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Home / The Country

Waverley A&P Association celebrates its 100th show

Emma Bernard
By Emma Bernard
Multimedia journalist·Whanganui Chronicle·
6 Sep, 2022 05:00 PM4 mins to read

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Waverley A&P Association president Leeanne Morrison said it was a big deal the show has been running for this long. Photo / Bevan Conley

Waverley A&P Association president Leeanne Morrison said it was a big deal the show has been running for this long. Photo / Bevan Conley

The 100th Waverley A&P Association show celebration is set for November after being cancelled last year due to Covid-19.

Waverley A&P Association president Leeanne Morrison said the first show was in 1909, with a few years missed because of war, the influenza outbreak and now Covid-19.

"It's a big deal we've been able to keep it as a full show for this long because of the organisation and the cost of running all this," Morrison said.

"You don't run it thinking you're going to make money, you run it with the aim of breaking even."

She said a small book the association made would be at the fair, which looked into the history of the last 100 shows.

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"While looking into these memories and interviewing older people I realised just how much this show meant to people over the years."

She said one of the older women she interviewed was 92 and still had a first-place card she won as a child more than 80 years ago.

This interview would play in a room at the show alongside other interviews, photographs and memorabilia as part of the 100-year celebrations, Morrison said.

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The show has been confirmed for Tuesday, November 15.

"Because it's a weekday, basically half the town shuts down for the show," Morrison said.

"It's been a Tuesday for as long as I can remember. As a kid, school would basically shut and you'd go to the A&P show.

"Schools don't shut officially, if you want to send your kid to school you so can, but unofficially they do."

She said she didn't know how many people attended because it had been a free event for the last few years.

"We've got over 40 exhibitors and all the competitors, so hopefully it'll be a fair few hundred.

"It's a coming together of town and country, and it's important to get together. Particularly after it being cancelled last year, it's a really good chance to bring the community together and this year in particular we will be sharing a lot of memories."

Morrison said the grand parade would also be back.

"It's also going to be the first time in a while we've had the parade. This year it'll be about the history of the Waverley A&P show, with old tractors and vintage cars, then a few modern things too."

She said most of the people in the parade were community members who own vintage vehicles.

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The association has reapplied for $6000 of funding through South Taranaki District Council's Community Initiatives Fund for the event, which it was accepted for last year but had to give back due to the cancellation.

"It is what it is, and we were lucky we cancelled months before.

"We wanted the show to be something everyone could go to, we weren't prepared to operate under a mandated system and we didn't want to turn people away as you can't run a celebration without having the whole community involved."

Morrison said there would be a range of agricultural and industries competitions.

"We've brought back the calf competition for the first time this year. They've been out because of the risk of M. bovis."

M. bovis is a bacteria that spread through herds across the country, resulting in many cows being culled.

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"Now that there are only around three farms down south affected we feel it's safe enough to include them again."

She said the trade exhibits section was full.

"We have a lot of market-type stall holders with a section we call our market area full of agricultural equipment and farm supplies."

She said there would also be free activities for children such as wagon rides, bouncy castles and a scavenger hunt.

Special 100th-year rosettes would be awarded, where they would usually get prize cards, to celebrate the 100th year, Morrison said.

"One-hundred years ago winners received rosettes instead of prize cards, so we're going to do that again this year."

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