Thousands to flock to People’s Day

A DAREDEVIL stunt rider, cattle, sheep and the obligatory tea and scones were some of the attractions on day one of the Royal Hobart Show.

Day one Hobart Show

A DAREDEVIL stunt rider, pavilions full of cattle and sheep and the obligatory tea and scones were some of the attractions that entertained 10,000 people on day one of the Royal Hobart Show yesterday.

All that and more will be on offer during People’s Day today with between 15,000-20,000 expected to flock to the Hobart Showgrounds.

Numbers yesterday included thousands of schoolchildren who took advantage of perfect weather conditions.

Royal Agricultural Society of Tasmania’s chief show organiser Scott Gadd said the site for the four-day event was looking good with thousands of primary and high school kids on “schools’ day” learning a host of new things from medieval history to stunts to wacky Canadian lumberjacks.

GALLERY: ALL THE FUN AT THE SHOW

“All the pre-sales and school bookings are up significantly, we had twice as many school groups than in past years,’’ Mr Gadd said.

“The show is flowing really well with sideside show alley loving their new-look layout.’’

He is hoping for a crowd of up to 20,000 on holiday show day.

Just inside the main gate Australia’s number one road bike stunt rider, Dave McKenna, grabbed attention with his daredevil antics of low speed technical circle combination in a confined area and wheel stands.

CWA state vice-president Chris Booth and her crew of more than a dozen workers were making an endless supply of freshly baked scones.

“The organisation is growing, with quite a few young members joining and we have started two new branches this year,” Mrs Booth said.

For 60 years, the Geard family at Broadmarsh has maintained a tradition of showing prized animals. Paul and Elizabeth Geard, along with son Ben, run the dairy stud Green Glory Holsteins at their Jordan House property.

This year the family brought 14 Holsteins, winning interbreed dairy cow champion and best udder with six-year-old cow Freelance Glory.

“It’s been a great day, we are really happy with the result with the judge saying she was super dairy cow,” Ben said.

Ben’s sister, Donna Howlett, said the show was a wonderful experience for all the family.

The Society of Creative Anchronism, which has almost 90 members, brought a thousand- year period from 600AD alive by re-creating period costume and weaponry.

Dressed as a 13th Century Eastern Roman baron, Cary Lenehan showed people through the club’s great hall explaining weapons to medieval poetry. Today the club will give demonstrations and tomorrow will wage a mini war.