THIS weekend’s 163rd Gawler Show is expected to bring the sunshine along with plenty of smiles as it gets under way on Saturday.
This year’s event will see the return of the Grand Parade for the first time in 14 years, and the introduction of the ‘Touch-A-Truck’ feature, which allows kids to explore the ins and outs of some emergency service vehicles.
Gawler Show secretary Kate Cowell said she’s excited to see some of the show’s new features work alongside its old ones.
“I’m looking forward to the sun shining, it’s meant to be 19°C and really lovely,” she said.
“I’m also looking forward to seeing the efforts of everybody being culminated over the two days.
“We have lots of new things, which is really exciting.
“We’ve got ‘Touch-A-Truck’, which we’re doing with the Town of Gawler and emergency services, they’re bringing some of their equipment.
“We’ve also got a monster truck, it’s designed for kids to actually climb up over the trucks, get in them and talk to the people who operate the machinery.
“Our new fashion parade will be held underneath Nixon’s Function Centre in the new Trackside Room.”
Away from the rides and show bags, Mrs Cowell said competition entries have been solid across different categories.
“We’ve been inundated with photography entries, so that’s a massive section this year, which is awesome,” she said.
“We have 380 art entries and our cattle entries at last count are at 104, so our cattle section this year is massive and the highland cows have their national championships on the Sunday, which is
really exciting.
“Our Clydesdales are back, so they’ll be here on the Sunday too.
“Everything seems to be going really well, some entries for some sections are through the roof, other sections are lower than normal.
“Our poultry section is down because a lot of our breeders have moved their birds on because of the price of feed from the drought.
“That’s had a roll-on effect to our poultry section, we’ve still had quite a few birds in, but nowhere near normal amounts.
“We have around 60 birds on the Saturday and 40 on the Sunday, whereas normally we’d have 200-250 birds in.”
Gates open at 9am on both Saturday and Sunday, with the fireworks getting under way at 8.15pm on Saturday night.