Agfest 2021: Field days extended to four days to meet coronavirus requirements

Organisers of Tasmania’s popular Agfest field days have boldly announced their 2021 event will go ahead, with a few amendments to regular scheduling. Here’s what it will look like.

Show must go on: Former federal opposition leader Bill Shorten and deputy labor leader Tanya Plibersek (left) at AgFest in 2019. Picture: Kym Smith

TASMANIA’S Agfest Field Days will return in 2021 as a four-day event to meet coronavirus social distancing requirements with restrictions on daily patron numbers.

Agfest, which injects up to $25 million each year into the Tasmanian economy, will now be held on May 5-8.

The annual event was among the first of many field days that were cancelled this year as the coronavirus pandemic shut down all states.

Many mainland field days set for early next year have been cancelled, with the Wimmera Machinery Field Days announcing it would not go ahead in 2021.

However, it was held this year due to it’s early March date before the effects of the pandemic set in.

The Agfest Committee, comprising Rural Youth members aged 15-30, said it had spent endless hours preparing the blueprint for the 96ha Quercus Park site to ensure it complies with health regulations and social distancing requirements.

All tickets will be pre-sold online from February 1 to enable contact tracing and there will be changes in exhibitor locations to reduce known crowd hot spots, and traffic flow monitoring will be implemented.

Agfest chairman Ethan Williams said the number one priority is protecting the health and welfare of all exhibitors, contractors, suppliers, sponsors, patrons, media, Rural Youth volunteers and all other members of the extended Agfest family.

“Agfest understands that we are working in a very dynamic environment and if our borders reopen or COVID-19 community transmission is evident in the state, we may have to further modify our planned operational model for 2021,” Mr Williams said.

“However, we are a determined bunch of passionate young Tasmanians and we have decided to have a crack at organising AgFest 2021 back in the paddock, because at the end of the day, that’s what we do best.

“There is no doubt that if we are forced to cancel the event at Quercus, we will be shattered.

“However, at this point, we are completely focused on delivering this mammoth event for Tasmania to stimulate the state’s economy and enable our exhibitors to generate much-needed leads and sales, as well as the community to learn and immerse themselves in all things agriculture.”

Mr Williams said if the event had to be cancelled again, the Agfest in the Cloud virtual field days, which was created this year, will be extended from May 5-15 to ensure the event opens as planned regardless of its location.

Mr Williams said extensive modelling had revealed that increasing social distancing to 4sq m per person would equate to 42,000 patrons per day.

As a response to the cancellation of all events, The Weekly Times is holding an online field days event, VirtuAg, next month.

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