Optimism prevails for Northland field days
BY VIV TROUNSON
Relevant offers
Dargaville & Districts
Buyers shrugged off the recession blues to make the 26th Northland Field Days a successful event for organisers and exhibitors.
A total of 23,418 people attended over the three days, the highest for three years although below the record 27,000 seven years ago.
Thursday’s 9000 was slightly down on 2009 but Friday’s 8818 was the highest since official counts began 10 years ago. Saturday saw 9000 attending.
"The feedback has been excellent," says Field Days committee member Wendy Bootten. "Initially some heavy machinery people were a bit skeptical of how they would fare but a lot ended up very happy with the way things went."
Comment from the public was also positive.
Newman Engineering director Margaret Bishop was "pleasantly surprised" by buyer interest but said it was too early to talk sales as most occurred after the event.
"People are being discerning but there was plenty of interest."
Although the district is desperate for rain, a 90-minute Saturday downpour which dumped 50mm on the site proved a mixed blessing, forcing the forestry competition which attracted 50 competitors, to be curtailed for safety reasons.
Eternal Flame was the best indoor site, Ponga Dezignz took the outdoor award and Union Car Spares best depicted the coming out of the trough theme.
The tractor pull was won by Jaiden Drought. This year’s event included a three legged event for business houses – won by Farmlands.
Allan Van Hartigan won the men’s quad skills and Megan Browning showed the way for women.
Other crowd pleasing events included the Northland Toyota dog trials and Chelsea’s performing dogs, while cutting horse demonstrations again proved popular. Next year’s field days will be on March 3, 4 and 5.
- © Fairfax NZ News
CARPENTER SEMI RETIRED
