LOCAL businesses are being encouraged to dress up their shopfronts to promote next month’s Gawler Show, as a new way of bringing the town together in support of the event.
Participating businesses will go into the running to win a single family pass or a couple of two-day passes to the Gawler Show on August 24-25, an editorial in next year’s show book, and have their business promoted on the show’s Facebook page, which is followed by nearly 12,000 people.
The Gawler Show committee has valued the total package at around $5000, and the winner will also have their name recorded on the competition’s Perpetual Trophy.
Gawler Show secretary Kate Cowell encouraged businesses to get into the spirit of the show and decorate their shopfronts accordingly.
“I would just like to see people get creative,” she said.
“Obviously, it’s dependent on what space they have available to do something, and it’s not necessarily the bigger the better.
“I would just really like to see people think outside the square.”
The idea for the competition came while Mrs Cowell and Gawler Show marketing administration assistant Tanya Veldkamp were “having a chat over lunch”.
“Were talking about how to get the community more on board,” Mrs Cowell said.
“We have amazing support from the Gawler businesses anyway, but not all businesses are able to support the Gawler Show in terms of monetary value.
“So, we thought even if they could support us by advertising the fact that the show is coming up, dress up the windows, (that would be great).
“There have been a couple of shops throughout the years that have done really lovely window displays about the Gawler Show completely off their own bat, and they’ve looked really amazing.
“We figured it would be really good to promote that more, and I expect it will be something that will grow organically over the next few years, and that each year we would get more and more businesses involved.”
A judging panel will critique each entry, with the winner to be announced in The Bunyip’s August 14 edition in the lead-up to the show.
Mrs Cowell also encouraged people to get their show entries in as soon as possible, with the advertised cut-off date being August 2 for general entries, and August 9 for horse entries.
If you are unable to get your entry in before those deadlines, contact the Gawler Show office on 8523 1477 for assistance – businesses can also call this number if they are interested in participating in the shopfront competition.