EkkA

The EkkA in Brisbane is basically the state show. It's huge! It's even got it's own flu named after it. School children are bused in, old couples scoot around, and there's cow poo everywhere! The dagwood dogs (corn dogs), fairy floss (cotton candy), and strawberry sundays (an ice cream cone filled with chopped strawberries, strawberry ice, cream and topped with a strawberry) fill the tummies of all who walk through those iron gates of the RNA showgrounds.

I love how bright the Sun State Roller Girls balloons turned out, in the bright blue of the Brisbane sky they really shine.

My roller derby league, the Sun State Roller Girls, were invited to be roving entertainers for the EkkA this year and we jumped at the chance. The EkkA runs from Thursday 7 August till Saturday 16 August and we were asked to participate in their daily parade and demonstrate roller derby. I signed up for everday, but had to miss out on Sunday due to having a sever allergic reaction to some ant bites. Two days to go and the only thing I haven't tried are the ribs. yummy.

The skating has been lots of fun, and although we don't get to show off much of our roller derby skills due to big crowds, we have been handing out hundreds of balloons and stickers and flyers. The crowds work in our favour in that there's so many people that we can explain derby to and invite to our bout (Saturday 13 September at Beenleigh Arena!). Skating is very difficult though with so many people milling about. Our stoping and slowing techniques have really improved as has propelling ourselves with out big leg movements. The lungs have gotten a work out too, we've blown up about 100 balloons a day!

The little kids love anything we hand out. Not much is free and even flyers seem to fly out of our hands. We've got one that explains what roller derby is, on that is a flyer for "Brisbane all girl full contact roller derby action" our bout on the 13th. We've also got our stickers that say, "If you can't play nice, play roller derby" and our balloons with the Sun State Roller Girls logo and website, http://www.sunstaterollergirls.com/