'Heavy Trucks Exhaust Brakes Orchestra' Performs For Adelaide Fringe Festival

An ensemble of more than 20 hardworking truckdrivers and their large B Double Trucks will have a special performance of Beethoven's 5th Symphony at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2023. The trucks will use their exhaust brakes to perform a work called 'Beethoven's 5th - A Major Cacophony'. Rehearsals are already underway on Portrush Road daily.

Truck drivers are one of the hardest working groups of employees and owner-drivers in the country. In fact almost 3% of all males employed in Australia drive trucks. Without truck drivers there would be no groceries on the shelves, no stock at Bunnings, no petrol at the petrol stations, and no Swedish dumplings available near the self-service checkouts at Ikea.

However, while exhaust brakes are good to keep the turbos free of soot and safe wear and tear on brake pads, they are incredibly noisy. Residents around intersections like Magill Road and Port Rush Road in Maylands, Adelaide, will be well familiar with exhaust brakes thundering through the night.

It is hoped the performance of 'Beethoven's 5th - A Major Cacophony' will be an opportunity for stakeholders to have a conversation and understand more about the use of exhaust brakes on trucks, the importance of the work that truck drivers do, and potential opportunities to minimise the use of exhaust brakes in residential areas.

Pexel photo credit: Kevin Bidwell - thanks Kevin