If you’re like me, you probably like a bit of fun, perhaps some laughs, a bit of socialising, a catch-up with friends… and maybe you also don’t mind indulging sometimes in some junk food, perhaps some hot chips or maybe a plate of hot pancakes with imitation maple syrup, and then you might also have a hankering for admiring people’s crafts and handiworks, or checking out some interesting photography. And who doesn’t love seeing giant pumpkins?! So, if you like all those things, like me, then you must love going to the Show!! In my case, it’s the Stanthorpe Show and this is a bit of a highlight for our whole family. Well, as yet, our bubby hasn’t experienced the show but I’m sure he soon will be a fan.

I have recently met someone who is going away for the Show weekend. Going away?! I gasped (internally, that is, as I do try to be polite and not challenge people’s opinions so blatantly) How could anyone go away and miss all that is so great about the Show? And I know it is a long weekend for those who live and work in the Stanthorpe area, but it’s a holiday to go to the Show, not escape from it. And I haven’t actually checked the Council by-laws on this, but I’m pretty sure people aren’t allowed to just take a day off, if they are not going to the Show on the Show holiday. ‘Cos that’s just terribly, horribly, wrong.

Look, I know I can’t be judgemental on this, as when I was but a child living in Brisbane I didn’t understand the purpose of the Brisbane Show - the Exhibition, as it is known, or as a friend of mine used to call it: the Eggs-ibizhun. Most people commonly refer to it as the Ekka, but because I was a newcomer to the big city I tried to distance myself from the locals and I just said Exhibition, until I was worn out by all those syllables and caved in to the slang.

I used to think the Show was all about expensive rides that made your brain rattle inside your head and your stomach churn, only to be soothed by fairy floss and greasy chips, washed down with some sugary carbonated drink. What a great day out! It wasn’t until I grew up that I discovered there was a whole agricultural segment and even a main ring where various dogs and sheep and four-legged creatures demonstrated their tricks.

So I can accept that maybe some people have been seduced by the bright lights of Sideshow Alley and haven’t experienced the joys of the Show. But now I can share the secret of how the Show is an ideal opportunity to bump into friends and have a chin-wag, which is important for those of us who live in the bush and don’t mingle to the same degree as others in town. It’s a perfect time to demonstrate that men do talk as much as women, even more sometimes – try walking with your hubby around the ring near the tractor and machinery displays and see how long it takes to get to the animal nursery. It’s also a wonderful showcase for a plethora of skills and talents – sussing out the labels on the entries and finding out that your neighbour’s cousin’s boyfriend is a wiz at whittling lizards out of peach-tree prunings.

But if you get sick of just walking and talking and looking, then there’s the rides. They’re usually so reasonably priced that just one mortgage should finance a few rides for all the members of your family. The only problem is trying to find partners for the rides. Who looks after the ‘stuff’ (water bottles, hats, stroller, wallet, sample bags, Last Will and Testament, etc) while you fly around with change shooting out of your pocket?

I volunteered to ride the Ferris Wheel with my 4 year-old last year. I remember going on the Hurricane during Expo 88, and multiple rides on the Corkscrew at SeaWorld, and so I knew the Ferris Wheel would be a breeze. Although my daredevil days are over, I thought going on that would be a cool way to view the Show from up high and take a few choice shots with my camera. I perched on the rickety bench facing my daughter, and off we went, smiling and waving at Daddy. As we rose high, high, high in the air, I noticed how very few bars there were around the carriage and what an amazing gap there was right where my daughter was sitting, and oh, look! three miles below was the ground! I spent the time telling Miss Four to hold on tight, face forward, sit still, and then I prayed quite a lot. My camera sat in its bag on the meagre wooden floor and I was so incredibly petrified I could not release my grip from the chair to bend forward and use the camera.

Ahhh….happy times.

 In Stanthorpe, we have a few traditions – that it rains on the Show weekend, and also that the fireworks never go off on time. My cousin told me this when I first arrived in town and sure enough, it was at least an hour later that the pyrotechnics exploded. My experience is that it usually happens just as you have given up waiting and are getting in your car. Never mind, the view from the rear-view mirror is almost as good (and not quite so noisy).

My personal tradition is to have a maple-syrup pancake that I eat with a miniscule plastic ‘spork’, trying to devour that while the scoop of icecream beside it melts and threatens to overflow my plastic plate. Fine dining at its best. I also check out the animal nursery and join in with my little daughter admiring the puppies, goats, ducks and donkeys. The mouse circus next door was always a treat also. I particularly liked the one mouse who could juggle and ride a bike over the wire. But the circus was such an ingenious idea! Get little rodents doing what they do best – scurry and climb, create a whole playground for them and set them loose. So simple and yet strangely mesmerising… If only we could create a tourist attraction that tapped into the talents of council workers leaning on shovels. 

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