A veritable institution, having been name-checked on TV shows and in the serious sports pages of major dailies, etc, the Meredith Gift is a completely nude sprint, of about 80 metres, on the Sunday of Meredith in the Amphitheatre drawing a full crowd of around twenty five million.

See below for The Rules. Anyone at the festival can enter (it’s free), as long as they are nude. It all started in 1994 when one of the bands was late to arrive on the Sunday. What do we do, we wondered. Have a race involving the patrons. Winner gets cold beer. Some guy wandered to the front of the stage as this was being announced and asked what he would win if he did it in the nude. MORE cold beer, of course. The following year the race was held again – as it was a talking point from the year before – and several people got nude, completely on their own accord. The year after we had to limit entry to only fully nude people, as there were so many people wanting to run. If you haven’t seen a Meredith Gift, it’s pretty funny. It can be a bit confronting and tragic too, but mostly funny. There’s always a crash, nude people tumbling along at speed, grass burns, injured penises, etc.

In recent years The Gift has been run under the watchful eye of the world’s greatest human, Angus Sampson.

You can watch some footage of previous Classic Gifts by clicking here.

HIS AND HERS HEATS, THEN A FINAL

This year there will be heats for the gents and then heats for the ladies. There will be six caps strewn across the track near the finish line of each heat. The 12 competitors who grab a cap then go through to The Final. The Final will be run immediately after The Heats, and will involve those twelve successful cap-grabbers racing for The Golden Jocks as usual. The first lady to pass the post will take out The Golden Gusset.

THE TOWN BIKES

The Marvellous Town Bikes are an institution in their role as Special Gift Mistresses; taking registrations, issuing instructions, marshalling the runners and most wonderfully firing the starter’s pistol. Believe me, you will do what they tell you.

REGISTER

All competitors must register by going to the Big Tree near The Gift Shoppe at 1pm and signing an Indemnity Form, then getting a stencil sponged onto their torso. The Gift runs at about 2pm Sunday.

HERE ARE THE RULES OF THE GIFT

- Anyone at the Festival can enter.

- ALL entrants must be nude or underpanted.

- Gaffer tape can be used to fix the underpants to the buttocks, to prevent riding. ‘Wedgies’ are always welcomed and often amusing.

- Any competitor wearing Lycra will be set on fire.

- Spectators must stand well behind the sidelines unless they want to trip someone over.

- Competitors may NOT drive their car instead of running.

Past winners include

The Two-Bearded Man, Trevor, three time Champ Richo The Plumber, and Jarrod Red Cap.

Amateur footage of the 2008 Meredith Gift can be viewed here.