There are so many public holidays and festivals over a long Melbournian summer, it's a challenge to keep up with them all. I literally free wheeled into this one, as it cut through the Yarra River bike trail where I was headed for a day's cycling. As it turned out, I had stumbled across the curiously named and widely energetic MOOMBA festival. It wasn't a hard decision to join them for an hour or so, what with the glorious late summer sun, and two very eye catching events kicking off a little further up stream.... 
Sure, the usual festival favourites were on show in style, what with the street parade and floats, the fairground rides, the food stalls, the hundred different ways to win a cuddly toy, the obligatory sound stage featuring local bands, and the rest of the usual party pieces. However, the MOOMBA boys and girls have a few tricks up their sleeve. First to catch my eye was the water ski-ing competition. How cool is it to see power boats ripping down the Yarra towards Southbank and Flinders Street right in the heart of the city centre? This was only bettered by the chap on the waterski's tearing along whilst also wearing a cape and mask. Cool, but surely super powers were giving the masked one an unfair advantage?
He may have been better entering the next event, the MOOMBA Birdman Rally. This was a series of spectacular flops into the river from a makeshift launch pad. Each of the willing but barking mad contestants sport a variety of self made bird suits to see who can 'fly' the furthest. I had absolutely no idea who won, no one seemed to care, each plunge greeted with wild cheers. All in the name of charity, and not quite the craziest event of the day though. Earlier on, Harry 'Clueless' Kewell had been crowned as the King of MOOMBA. Scoring goals obviously wasn't high on the list of credentials for the job.
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