Wanganui A&P show closed to public due to Covid-19 guidelines

The Wanganui A&P Show won't be open to the public and will comprise only equestrian events. Photo / Lewis Gardner

The Wanganui A&P show will go ahead this year - it just won't be open to the public.

To comply with Covid-19 guidelines, organisers have had to split the show on November 13-14 into two bubbles and limit the number of people in each to 100.

Half of the show will take place at Wanganui Racecourse and the other half will be at Macnab Domain in Kaiwhaiki Rd, and it will be equestrian only.

By the time competitors and organisers were accounted for, there was no room to have members of the public attend.

"The reason it has been split is because we have to work with bubbles of 100," organiser Debbie Hirini said.

"To do that, we have taken all the showing horses to Macnab and all the showjumpers to the racecourse."

When Covid-19 re-emerged in the community in August, the A&P committee had an emergency meeting to figure out how it could still hold the event.

"We saw on social media A&P shows around the country dropping like flies," Hirini said.

"We saw around 15 had been cancelled.

"We called the meeting and every single person was keen to make it happen. This is the result we have come up with to follow all the guidelines.

"We are hanging on a piece of string at the moment. Any change or cases around us, and all this work is for nothing."

In a normal year, it was arduous to organise the show. Add in all the Covid-19 protocols and it certainly hadn't been easy, Hirini said.

"We've got the gates at both venues managed with people with a list of competitors who can come in. If you aren't on the list, you can't come in. It is very strict.

"It has been a long haul of a nightmare and we obviously need the extra manpower to enforce these guidelines."

Hirini said it was unfortunate the public couldn't attend, but this was the only possible way the show could go ahead.