Photo galleries of drunk people at the Melbourne Cup

It’s the great institutionalised mass intrusion on the Australian media calendar. The news point: apparently people get drunk on the public lawns at the Melbourne Cup. Who knew?

Fact is most citizens consider it the one day of the year they can let their hair down in the certain knowledge that everyone else within the visible horizon is getting just as smashed as they are and no real harm can come to anyone.

Then, at around 6 o’clock, as the crowds thin and the staggerers are left staggering, prone and propped against mounds of their fallen friends, the tabloid photo hacks shuffle from their lairs and start hunting for the most grotesque, sad little shows of humanity’s susceptibility to the dangerous combination that is warm Carrington Blush and five inch heels.

There is no news in this, just a ritualised annual tabloid photo-gallery parade of shame, vulnerability and intrusion.

Here are some highlights from the enlightening Herald Sun gallery: Punters Off Their Races. Hey, at least we photoshopped their faces:


7 Comments

  1. meski
    Posted Friday, 6 November 2009 at 2:08 pm | Permalink

    Yeah right. Like putting a narrow black stripe across people’s eyes magically stops them being recognised?

  2. Nadia David
    Posted Friday, 6 November 2009 at 3:22 pm | Permalink

    Nice one Crikey….like showing the photos again is really indicative of your superior moral stance on these things.

  3. jossy
    Posted Friday, 6 November 2009 at 6:16 pm | Permalink

    No one must have fun any more. Unless of course you’re rich and have a private island or similar where no-one can see you.

  4. Keith is not my real name
    Posted Friday, 6 November 2009 at 9:19 pm | Permalink

    Hopefully Larry Flynt will put up some cash for similar images of @Crikeys team.

    Somehow I don’t think it will cost as much or be as difficult to attain.

  5. Margaret Bozik
    Posted Saturday, 7 November 2009 at 3:17 am | Permalink

    I disagree - while its lazy photojournalism, it is a counter-balance to and no worse than the shameless blind promotion of a commercial event. Besides, for those of us who have to share public transport with the self-absorbed over/under dressed loud-mouth drunks staggering home from the races all week it is a more accurate reporting of the event than the society pics from the friggin’ Birdcage.

  6. acannon
    Posted Saturday, 7 November 2009 at 3:21 pm | Permalink

    I went to Derby Day this year (first time to the races) and I have to say it’s not the thing to go to if you want to renew your faith in humankind. No one was completely awful, but no one was particularly inspiring either. And I’ve never seen so much rubbish in my life.

    People like to think rock concerts like The Big Day Out encourage bad behaviour? At least the people that go have some interest in what’s on show. The Spring Racing Carnival is an excuse to get drunk, period, for about 90% of the people that go. Yes I know I’m a total killjoy. But I didn’t really feel a whole lot of joy there, from anyone.

    PS If they didn’t want to be photographed drunk then what were they doing there? Totally fair as far as I’m concerned.

  7. Fiona Stuchbery
    Posted Tuesday, 10 November 2009 at 4:12 pm | Permalink

    What upsets me more is the amount of rubbish lying on the ground!