Bigger show on the cards

Events manager Anna Hamilton.

The Hawke's Bay A and P Society is confident the Royal New Zealand Show in Hastings and October will be even bigger than last year when the region hosted a Royal Show for the first time in 12 years.

It will be the second of three annual shows which carry the Royal status, in an agreement with New Zealand's Royal Agricultural Society, and already the Hawke's Bay society has expressed an interest in renewing the arrangement for a further term after the 2017 show.

A feature of the show was the sharp increase in livestock class entries, which at 1184 were almost 50 per cent up on those for the 2014 Hawke's Bay Show, and more than double the entries for the show in 2011.

Some of the increase was attributable to the adding of some classes to fulfil the schedule of the RAS but society events manager Anna Hamilton says some sections are anticipating even more entries for this year's show on October 19-21.

The show last year attracted more than 2000 people, and has contributed to the society making a small surplus on all operations in the 12 months to the end of March, following a $74,000 deficit in the previous year.

While the full details will be revealed at the June 30 annual meeting, Ms Hamilton says the society is delighted with the success of the 2015 show, the first time the Hawke's Bay Show held the regal status since the Royal Show in 2003.

Hastings at that time staged the Royal Show every five years, on a circuit with other societies, but the show had in the last decade been up for tender, with varying struggles in Canterbury, Hamilton and Manawatu.

Ms Hamilton said: "The resounding feeling amongst our show team early on was to keep it simple - deliver a really good show which focused on good competition and entries."