From farm to field
APRIL | IN FOCUS
Agricultural events are the lifeblood of rural life in the UK,
and their scale, popularity and infrastructure spend are not
to be underestimated
A
recent report by Events Industry
Forum made for intriguing
reading. Shows and fairs made
up the bulk of outdoor event attendance,
with 45.3 million attendees per year
in 2018. Fairs and shows include any
outdoor event where the main aim is
to showcase the content for trade and
promotional reasons, such as country,
agricultural and horticultural shows,
steam rallies, fun-fairs, dog shows and
non-permanent markets.
Many of these types of event do not
have an entrance fee and so have a
higher proportion of visitor figures than
their contribution to spend and GVA.
However, this sector has contributed
to a change in seasonality of outdoor
events, with sizeable attendances at
Christmas and New Year events.
The sectors key shows include
Cereals, LAMMA, The Dairy Event, Pig
& Poultry, Croptec, British Potato and
UK Dairy Day.
There are still a lot of rural
showgrounds hosting shows, and these
feature a mix of small and niche events,
to massive general consumer events.
In areas with small disparate rural
communities, these events are a big
deal, and they attract big sponsorship
income from the likes of Land Rover,
Bank of Scotland, and John Deere.
Farming is in our blood
Croptec is the largest agricultural
show hosted at East of England Arena
and Event Centre. It was launched at
the venue in 2012 by AgriBriefing, the
agribusiness media and intelligence
company
Devoted to the technological side
of agribusiness, from surveillance
drones to low-carbon farm machinery,
the Croptec event welcomed over 170
exhibitors, demonstrating cutting-edge
technology and the latest crop science
as well as a wide range of auxiliary
products and services.
Making use of the arena’s indoor
areas and also some outdoor event
space to display the huge variety of
heavy plant machinery, an outdoor
sprayer demo area, where visitors
could view and test the latest spraying
equipment themselves, Croptec is a
large show which poses its own set
of challenges as Jason Lunn, venue
director, explained.
“Agricultural shows,” said Jason
Lunn, venue director, “have been a
constant feature of the venue. Our
history as an agricultural showground
has gone a long way to providing us
with the experience and facilities
needed to make them a success, not
least a large outdoor event space, larger
buildings including our main hall,
suitable accommodation for livestock,
and a well-developed, site-wide, data
and utilities infrastructure.”
The venue also has also been the
venue for many other agricultural
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