Royal Adelaide Show cancelled again over Covid fears and crowd restrictions

The Royal Adelaide Show will not go ahead – the second year in a row it has fallen to Covid – and organisers are shattered. Meanwhile, a new date has been found for the City-Bay fun run.

The Royal Adelaide Show has been cancelled for the second year in a row over Covid fears and the Delta strain outbreak in NSW.

Organiser the Royal Agricultural & Horticultural Society of SA pulled the plug just three weeks from opening day after SA Health said the Show would be limited to 10,000 people a day.

The Show regularly attracts 50,000 visitors a day, and another 10,000 people work and compete there, making the event not feasible under the restriction. City-Bay organisers have also scrambled to rearrange Adelaide’s traditional fun run for November 7, after SA Health rejected the planned September event.

Despite previously being confident the show could take place with extensive Covid-safe precautions, society chief executive John Rothwell said the decision came as a devastating blow, both financially as well as for the people of South Australia.

“It’s an extremely heavy hit for us,” Mr Rothwell said. “We’re talking millions of dollars lost, particularly having to cancel only three weeks from the Show, and we’ve incurred massive costs to date.”

CEO John Rothwell says he is devastated the Show has been cancelled again at such late notice. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Two weeks ago, organisers said the Show was on track to go ahead but it would look very different.

“SA Health has done so well in managing Covid, we thought we were in great shape,” Mr Rothwell said.

“We haven’t had any community cases in SA in something like four weeks which is why we thought we would be able to go ahead.

“In the society’s 182-year history there have been only five reasons for the Show not being held – the Victorian Gold Rush in 1852, WW1, the 1919 Spanish flu pandemic, WWII and now the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.”

Amanda Watkins, the Melbourne-based director of Amusement Services Australia, was in the process of setting up seven amusement rides transported from Queensland.

“It’s the third major show in the circuit to cancel, it’s one of our major events of the year so it’s absolutely devastating,” she said.

Ms Watkins said the cost of transporting the rides as well as lost revenue will be “hundreds of thousands of dollars”.

“We travelled 2800km from the centre of north Queensland to get here, we were just about to start setting up,” she said.

Her husband Russell Watkins added: “We can’t keep taking these hits. It’s frustrating that 15,000 people are going to the football all sitting next to each other, but people can’t come here where it’s actually all spread out.”

Fourth-generation ride vendors Russell and Amanda Watkins are based in Victoria but travelled to Adelaide believing the Show would go ahead. Picture: Keryn Stevens

It comes after the cancellation of both the Royal Melbourne Show and the Queensland EKKA.

President of the Country Women‘s Association Davina Quirke said the loss of the Royal Show was “a disappointment for everybody”.

“It’s our focal point, our cafe committee work throughout the year organising what has to be done, all of our items we were planning to sell have already been prepared, it‘s a huge blow,” she said.

Ms Quirke said the Show was the association’s biggest annual event and normally raised between $40,000 and $60,000.

“It’s a key loss of revenue for us, we’ll now be looking at other streams we can look into as we did last year,” she said.

Until last year, Royal Show veteran Leith Jenkins, 81, hadn’t missed a show since 1956.

“I feel shattered, I really didn’t expect this to happen, I thought things were flowing along quite nicely as South Australia’s pretty well clear of the virus,” Mr Jenkins said.

“To have this happen within two or three weeks of the show is terrible, I’d started preparing my pigeons already.

“You put in seven or eight months of work and suddenly that‘s all gone. The country people of South Australia will feel it, the show brings the country to the city and they’ll now miss out on that.”

Some companies will offer showbags for sale online or in retail outlets.

Phil Sims from Robern Menz of FruChocs fame, said his company would move the showbag experience online.

“Of course, we’re devastated with the outcome today of the cancellation, but we are absolutely supportive of SA Health directives and the difficult decision that the society has had to make this afternoon,” he said.

“We’re in the process of setting up an online ‘Showbag Stand’ and we’re very fortunate to be able to have our retail outlets to have our FruChoc, Violet Crumble and other Robern Menz showbags available for all South Aussies to still enjoy,” he said.

Sideshow alley at the Royal Adelaide Show in 2017. Picture: Calum Robertson

A spokesperson from Foodland also confirmed the group was assessing its options to move showbag distribution online.

The Royal Show Society asked people to be patient as it “unravelled Show preparations”.

“We will now commence the process of refunding all competition entries and associated purchases with our aim to have all refunds processed by the end of September,” the society said.

“If you are interested in contributing to the Royal Agricultural & Horticultural Society of SA in some way in 2021, please let us know and instead of issuing a refund you can choose to donate this money to the Show Society Foundation.”

New date for City-Bay as Covid-19 disrupts fun run

Organisers have scrambled to rearrange Adelaide’s traditional City-Bay fun run for November 7, after SA Health rejected the planned September event.

At a board meeting last night the new date was settled on, and is expected to minimise disruption to the event.

Race director Joe Stevens said there was much work to do to liaise with councils along the route, and apologised to those for whom participation would now not be possible.

“In consultation with SA Health, City-Bay Fun Run has made the choice to postpone our September 19 event to November 7,’’ he said.

“It’s been determined that doing so will increase our chances of being able to offer a safe, full-capacity event for the health of our community.

“Some of you will doubtless be disappointed, we are too.

“We’re choosing to focus on having more time to train and fundraise, more people to run with on the day, and an increased likelihood that the weather will be better.”

Runners can log on to pledge their funds to dozens of local charities, or nominate others at city-bay.org.au/prerace-info/fundraising.

Registration for the event remains open, pending further adjustments, with those interested directed to city-bay.org.au

The event will soon mark its 50th anniversary. It began in 1973 with 1600 competitors who each paid 50c to enter.

Last year it was held as a virtual event because of Covid-19.

The primary purpose of the event is to support South Australian Athletics, as well as raising funds for charity.

- Miles Kemp