Show business needs to lure in the non-farmers

Comment Andrew Arbuckle

Here we are in the middle of the 2018 version of agricultural show season which, truth to tell, is very much like the 2017 and 2016 series of events. In fact, the similarities go back to the mists of time.

Over the years, I have reported on hundreds of summer shows – these great meeting places for rural communities. As befits the farming industry, there is a constancy, a rhythm and a routine about them.

Rhythm and routine may seem unusual words to describe the often frenzied anxieties that engulf the secretary’s tent as all the last-minute hiccups such as late livestock entries, exhibitors not turning up, cups not being returned and all the other problems make being a show secretary an exercise in masochism.

But behind the panics, there is a routine and an unchanging formula. The morning is dominated by the livestock judging which one shrewd, if cynical, observer noted is always between secondclass animals, as all the old farmers and stockmen round the ring side can be heard mumbling, “I’ve better ones at hame.”

I can pick out the main points in stock judging such as where the prime cuts of meat are, the ability to walk well and the conformation of the udder, but I confess to being at a loss on more obscure qualities such as breed character and shape of horns.

The afternoons are reserved for the champion animals parading round the ring and for visitors catching up with old friends. Conversations

0 The Highland Show is trying to grow its urban audience always begin with an obligatory reference to the weather.

After comment on the weather have concluded, local gossip follows. For the older generation, this includes listing all those no longer with us and to round off this cheery bout of conversation, a listing of personal ailments which can sometimes degenerate into a competition.

And that is the repetitive and constant format for Scotland’s 200 or more agricultural shows. If show organisers have a motto, which I imagine they have, it has to be repeated when they are inducted as show directors and given the official ceremonial rosettes stating: “It’s aye been done that way.”

The few deviations from the standard formula that I remember both come from the afternoon entertainment in the main ring. I am sure I can remember watching camel racing with show directors as jockeys at one event.

Another time – before gender equality came on the scene – I witnessed a female mud wrestling performance where the entertainment was enhanced by the rather relaxed and totally unplanned involvement of one of the show directors.

But in today’s cashstrapped economy, such fripperies are not possible. The safe and cheap choices for local shows are now very much rurally related. Current favourites include sheepdogs herding ducks or dog agility performances where watching the owners is almost as much fun as observing how clever pooches can be.

So if you were the PR person told to put new life into a traditional show, what would you do? A friend of mine given such a challenge is trying to bring more members of the non-farming public to see what goes on the countryside. That has also been the main thrust of the Highland Show marketing team and that is why there were large photos of farm animals on the side of buses and trams in Edinburgh last month. This has been successful in catching the public’s attention.

But it could be argued the million or so nonfarming punters within a 25-mile radius of Ingliston showground are more susceptible to being persuaded to go to a show than townies living in rural parts of Scotland where farming and farm animals are neighbours.

My public relations friend is not daunted. With the ‘it’s aye been’ view dominant in the world of agricultural shows, she will earn her commission.