COMMUNITY engagement will be the focus of organisers in planning for a new-look, grassroots Mildura Show this year.
Plans to hold Sunraysia’s “greatest annual event” are forging ahead this year despite reservations about future COVID-19 health restrictions with community front of mind.
Newly elected Mildura Show Society president Natalie Hancock said there had been a heightened level of anticipation in planning for this year’s show to be held from Thursday, October 14, to Saturday, October 16.
“It’s up and running … it will be on,” Ms Hancock confirmed this week.
“We’re treading carefully at this stage because we don’t know whether or not they will say to us in two months’ time, ‘Sorry, it’s lockdown again’.
“We’re only in the very early stages of the planning and trying to get our heads around it, but we’re hoping to make it look different this year.
“We’re trying to bring it up to speed — everyone is just so keen with the 12 months that we’ve had off and we just want to make it a really great show.”
Ms Hancock said a stronger focus on community this year was seen by organisers as a win-win.
“Our main focus is that we want it community-based and you don’t realise how important that is until it’s not there,” she said.
“We want community groups to come back to the show and we’d like to fill the showgrounds.
“We get feedback from people who say there’s nothing there, but we want to make it full and bring it back to a community show 100 per cent because we’ve realised in the past 12 months that the community is very much important.
“You do realise just how much the community and different community groups mean to you.
“We want to help the local community groups get back on their feet — they can help us out by filling up space at the showgrounds and we’ll help them out in any way we can.”
Ms Hancock said that while there would be added attention to community, some changes in the wind this year had been forced upon organisers.
“We’ve been going through organising some attractions and seeing what we are able to have because a lot of things have folded due to COVID-19,” she said.
“The circus that we normally have there, they’re no longer — they just couldn’t sustain being closed for so long — and there were a few regular attractions like that that couldn’t afford it.
“But we’re working through it and finding out what we can and can’t do.
“Hopefully, most places are pretty flexible and would understand the future uncertainty, but it is a bit of a juggling act.”
Ms Hancock said she took up the position of show society president this year to “give it a go and see how it pans out”.
“They were looking for someone new and I’ve been around the show for nearly 19 years and on the committee for a few years,” she said.
“I’ve been involved in the pavilion and the poultry and the horses for about the past 15 years and the family has run the hands-on pets Freddy’s Farm for many years, so I know that side of it.
“It’s just that you get into that office and you don’t know about the hard work that goes on in there as well, so it’s quite a big challenge.”
Ms Hancock said the organising committee would welcome any community support to get this year’s event up and running following last year’s hiatus.
“We’re always looking for more people to come and give us a hand — whether they are businesses or the general public,” she said.
Wentworth aims for big comeback
WENTWORTH Show Society president Marcus Moore says his claim to fame in his first year in the role last year was to cancel the 2020 show.
But that’s the last thing in his mind as he and his band of helpers are working “full steam ahead” in the planning of this year Wentworth Show on the last weekend in August.
Mr Moore said community and business support for this year’s event had been excellent despite the difficulties of the past 12 months and the society committee was looking at returning the “true country show” to the region.
“Considering what’s happening in the rest of the state and country, we’re moving forward with confidence, but obviously we have to be wary that if things turned the other way we’d have to be nimble,” Mr Moore said.
“But we’re keen to get this back up and running this year because after having one cancellation we want to get going again so that we keep our momentum.”
Mr Moore said that aside from initiating a COVID-safe plan for this year’s event, the 2021 Wentworth Show will have “the old favourites with a few new attractions”.
“There’s always some changes, but we’ll keep the country feel as normal — we’ve done that in the past and that’s what we plan to continue,” he said.
“We’re getting a lot of support as far as sponsors and businesses getting involved — there’s obviously some that are struggling and can’t do it this year, but in the main they have been very supportive.”
In the society’s 135-year history, the show has been cancelled only during World War I, World War II, the 1956 Murray-Darling floods and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
— Allan Murphy
