For Immediate Release, 5 October 2022 

YOU ARE INVITED FOR DRINKS THIS FRIDAY AT THE GERTRUDE HOTEL FITZROY

When: Friday 7 October 2022
6pm – Media launch (media only)
6:30pm – Ticketed event commences (media are invited to stay for the celebrations)
9pm Nup To The Cup song launch

Where: The Gertrude Hotel, 148 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy VIC

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MEDIA RELEASE
5 October 2022

‘NUP TO THE CUP’ CAMPAIGN LAUNCHES A SPRING CARNIVAL OF KINDNESS

As the “Nup To The Cup” movement continues to gather steam while attendances decline at the Melbourne Cup Carnival, organisers are this week launching an alternative racing-free season of celebration to give anti-racing revellers their own calendar of events.

The “Nup To the Cup” campaign organisers plan to reclaim Melbourne Cup Day for the animals by hosting cruelty-free celebrations throughout the Spring Carnival and by encouraging the community to host their own events through a new website, nuptothecup.org

This year’s Nup To the Cup media campaign launch at the Gertrude Hotel on Friday will include the live launch of a new “Nup To The Cup” song for those seeking a different tune to traditional racing hype and the unveiling of artworks which feature in the campaign by internationally acclaimed artist Anthony Breslin.

The Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses (CPR) Deathwatch 2022 Report has just been released (available here), highlighting 139 horses were killed on racetracks across Australia in the last racing year, while thousands more disappeared from the industry after sustaining injuries.

CPR’s campaign director Elio Celotto said that awareness of the cruelty of horse racing and opposition to racing events had gained huge momentum over the past decade since the “Nup to The Cup” movement emerged in 2010.

“We want to channel that support into a celebration of animals and give people a social alternative to racing industry events that exploit, maim and kill horses,” he said. “Victorians can still have fun on Cup Day without condoning the brutality of horse racing,” Mr Celotto said.

“The best way to back a winner on Cup Day is by celebrating without harming animals rather than supporting a cruel industry in which horses are always the losers.

“It is our vision that in the not-too-distant future more people will choose to attend Nup To The Cup events or organise their own racing-free parties than attend the Melbourne Cup at Flemington.

“Melbourne Cup Day was once a fun day when everybody thought the horses were OK but the public now knows that’s just not the case and it never was,” he said.
 

ENDS

For more information on Friday’s media launch, the media release or to obtain images, please email [email protected] or phone: