  At one stage a guy on a horse dressed in black with a white shirt did stuff and rode off.  It appeared he rode straight into the projected image.  No sooner had he disappeared, then the projected image showed a guy dressed exactly the same, and on the same coloured horse. He did not ride off into the sunset which seems to be a popular image, but he rode around the Australian high country.
The show’s theme was the high country.  Much of what I saw was news to me.  Certainly our mountains are not high by world standards, but that does not mean they don’t look great with big drop offs, snow and gnarly trees.  Of course they had riders doing incredible things on horses in the show, and told the history of some of the folk that were legends in the high country area.
I must admit I am a sucker for poetry, and it was great to hear something quoted from Clancy of the Overflow.  Another highlight for me was the circus re-enactment.  Fair dinkum I had trouble watching the girl on the high swing.  What she did at the height she did it and without a safety net, blew me away.  The person under her doing tricks while riding a horse was amazing to see.
We were given a hat at the start, and it made us look very country.  I must confess I am a secret country music lover.  There was plenty of country music.  Loud country music.  It seems to have come a long way from playing a simple song backwards on a record to have your dog return.  I was encourage to hear that even in country music the guitarist goes off.
The people doing what they did while riding was amazing.  To see folk standing on two horses (one guy stood on two and controlled four horses) while riding them and jumping fire, to me must have taken a love and trust or the horses, and a lot of practice.
It was on the Gold Coast and a meal was served while the show went on – entrée, main course and dessert.  It was all done really well and really efficiently.  I would think a good time was had by all.