A RIVERLAND agricultural show will receive an additional injection of funds, as its committee begins planning a comeback event for later this year.
The Loxton Agricultural and Horticultural Society, which organises the annual Loxton Show, was granted almost $10,000 in additional funds through the Federal Government’s Supporting Agricultural Shows and Field Days program, bringing its total allocation to over $16,000.
President Bill Shannon said the additional funding would be “very useful” in covering costs, following the cancellation of the 2020 show due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“Although everything was all shut down last year, we still had ongoing costs just with the various utilities and annual costs,” he said.
“We were able to take advantage of the money that was out there, and the Federal Government has realised how important shows are across the nation and a number of them may have closed down if these grants weren’t given.
“We had to stipulate what our costs were for the year and they had to be presented, so it wasn’t just a handout.
“(The initial allocation) certainly got us through the year, and now that this year is underway, and great and successful shows have returned, including the Karoonda Farm Fair and Show, we’re hopefully back on track.”
Barker MP Tony Pasin said events like the Loxton Show were at the heart of local communities and helped farmers stay competitive by sharing innovation and new ways of doing business.
“The Australian Government is committed to ensuring agricultural shows and field days are in the best position possible to continue in 2021 and beyond,” he said.
Federal Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management, David Littleproud, said 110 events across Australia would share in $710,818 of supplementary funding through the program.
“Our agricultural shows and field days are bouncing back from the pandemic because of the hard work of their volunteers and support from their communities,” he said.
Mr Shannon said he was confident at this stage that the Loxton Show would go ahead later this year.
“We are on the October long weekend towards the end of the show season, so we’ll have a lot of examples and a lot of other shows to look at with how they manage restrictions,” he said.
“By then, there will hopefully be a bit of a loosening up of restrictions, but I still think there will be a fair bit in place.
“We’ll also have The Precinct Loxton complex, which we haven’t utilised yet because it was opened in March 2020 and then everything shut up.
“We want to take advantage of parts of that complex, and that will be worked out through the Loxton Waikerie Council and Belgravia Leisure, who manage The Precinct.
“In a few weeks we’ll be sitting down and working out how we can utilise this new complex, and it is exciting that we have that in front of us.
“Everyone is looking onwards and upwards and feeling good about the show.”
The Karoonda Farm Fair and Show also received an additional allocation of almost $7000.
The supplementary funding will be delivered to grantees between April and June 2021.