This year’s Royal Canberra Show was cancelled for the first time in its 70-year history – so organisers are tremendously relieved the “one-weekend wonder” will be back in February.

The Show will be held over the weekend of 25-27 February, the Royal National Capital Agricultural Society (RNCAS) confirmed today.

“Once the Chief Minister announced the Show was on, we hit the go button,” said CEO Geoff Cannock. “It’ll be good to get the Show back on the road.”

The last Show was held in February 2020, a month before public health restrictions would have forced its cancellation. However, the 2021 Show was cancelled last November.

It normally takes 12 months to organise the Show, held on Australia’s biggest showground, but RNCAS will organise it in only three.

“We are currently working against the clock to ensure that our Show will be full of our farm animals and the entertainment that everyone has come to expect from Canberra’s oldest and most loved all-ages event,” Mr Cannock said.

Six hundred passionate volunteers are organising horse entries, cakes, and jams.

Entries for the horse show opened on 1 October and closed on the 29^th, with 1,300 horses entered over 5,000 classes.

“Those people are so pleased that we’ve had the intestinal fortitude to go ahead with this event,” Mr Cannock said.

The dog and cattle shows will also be held. But some events will be absent next year, unfortunately, such as the competition for yard dogs rounding up sheep.

Agricultural shows are a way to educate city people that the food on your table comes from Australian farmers in the country, Mr Cannock explained.

But it also has a social side. “Our customers have waited a long time to get out of their homes and off their farms to compete in events from a Champion Hack to the best fruitcake in the district.

“Not everyone understands what it’s like to win the best fruitcake in this district, but the other competitors know what it’s like. When [a rider] sees a champion ribbon go around the neck of [her] horse at a Royal Show, that’s really an accolade, and it’s an accolade to her preparation, the breeding, the care. I’m just amazed at the level of competitiveness in our people.”

RNCAS survived the past 20 months with assistance from the ACT and Federal Governments. The event normally provides income for more than 2,000 people.

However, when JobKeeper ended, Mr Cannock ended up with no staff; he has worked in the office on his own as a volunteer since April.

“The concern for us has always been in any COVID plan we run, we guarantee our competitors and our exhibitors that we will refund their money if it’s cancelled,” Mr Cannock said. “Now, what that means is that if we took their entry fee, we couldn’t use any of that for wages, because then we wouldn’t be able to refund their money.”

Earlier this month, he recruited four staff to work on the Show, thanks to seed funding from both governments.

“It was a tremendous relief,” he said.

Some changes to proceedings will be needed to accommodate public health requirements.

All public tickets will have to be purchased in advance online to assist with contact tracing, if required.

The showground is 800,000 sqm, so can cope with any density limit, Mr Cannock said.

“Exhibition Park is the most expansive showground in Australia, and most of our animal competitions are conducted outdoors,” Mr Cannock said.

“This enables us to achieve the density limits that may be in force next February. We have moved our most popular pavilion, the farmyard nursery, to a much larger building.”

Visit the Royal Canberra Show website for more.

With AAP

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