New event gives nod to Lorn Show
Lorn Show is cancelled for this year but crafters and artists have come up with a fun alternative as a nod to the much-loved event.
Outdoor markets at Barcaldine’s new Racer Cafe have proved such a winner that the venue will be hosting a show of its own on August 7 instead.
The event will coincide with the venue’s official opening.
Instead of real animals on show in rings, each exhibiting crafter, artist and car booter with a stall is being asked to put forward an animal of their own – knitted, carved or created in any other way. There will also be a barbecue, live music and children’s entertainment.
There will be a Best of Show competition and winner, said Joy Cameron, who is one of the organisers. Benderloch’s popular Bookends Festival
will be just one of the stalls there.
Joy told The Oban Times: ‘We thought it would be a nod to an event that we all love very much and will be sad to miss this year. Hopefully the Lorn Show will be back bigger and even better in 2022.
‘Apparently there was one year – it might’ve been Foot and Mouth – that animals were not allowed at the show so people dressed up as them instead, we’re taking a bit of inspiration from that!’
Kilmore vet Scott Burden has been invited to go along as a Best in Show judge and organisers hope to get a judge along representing the Lorn Show as well.
It starts at 10am and finishes at 3pm, with judging at 2pm. The plan is to auction off the Best In Show entrants.
The idea is for the Barcaldine event to finish in time for people to head over to Oban for the Rotary Club’s Duck Race.
The annual race was cancelled because of the pandemic last year but is back this year raising funds for good causes.
Hundreds of plastic ducks will race along the Black
Lynn from the Combie Street bridge to Oban Bay via the tunnel adjacent to the Lismore pier.
It involves 500 of them in red, green, blue and yellow, and numbered one to to 125 in each colour. Each duck is sold three times at £2 a go which means there could be three firsts, three second and three thirds. First, second and third ducks win £50, £25 and £15 respectively.
Duck tickets will go on sale in various shops in town and also at Tesco and Bossards on July 30 and 31, and on August 6 and 7, the latter up to 3pm.
This year the Rotary Club is introducing an extra 50 super ducks sponsored by local businesses at a cost of £50 each with a winner-takeall prize of £250.
A decision will also be made this week as to whether Dalmally Agricultural Show will go ahead as hoped on Saturday September 4.