DRAMA over showbags averted, the gates to the Rosewood Show opened on Friday morning and closed late on Saturday night as another resounding success.
“It’s a real credit to our small, hardworking committee that the crowd was engaged all the way through Friday and Saturday, including the night programs,” reports President Paddy Lenihan
“The weather, the crowd and the entertainment all came together.”
As often happens there was a last minute hiccough when a showbag vendor told Paddy he was unable to meet his commitments.
“One of the side show people was bringing showbags from a store but he ran out of time because there was paperwork that wasn’t ready,” he said.
“We found that out on Thursday and made some very fast phone calls to friends who sell showbags.
“We bought and then sold them as a committee to make sure the community had showbags.
“That was a bit of drama the community aren’t aware of.”
The show committee bought 250 showbags and sold all of them over the two days.
When we spoke to Secretary Fiorella Miles on Monday she was mopping the floor of the showground hall.
“We have had amazing feedback, and the phone hasn’t stopped ringing with people saying how much they enjoyed the show,” she said.
“Everything went according to plan; the horse sections, cattle sections, horticulture and knitting and all the displays were well attended.
“Then there was the entertainment like the circus because everyone loved that.”
She’s uncertain how many people came through the gate but estimated it was around 3,500.
Something new that worked a treat was a hunt for stickers.
“One of our volunteers designed a treasure hunt where children were given a piece of paper and had to collect stickers from vendors,” she explained.
“They had to get one from each participating stall and once the sheet was full they were directed to come to me to do a lucky dip of small prizes.”
It was a hunt that exhausted children and pushed the parents into areas they may not have visited before.
“Saturday night’s fireworks were emotional for some of our volunteers,” Fiorella said.
“You could see in their eyes how exhausted they were and relieved too, because it all went to plan.”
Paddy was equally full of praise for every committee member and to all who stepped in to help and ‘just did whatever job needed to be done’.
