Australian Horse & Greyhound Racing Forum - Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival

The Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival rivals the Melbourne Cup in colour and its 65,000 strong crowd annually on Easter Monday makes it the biggest picnic race meeting in the world.
Easter Saturday attracts a crowd of approximately 40,000 and sets the scene for a fantastic Monday meeting. People in their thousands park their cars, pile out of the buses, and even land their helicopters to be part of the magical atmosphere.

Located in South Australia's Adelaide Hills racing country, the Oakbank Racing Club races just twice annually - on Easter Saturday and Monday - since 1876. It's the home of steeplechasing and jumping, which combines with flat racing over the festival, culminating in the famous Great Eastern Steeplechase.
But more than that, the Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival is a fantastic festival for all, a party par excellence. And it is this bewitching quality that attracts the largest single country racing pilgrimage anywhere in the world. The campers congregate and the cars come before dawn on race day.

For 363 days a year, the Oakbank racecourse is little more than an open field located in South Australia's Adelaide Hills "Blue Grass" racing country.
During the two days of the Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival, however, this racecourse erupts with an explosion of racing, sideshows, fashion, picnics, friends and families. The centre of the course becomes a "Disneyland", a place of fun and fantasia for the young and not so young. Simultaneously, the racegoers rich ritual unfolds, but not at odds with the Fun Fair: for all are part of Oakbank and that's all that counts.

The Easter Carnival is held on Easter Saturday and Monday each year and while the showground and racecourse is open on the Friday and Sunday, races are only conducted on the Saturday and Monday.