News
Issue No. 52 - April/May 2010
It’s all about Southern Slam glam
The Great Southern Slam is bringing a gritty blend of guts and glamour to Adelaide when the girls of roller derby take to the track to see who rules the Southern Hemisphere.
Roller Derby is entertainment - a mix of athleticism, style, rivalry and swaggering theatricality that flirts with burlesque. Recently the stars of Adelaide Roller Derby League shone in the Fringe opening parade where 75 skaters and refs put on a show for the huge crowd.
Over the 11-13 June Queens Birthday long weekend the Great Southern Slam tournament will see not 75 but hundreds of skaters do battle at The Adelaide Showground track.
“It will be the first tournament of its kind in the southern hemisphere and the biggest roller derby tournament ever held outside the USA,” says Slam publicist Sita Bacher, better known as Marshall Stacks of the Road Train Rollers.
“We have had formal expressions of interest from 23 roller derby leagues from Australia and New Zealand. We anticipate attendance close to 4000, with about 1700 coming from interstate or overseas.
“Based on the ATO Travel Expense Allowance Daily Rate of $246 per day, an estimated amount of interstate money coming into the local Adelaide economy as a result of this tournament is $1.27 million.”
The US-based Derby News Network is covering the event for the international audience.
“Last year’s US Nationals garnered 30,000 viewers on DNN’s live internet broadcast or ‘boutcast’ as it is called in the derby community,” Sita says.
Adelaide Roller Derby (www.adelaiderollerderby.com) is looking for more corporate support for the Slam.
“ADRD is a non-profit organisation and as such is looking for financial support to help us stage this event,” Sita says. “We have a consistent history of staging world-class roller derby events, attracting record crowds to our regular season bouts and blockbuster events such as Skate of Origin and Skate of Emergency.
“Havin...
