COMBINE DEMOLITION DERBY: EXTREME FUN

It is a common mistake in the tourism industry all over the planet: to think that today’s version of the most popular industry on the planet is limited to huge metropolis areas or seaside resorts. A very unspectacular town, that is Lind in Eastern Washington, provides a great example of how tourism is important to even the smallest of populated areas away from the ocean. The town has one restaurant and one bank yet does not fail to pull a number of people every year to watch its crazy combine event.

The publicity of the town was boosted by Playboy magazine choosing the location to make shoots and celebrate its 50th anniversary. However, the main source of popularity for the town comes from an entirely different source and that is the fact that farmers did not use to know what to do with their combine machines when the price of wheat went up and/or the combine machines stopped working so well or needed an expensive repair. The simple solution is to put the machines into competition into the local Combine Demolition Derby: a lure for the lovers of destruction and extreme entertainment.

Every year, visitors come from afar to witness these giant feats of engineering crash into each other at varying speeds, surprisingly to the delight of their owners. At the same time, barbecues are organised along with grain truck races and other events to make sure that boredom does not play any role. The most popular machine usually ends up winning a prize of $250, which is given out on the basis of the applause it receives. As the levels of applause are usually extremely high, the judges are mostly faced with a difficult choice. The most interesting thing about this whole issue is that the demolition event could be described as being just as important to the people of Adams country as, for example, hosting the Olympics was for the people of Beijing. So visit Lind on June 13, 2009 to see the giants crash into each other.