On 30 September over 180 Samoans lost their lives when a tsunami hit their shores. The breakfast show (known as The Cage) of our local radio station, Triple M, put together an event to raise funds for the tsunami survivors. There is a huge population of Samoans living here in Brisbane and alot of those people were directly affected - some with extended families completely wiped out. So The Cage (consisting of Emily-Jade, Marto, Sully & Ian) in conjunction with Samoan community leaders put together the Fia Fia Footy Festival at Ballymore Rugby Park - home of the Queensland Reds. Entrance fee was a "gold coin" which is a dollar or anything you could afford to put in. Most people were putting notes in - not coins. The Samoan community put on some great entertainment - some dance, some song. They're quite religious so there were plenty of prayers and songs from church groups.
Us at Fia Fia Footy
One of the Samoan dance/singing groups
And there was rugby! First off was a celebrity touch game with AFL stars, NRL stars as well as some rugby union stars - the now disgraced Quade Cooper being one of them.
Celebrety Touch Teams
Then it was on to the big game of the evening - Qld Samoa vs Brisbane Baabas! What a great game of rugga!
Samoa vs Baabas
Kids, cardboard & a hill = hours of fun!
The half time entertainment was a scream! Marto's Tonner Race - all men over 100kgs racing across the field. Some of them moved surprisingly fast!
The Tonners at the start line
The Tonners after their race - there be some large lads there!
It was a really great evening's entertainment - and $65,000 raised for the Red Cross Samoan Disaster Relief.
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