AFTER a dry April by long-term standards, organisers of this weekend’s Royal Bathurst Show will no doubt be hoping the rain gods haven’t saved up all their moisture for the end of the month.
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The Soldier’s Saddle race meeting on Wednesday afternoon – where, by all reports, the crowd was very healthy considering the showers – proved that not everyone will be turned off by bad weather.
But when you pour a year’s work into three days, it must be tremendously frustrating to be affected by a factor like the weather that is completely out of your control, as has been the case for the show in the past.
The forecast, fortunately, for Friday, Saturday and Sunday at this stage is for cool but dry weather, so that is one variable the show organisers should be able to put out of their mind.
Not all the variables, however, can be so easily dismissed.
The Royal Bathurst Show, like agricultural shows throughout Australia, has faced its challenges over the years as it seeks to attract a new generation without alienating those who have been loyal to the event in the past.
Shows have never faced so much competition from other entertainment options – in a world in which the riches of sport, music, comedy and drama are available at the click of a button, it can be hard to convince families to leave the comfort of their home for the night.
But, as in nature, adaptation leads to survival.
The 2017 Royal Bathurst Show can’t be exactly the same event it was 10 years ago – and that will be the same with the 2018 show and the ones that come after it.
The idea of hosting stunt drivers showing off their tricks and manoeuvres would once have seemed unthinkable for show organisers, but they were catering to a different audience with different expectations.
Today, those same stunt drivers are a popular feature. And who knows what their equivalent will be in the future.
Big events can still prosper in our digital age because, in the end, people still like being around people and feeling a sense of occasion.
Seeing fireworks on a screen is not the same as seeing them in the sky above you – and it’s certainly not the same as seeing them among your friends.
So with the weather looking promising and the countdown on, let the show begin.
