Thirty years ago, a young dairy industry reporter, newly transferred from the King Country, covered her first Fieldays. The News senior writer Mary Anne Gill will be back at Mystery Creek this week and filed her thoughts.
Fieldays Business Development manager Maclain Swanson at the top of the hill near Gate 1 with last minute preparations underway for the agricultural expo which was first held at Te Rapa Racecourse in 1969. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
Maclain Swanson puts me on the spot – so what has changed at Fieldays in the 30 years since you covered your first one?
The Business Development manager says he was just starting kindergarten in 1994 when I made my debut at the southern hemisphere’s largest agricultural expo.
Well media for a start were in what was then the headquarters – the timber building which is now Exhibitor Services base – and we knew each other on a first-name basis.
We were well catered for too, literally, the food was brilliant.
Sam Cameron-George, left, and Kelly Worth from the St Peter’s School, Cambridge admissions team add the final additions to their Fieldays stand. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
The other major change has been Fieldays’ ability to innovate – the introduction of the Health and Wellbeing Hub and this year the Rural Advocacy Hub.
And it is obvious – there are more people and the amount of money most exhibitors have to spend is mind boggling.
Although there are still the little stands which have not changed in 30 years.
There will be politicians there – there always were but I am sure we see more now because they realise Fieldays offers a unique opportunity to get the mood of the nation.
Traffic control and public transport is better although it does seem to those of us who live near Mystery Creek, that it is another opportunity for roads to be dug up. Now we have orange cones to mark where that is – I don’t recall them being around back then.
Scratch your back: from left, Miff Macdiarmid, Ashleigh Trent and Zoe Groot try out the Happy Cow scratch brushes on Cambridge farming and agriculture Shoof’s stand at Fieldays. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
Maclain got me thinking about global warming too. He tells me he has never felt so cold as he did last year at the opening when then Prime Minister Chris Hipkins came in a desperate attempt to get the rural vote.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins cuts the ribbon opening Fieldays.
I remember it being ridiculously cold in 1994 too – gloves, scarf, double socks, singlets, jerseys and gumboots.
We had to scrape the ice off the Waikato Times yellow car. When I visited Fieldays on Monday, it was 16 degrees and raining, ever so slightly.
The weather forecasters were saying there would be no frosts, no icy chilly days and light rain.
Time will tell.
But what has not changed in 30 days is the excitement – Fieldays is here. God willing so too was I yesterday morning, finding the best spot in the media centre, trying to recognise anyone I knew and if I did, then what was their name?
Bring it on.
Fieldays 2024
Account manager Ashleigh Trent of Te Awamutu tries out the Happy Cow scratch brushes on Cambridge farming and agriculture company Shoof’s stand at Fieldays. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
