Pre-party
Attire
Entertainment
Campfires Utes, 4WD, vehicles
City bogans, for balls close to the city
Country B&S balls
Pre-party
Once camp is set up, the carpark becomes a pre-party, fuelled by the social lubricant of BYO alcohol. People sit on their camp chairs to hang out with friends, or chat with people passing by. Or they go for a wander to make friends with other campsites, scope out the talent and meet people from previous balls.
Running amok in the pre party car park involves strangers walking up to campsites to strike up conversation, shit stir, compare rigs—both vehicles and bodies—drink alcohol from their hats or even from their boots (rum with an after taste of athlete's foot, so gross). Sometimes it is someone yelling out nonsense or a come-on to a stranger in the carpark. It might seem abhorrent to the PC minded, but it is actually all in jest or simply an ice breaker—not to be taken as nasty nor as blatant sexual harassment. Besides, if someone was to get nasty they would be quickly called out on it. The best results of these come-on’s is to set up a possible root for the night. Otherwise it might just make a new friend or keep people laughing.
The rest comes from shenanigans with road work signs with salacious slogans, surveying the ball from the top of a 4WD, dancing hard enough on the tray of a ute to rock it and doing beer bongs. Then cracking whips, key bangers, revving engines, writing on people with textas and whatever else comes to mind.
Car park attire
No-one gives a shit if you are wearing jeans and a bluey singlet or a T shirt. RM Williams or if you are half undressed. Well I should say, most blokes love to see the sheila’s walking around half undressed. But other than the occasional bikini top in summer or the occasional flasher, the sheilas tend to leave it up to the blokes to be the naked ones or wear the mankinis or novelty jock straps. The lack of clothing and costume is partly for the shock factor, partly to be funny, but mostly to act as an ice breaker to get people talking. It also makes a good photo op. People write obscenities or messages or draw phallic images on each other’s bare arms.
Carpark Entertainment
Some balls have organised entertainment for the car park like a live band, grabbing a can at the end of a bungee cord and other competitions and merchandise stands. Some summer BNS’s have a wet T-shirt competitions, which the blokes flock to for obvious reasons. And some also have a tighty whitey equivalent to objectify the blokes, but it’s not exactly titillating to see the boy bits squashed by see-through wet jocks, so it’s more for humour. Some also have water trucks to spray water to keep the dust down and cool people off, or to fill inflatable pools.
Utes, 4WDs & other vehicles.
A big draw card is the ute culture, although the oversized bullbar-bumper-stickered-aerial-decked-out bushpig old Kingswoods, FJ Holdens and Commodore and Falcon utes are less prevalent than they once were. There are more and more 4WD utes and 4WD wagons—probably because Holden and Ford aren’t making utes in Australia, and because 4WDs are more practical for the huge proportion of farmers and tradies who go to the balls. But you will still see a Commodore or Falcon with the oversized bullbars, carrying a series of flags like Bundy, the Eureka Southern Cross or Aussie flag. Some have their tailgates or back windows covered in bumper stickers from other balls, or the Deni Ute Muster sticker, or smart arse, country-esque joke stickers. If you are PC minded, probably turning a blind eye at the racist ones, it's really the right forum for educating people.
This doesn’t mean you need to drive a ute or 4WD to go a ball, but a lot of blokes and some sheilas feel a little conspicuous without some hotted up pride and joy to skite about. But really, once you’ve parked and set up camp, and got busy walking around, you’ll forget about your buzz box. There are always plenty of runabout hatchbacks and nondescript sedans amongst the bigger rigs anyway.
But for the rev head B&S goers, the vehicles are a big part of the pre-party. They get under the hoods, sniff each other’s vehicles, compare models and parts and all the rest of their car related obsessions. People do key bangers, some get flames out the exhausts. Some people ride naked on the hoods of their mate’s car, or get a ride on the back of the tray. It’s all innocent fun stuff. But the closer to the city and/or the bigger the ball, the stricter it is on what can be done.
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