An online portal is being established for this year’s Agfest

Agfest organisers have launched a new format for this year’s event, which they say will take the show from the paddock to the cloud.

Agfest will be held in a new online format this year. PICTURE CHRIS KIDD

ORGANISERS of Tasmania’s biggest rural event have come up with a unique solution to ensure Tasmanians can still get their Agfest bargains.

The Agfest committee have launched a new online format for event they say will take it from the paddock to the cloud.

Scheduled to kick off on May 7, the virtual event will run for three weeks.

The State Government has provided $65,000 in funding to help set up an Agfest online portal.

Agfest committee chairman Ethan Williams said the project is a huge undertaking and one that would hopefully make a real difference to local businesses and the Tasmanian economy.

“We know many of our highly valued exhibitors had already purchased stock, booked accommodation and flights, engaged extra staff and spent considerable money on signage and design for their stands,” he said.

“And many of these companies heavily rely on revenue from the event as they head into the quieter winter months.... so we are delighted that we can now develop this platform to generate sales and economic activity to support them.”

Agfest normally generates more than $20 million for the Tasmanian economy and is a must attend event for more than 60,000 patrons each year.

The organising committee was forced to cancel this year’s event, which was due to run from May 7-9, because of the COVID-19 restrictions.

Mr Williams said as usual they expected everything from potato peelers to tractors to be on offer.

“Rural Youth and the Agfest Committee are ever so grateful to the Tasmanian Government for recognising the importance of this innovative idea and providing a much-needed grant to enable us to design, develop, promote and manage this project,” Mr Williams said.

Rural Youth has now informed all the event exhibitors about the new initiative and will be providing further information as soon as possible regarding the online sign-up process.

Rural Youth State President Jake Williams is encouraging all members of the Agfest family to utilise the Agfest 2020 in the Cloud platform to promote their deals and online-shops, as well as all Tasmanians to jump online from May 7 to “shop their hearts out”!

“This is a great opportunity to buy local and support our businesses so that they can continue to employ our community members and be in the best possible position post COVID-19,” he said.