Spread the load is the message from show chiefs
With more than a 195,000 visitors through the gates during the course of its four-day run in June, the organisers of the Royal Highland show hope to encourage more of those planning to attend the event to do so on the first two days.
The chairman of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland (RHASS), Midlothian farmer Bill Gray, said that in order to ensure the best experience for all show goers it might not be long before the society was forced to consider limiting ticket sales for Saturday – the show’s busiest day when almost 60,000 attended in 2019.
“As we retain our regular visitors and open up the Show to new audiences, we need to ensure that the visitor experience delivered exceeds expectations”, said Gray.
“With growing numbers attending at the weekend, this becomes challenging – so we need to consider ways we can manage numbers on each day.”
However, he said that while such a move wasn’t on the cards for 2020 – a year which marks the show’s 180th anniversary – he said that there was a distinct possibility that such a move would feature in future years. RHASS chief executive, Alan Laidlaw said that the society wanted to incentivise more to come on Thursday and Friday: “We want everyone to have a fantastic time – and if I applied the ‘would your granny and your kids feel comfortable and at ease test’, growing the attendance further on a Saturday wouldn’t be the best way of doing this.
“We don’t want people to feel that they have spent too long queuing for their lunch or for the loos – but at the moment we just want to give people who can attend earlier in the week a nudge to take advantage of this.”
Also on the topic of queues, Laidlaw said that while the annual event only increased traffic flow around Ingliston, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, at peak times by between 8 and 10 per cent, it “wasn’t realistic” to expect an additional 12,500 cars per day not to have a significant impact.
“We have allocated significant resources to collaborate with public transport operators to streamline getting to the showground by bus, train or tram,” he said, adding that feedback from users of these services had been overwhelmingly positive.
He said that the society had invested significantly in ensuring the show was as sustainable as possible through recycling, reduced energy and water consumption as well as reducing food miles by sourcing local produce – and discouraging the use of cars for travel to and from the showground was the final piece of the jigsaw.