3 BIG SUMMER SHOWS ALL OFF
IT’S NO GO FOR: • Ashbourne Show • manifold Show • dovedale Dog Trials
THREE of the area’s best-loved summer agricultural events have thrown in the towel following the latest series of government announcements surrounding the coronavirus outbreak.
Ashbourne Show, Dovedale Sheepdog Trials and the Manifold Valley Show, which were all due to take place in August, are now cancelled, with organisers of each event promising to make 2021 a year to remember.
The biggest event in the area’s agricultural calendar, Ashbourne Show, had been arranged for Saturday, August 15, and was expected to draw around 12,000 people to Osmaston Polo Ground.
Its organisers the Ashbourne Shire Horse Society had, until last week, been defiantly pressing ahead with plans to stage the one-day event, and tickets were still on sale on the show’s website until the cancellation was announced on Monday.
On Monday last week the society even put out an appeal for artistic entries for its show programme cover, which usually sees dozens of children enter. The appeal was made on Facebook on the day prime minister Boris Johnson announced revised measures the nation would be following as the coronavirus lockdown began to ease.
But on Monday morning a press release was issued, which said there was now “little hope” of gatherings of Ashbourne Show’s scale going ahead.
A spokesman for the society said: “We had held off making a decision for as long as possible in the hope that the effects of the dreadful disease that is sweeping the country may have abated sufficiently for the Government to ease the restrictions in place, and that holding a Show may have been possible.
“Unfortunately, the proposed path from lockdown published last week provides little hope that large gatherings such as Ashbourne Show will be possible any time soon.
“The Ashbourne Shire Horse Society is fortunate to have sufficient contingency set aside to allow it to move forward positively.
“We are now looking towards 2021 and being able to celebrate local agriculture and horticulture and to bring together the general public and the agricultural community once again.
“The 2021 Ashbourne Show will be held on Saturday 21st August and we look forward to welcoming you on the showground.
“Our thoughts and hearts are with all those that have lost loved ones and with those whose lives are being disrupted by the coronavirus and we hope that everyone stays safe and stays well.”
Dovedale Sheepdog Trials, which is held in late August at Blore Pastures near Ilam, was due to host the National Trials this year, but the International Sheepdog Society has cancelled the event, and also its International and World Trials for 2020.
The organisers of the historic Dovedale Trials lobbied the society to bring the nationals back to Dovedale in 2021 and confirmation was given that the English National competition would be staged at Blore Pastures in July next year, subject to government regulations.
The trials next year will now represent a “double celebration” for Dovedale Sheepdog Trials, because 2021 will mark 130 years since the first trials were held in Ilam in 1981.
Meanwhile, organisers of the Manifold Valley Show say they felt it was “advisable” to cancel the event this year, to avoid the disruption a late cancellation could cause for those who were planning to take part.
The event, which was due to take place in Ilam on Saturday, August 8, has been running since 1980 and offers competitions, activities and entertainment for all the family. Recently-elected chairman Nik Searston said: “It is with a sincere sense of responsibility that we have to announce the cancellation of the 2020 Manifold Valley Show.
“We know this will be a disappointment to everyone who supports the show every year and enjoy all that it has to offer.
“We are extremely sorry that the show will not take place this year and apologise to all those people who were looking forward to it but the decision was not taken lightly and we feel sure people will understand.”
The 2021 show is scheduled to take place on Saturday, August 14. To find out more call 01538 384745.
The Show The proposed path from lockdown provides little hope for large gatherings soon
Ashbourne Show spokesman