SA town to kick their heels up for a good cause - Hoedowns for Country Towns lands in Melrose for 2025's big bootscootin' event

Kate Strong (left) and Claire Harris (right) - Hoedowns for Country Towns IMAGE: Facebook

The Flinders Ranges town of Melrose is set to dance the night away this Saturday as bootscooting fans from far and wide, turn out for special sold-out charity hoedown event.

The Melrose Dust n Dance Hoedown has been organised by the Melrose community alongside line-dancing-loving friends Claire Harris, 26, and Kate Strong, 25, the duo behind Hoedowns for Country Towns.

The pair co-founded Hoedowns for Country Towns in 2022, when they embarked on a journey around Australia, hosting 75 hoedowns across regional communities, and raising almost $40,000 for rural charities along the way.

After a year off to recover in 2023, the girls decided from here on out to host one major hoedown each year, making their way across the country again state by state.

Their first annual event last year in Badgingarra was a resounding success and this year's SA hoedown is set to top it, with the girls saying it's set to be the biggest event in their organisation's history.

“This is actually going to be our biggest event ever,” Claire said. “Even in our 75 events on the road in 2022 and last year, this one has managed to top all of them with about 200 people coming along. Melrose is clearly keen to party and we’re very keen for the support.”

The small SA town was selected earlier this year following a statewide call-out for interested potential hosts.

“Melrose put forward a really great application,” Kate said. “We asked a couple of questions about why they wanted us, what made their town need an event like this, and what charity they wanted to support. They put forward a great case on wanting to support Rural Aid as their charity and to put on an event that helped support the town.”

With their own rural backgrounds, the girls know all too well how tough things can get for rural communities, and enjoy being able to spread joy, connection and fun through their events - all while raising money for a good cause.

“A lot of rural areas are battling through a lot all the time, and we think it’s really important that when we find a town that really wants to stand up and support an initiative and support the people in its community that we are able to support them too," Kate said.

Despite being incredibly well seasoned in the art of hoedown planning after their year on the road, even Kate and Claire admit it's pretty difficult to organise such an event from thousands of kilometers away.

As a result they've had to count on the Melrose community to help pull things together - a job they say the town has done splendidly.

“It’s all well and good for us to say 'we'll come to your town’, but without boots on the ground, there’s only so much we can do,” Claire said.

“So shout-out to Kaitlyn Woolford - she was the one who put forward Melrose’s application and she’s been doing a lot of work behind the scenes in the lead-up.”

Saturday night's program includes a sparkling line-up of live music, raffles, lucky-door prizes and - of course - plenty of line dancing.

“There’s going to be lots of line dancing, a live band on the night this year which is really exciting,” Kate said. “We’re going to have some demonstrations of the harder, faster dances from Claire and me - and anyone who knows them and wants to jump in is always more than welcome. There’ll be raffles, lucky-door prizes, and just a whole lot of fun.”

In the wake of their cross-country adventure, both Kate and Claire have also each set up their own line dance businesses - Kate with Hope In My Boots based in Cunderdin, WA, and Claire with Footloose Fun in Brisbane, Qld.

Even with these new ventures, the pair remain committed to keeping their annual country town hoedowns alive with through their one signature event each year.

"Definitely" Claire said when asked if they were still planning on continuing the annual tradition.

“It will stay to one big event each year, and we will cycle through the states. Once we get to the end of them all, we’ll see what the goal is then — but we’ve got a lot more states to get the boot-scooting joy to.”

Tickets for this year’s Melrose Dust N Dance Hoedown have sold out, but line-dancing lovers can keep up with Claire and Kate's adventures by following Hoedowns for Country Towns on Facebook, Instagram and their website.