Feel like a good old-fashioned taste of rural Australia this weekend? Why not head out to Blayney!

Nothing quite captures the unique qualities of country living like a traditional agricultural show.

Fresh from a record-breaking event last year and an Agricultural Society’s Innovation Award, Blayney Show is on again this weekend, Saturday, March 19 with the hard work of dozens of volunteers the key to the event’s enduring success.

Due to a serendipitous fluke of timing, Blayney was one of the few country shows that missed the pandemic lockdowns for both 2020 and 2021.

With quarantine measures now effectively over, organisers say it is the perfect time to get back into the swing of things.

“We’ve been extremely lucky we were able to have a Show both years in early March, we’ve pretty much never missed a Show!” Secretary Rosemary Reid enthused about the event, which was first held way back in 1878.

“We had a record attendance last year, around the 2000 mark with over 1000 entries in the animals section, ring events for the horses; because of COVID, we were one of the only shows still open so they came here to qualify for Sydney,” she added.

The Show though has not been totally untouched by the intrusions of the past two years with visitors encouraged to buy their tickets online for the COVID-19 safe event at: www.blayneyshow.com/

“We’re asking people to buy them online; it just makes contact tracing and the like easier,” she said.

“We’re encouraging people to pre-buy,” Show President, Ben Meek added.

The local farmer said he couldn’t be happier with the success of the little country show that last year drew hundreds of entrants in the traditional livestock and Ring events.

“It was a record year for our gate-takings, we were pretty strong in horses and other animal sections,” he said, adding that its timing before the Sydney Show often saw entrants from throughout NSW seeking good results to get them entry to the big show, the Royal Easter at Homebush in three weeks.

He said that with Australians being encouraged to get out and about again in their communities, why not take the time to visit a genuine country show?

“Everyone’s now keen to get back out to our normal lives and one of our strengths is that we are a good country show,” Ben said.

With tickets only $10 for adults and $5 for children, the Show also represents great value for money with a number of exciting exhibits.

“We’ve got a snake man from Queensland who’ll be giving an educational talk; we’ve got three different dance groups to perform for us, we’ve got a dog high-jump event, and some great rides to wrap-up,” he said.

“Tickets are only $30 for a family as well, so it’s not dear,” he added. Livestock sections include sheep, cattle, show horses, goats, poultry, and a “young judges” section for students from local schools.

Last year numbers were up for this young judges section with more than 150 taking part in the junior judging education sessions and competitions, where they learnt how to assess fleeces, sheep, and cattle.

Ben said the resilience of the Show indicates the strong sense of community in the 7000-population rural-based Shire south of Orange.

“We may have missed a couple of war years, but I think we’re now up to our 144th year.

 “I just think there’s a great small-town hospitality feel to the event. Many like it that we’ve still got a good focus on agriculture,” Ben concluded.