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Riverina Field Days |
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History |
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Phone: (02) 6964.8811 |
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To contact us: |
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Since 1988 Griffith media companies WIN Television and Radio 2RG had owned and operated a field day at Yanco, following an invitation from NSW Agriculture to move their field day from Darlington Point to a site at the Yanco Agricultural Institute. The reason behind this was so that the event could be used to promote what they did at the Institute and showcase their facilities. Government intervention a few years ago saw all this change and the reason for the field day being there no longer existed.
In July 2006 WIN Television announced that the field day did not fit into their rationalisation plans and indicated that they would no longer be the chief organiser or funder of the Farm Fair. Macquarie Radioworks (2RG’s parent company also followed suit). The main reason being that the event was no longer viable at the current site. Expenses were outstripping revenue.
In order to see that the event continued, an approach was made to the Griffith Showground Trust to see if they had an interest in taking on the Farm Fair and re-locating it to Griffith. They were agreeable and arrangements were immediately put in place. For the event to survive it was imperative that it be moved somewhere where there could be savings made on expenses. The cost of $10,000 per year to the DPI for the rental of the land was just one such saving.
Given that the new owners and the organiser are based in Griffith it was a logical decision to relocate the event to Griffith.
Ffiona Beverley, who had been employed by WIN Television soley to organise the Farm Fair agreed to go with the Riverina Field Days and is your first point of contact.
There is a great deal of infrastructure in place at the Griffith Showgrounds such as permanent toilet facilities, sealed roads in many areas as well as seating and trees for shade. There is a permanent bar facility as well as three buildings able to provide exhibitors with undercover areas, thus saving them marquee hire.
It is now history that we had to change the name as the Leeton Shire Council (who’d shown no interest in the event in the past 19 years) suddenly showed an interest and registered the name. Over the years it appeared that registration of the name had lapsed. For the sake of continuity it would have been good to be able to keep the name however this was not to be and a change of name was forced on the new organization. However they believe that with new owners, new venue and a new sponsor that a new name was appropriate and so the Riverina Field Days was born. We did however manage to keep the same dates as we’d always had—the second Friday and Saturday in May.
There is plenty of room at the Griffith Showground to accommodate exhibitors. Whilst it will not be completely set out in rows as it was at Yanco, there will certainly be areas set aside solely for exhibiting machinery, as well as other areas for general rural exhibitors as well as a separate area for the exhibitors which appeal more to the urban visitor.
As was the case when we were running the event at Yanco there will not be someone selling clothing next to an exhibitor with farm machinery. This has worked well in the past and there is no reason not to continue with this method of site allocation.
Moving the event to an area which a much larger population base has seen a marked increase in crowd numbers which had been dwindling over the past 3-5 years at Yanco.
Whilst both media companies will have nothing to do with the organisation of the Riverina Field Days from now on, they have pledged their support through advertising.
Whilst the event in Yanco struggled on for 3 years under the auspices of the Leeton Council and Rural Press, any resemblance to the event run by WIN Television for 19 years was the name. On 12 November 2009 Leeton Council announced that the Farm Fair was finished and that Rural Press had withdrawn their support. Finally they realized that what they were told by WIN management in 2006 was in fact the case, the MFF was no longer viable at Yanco.
The Riverina Field Days is now the only field day being held in the M.I.A.
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