It's the most... fuck'd up-ish tiiiiimmmme of the yeeaaarrrr...
Monday: Chaos stays home and Mayhem goes to school
Tuesday: Mayhem stays home and Chaos goes to school
Wednesday: Public holiday for Queenslanders. Everyone stays home
Thursday: Everybody back to what passes for the normal schedule
Friday: Mayhem off to his new Traineeship workplace. Huzzah
And then next week, everyone comes down with the Ekka Flu. Yay.
It happens with every big gathering of like-minded weirdoes. People go even when they're feeling crummy because they don't want to miss out. They spread their disease amongst others, who stay up late and eat bad food and sleep in an unfamiliar place and lower their immune systems. It becomes the Con Crud. The E3 Euwwies. The Pax Pox. And, in this case, The Ekka Flu.
Trust Australia to put an open-air national event right in the middle of the coldest, nastiest time of the year and then act surprised when pestilence inevitably results.
You have people showing off livestock [cows, horses, pigs, and assorted fowls] in a crowded environment, with cold, blustery winds and flu season. You have virii that humans, pigs, and birds can catch, mutating each time. And that's how the Spanish Influenza managed to devastate the world.
Addendum:
Mayhem's school is closed today. Fuuuuuuck.