Weekend timeslot switch for Riverland Field Days

RIVERLAND Field Days organisers have switched their 57th annual event from a week-day timetable to a Friday-Saturday.

Mallee Machinery Field Days 2013 Speed

RIVERLAND Field Days organisers have switched their 57th annual event from a week-day timetable to a Friday-Saturday.

The event, which serves a diverse horticultural industry and grain growers, is held at Barmera, South Australia, a town west of Renmark and Berri. The event will be held on September 19-20.

Secretary Tim Grieger said the decision from a Wednesday-Thursday to a Friday-Saturday timeslot had been taken to enliven the field days.

In doing so, the event has followed Mildura Field Days, which switched to a week day-weekend event this year to combat dwindling numbers of exhibitors and visitors.

Community service organisations are shouldering the workload for organising many of the agricultural field days planned for 2014.

Lions and Rotary clubs in Gippsland, the Mallee, Western Australia and the south coast of NSW are organising several major field days this year.

Paul Andersen, co-ordinator of the small farm field days at Berry in the Shoalhaven district of NSW, said the town's Rotary Club had revived the field days only two years ago.

Mr Andersen said the club would stage the third annual Berry Small Farm Field Days on September 5 and 6.

He said organisers would attend similar events, including the Seymour Alternative Farm Expo next month, for inspiration in improving the event for exhibitors and landholders, many of whom farmed on small acreage.

While several major field days have independent committees that have spawned other community events, some are managed by dedicated corporate event managers and some by show societies such as the Ballarat Agricultural and Pastoral Society, which has scheduled The Weekly Times Rural Lifestyle Expo on April 5.

Several field days are organised by Lions clubs, including March's South East Field Days in South Australia, which is run by Lucindale Lions Club, the East Gippsland Field Days in May is a project of Lindenow Lions Club and Mallee Machinery Field Days is scheduled for August, run by the Speed Lions Club.

• The Weekly Times will publish a calendar of major field days and other events January 8, 2014.