Record falls at Muster

In a first for the event, it was attended by a sitting NSW Premier.

And Premier Chris Minns was there to see the World Record Blue Singlet Count record fall.

A staggering 4367 attendees in blue singlets crowded into the main arena on Saturday afternoon for the attempt, beating the standing 2019 record of 4136.

Sadly the other World Record title — for the greatest number of utility vehicles gathered in the one place — was not broken this year.

The organisers counted 7949 utes around the ground this year, which is slightly down on 2022 and shy of the standing record of 9736.

Deni Ute Muster general manager Vicky Lowry said so many people had worked hard to put on another fantastic event.

“Deniliquin turned on the weather for this year’s Deni Ute Muster, and over half of our attendees arrived a day early to set up and enjoy the sunshine.

“And for the first time we had a visit from a NSW Premier with Chris Minns dropping by.

“We also had a lot of first time attendees ticking off another one of their bucket list adventures.

“The festival arena was jam packed each day with our big and small attendees all getting into the action.

“We want to thank our volunteer crew, contractors, emergency services and partners. We couldn’t do it without their support.

“We are looking forward to welcoming everyone back next year for our 26th year on October 4 and 5, 2024.”

Mr Minns said he gets to do a lot of interesting things as Premier and said visiting a Deni Ute Muster was an exciting one to tick off his ‘to do’ list.

“Honestly, Helen (Dalton, NSW Member for Murray) said ‘you should come out to the Deni Ute Muster’, and I had read about it in a magazine many years ago,” he said of the reason for his visit.

“I thought it would be interesting, so I found the time, and the day so I could get here in the morning and leave in the afternoon. So I thought, ‘yep, let’s do it’.

“I try to get out of Sydney every week that Parliament is not sitting.”

Mr Minns said while the ute muster was his primary reason for visiting, he did carve out a small amount of time to talk about the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and further investment local airport operators would like to see at Deniliquin airport.

At the muster site, Mr Minns partook in Bogan Bingo, visited the show ‘n’ shine arena, witnessed some of the around the grounds action, and got a great view of the record-breaking singlet muster from the famous main stage.

When asked beforehand if he would be donning his bluey and getting among the count, the Premier joked he did not “have the arms for that” and that he had to “worry about getting re-elected”.

The Deni Ute Muster is an extravaganza celebrating contemporary Australian rural life where the ute rules the land and the people know how to party.

More than 18,000 people attended from around Australia, with attendees also from New Zealand, Netherlands, Denmark and the United States.

Once again, more than 60 per cent of attendees crossed the border from Victoria to attend the event.

The music, mateship and utes shone bright alongside some of the most fun on ground attractions the event has had to date.

The only crowd bigger than those in front of the main stage each night of the famed event was in the main arena for the showing to the AFL grand final, which saw Collingwood defeat the Brisbane Lions.

Both days provided plenty of dusty, petrol fuelled action in the sports arena with the GME National Championships Circlework, barrel races and ‘Go To Wo’ keeping the crowds roaring while the show ‘n’ shine hosted almost 50 entrants with their modified and restored utes.

The all Aussie spectacular of music featured Andrew Swift, Catherine Britt, John Williamson, Jayne Denham, Missy Higgins, Casey Barnes and Lee Kernaghan on Friday night and Deni’s own Zara Lindeman shared the stage with Adam Harvey and Beccy Cole, The Whitlams Black Stump Band, Jessica Mauboy, Travis Collins and James Johnston on Saturday night.