Just as festivals and events started to pop up on the country calendar again, recent Covid outbreaks have forced many in to last-minute cancellations.
After the pandemic and resulting travel restrictions swung a wrecking ball through plans for agricultural shows last year, ongoing uncertainty about what will happen next is threatening to do the same in 2021.
The small town of Wingham, on the NSW Mid North Coast, is the latest to make the ‘tough decision’ to pull the plug on its major annual community event.
The ABC reports that the cost of complying with Covid-19 restrictions played a part.
“It would have been a financial blow if we ran the show with all these restrictions in place … it wasn’t really financially viable for us,” said show society president, Elaine Turner. “There’s a lot of disappointment out there but we had to be realistic and try and look at every single avenue of what we could do, but it wasn’t working.”
The Wingham show is one of about 20 not going ahead in the first two months of the year — half of the total NSW schedule, according to Tim Capp, the president of the Agricultural Societies Council of NSW.
“We’ve got 40 shows scheduled for January and February throughout New South Wales. Unfortunately, probably 20 of those have cancelled or postponed,” he told the ABC. “Some have changed a bit, they’re only putting a part show on … we’re encouraging everyone to go ahead if they can.”
Mr Capp does not expect any of the show societies to fold but said some were doing it very tough.
“Apart from their expenses just in running the show, all the show societies with their grounds — whether they lease them or whether they own them — have got ongoing costs all through the year anyway,” he said. “And they only have the one opportunity to make enough money to cover those costs.”
Despite the cancellation of many regional shows, the Sydney Royal Easter Show is all set to go ahead in April.
But the event’s general manager, Murray Wilton, told the ABC that the cancellation of regional shows was still devastating.
“It’s often the largest event they run into their community and it brings the community together,” he said. “From a mental health perspective, it’s incredibly important, and it’s also showcasing agriculture.”
