A celebration of multicultural Mid Canterbury and a joining of town and country is how Victor Schikker, president of the Ashburton A&P Show describes last weekend’s 2022 show.
“The weather played its part and the theme of a multicultural Mid Canterbury was a success – the different nationalities made a really big effort with their costumes and displays,” Schikker said.
This was especially evident in the president’s tent where the displays were. The tent is always a feature of the show, he said. Whatever the president’s chosen theme (this year was multicultural Mid Canterbury) it is displayed in the president’s tent.
“The displays were very well attended. Quite a few had dancing. When that started people came running over to take a look,” Schikker said.
“Ecuador, Columbia, Chile, Argentina, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Netherlands, South Africa, and the Philippines were some of the countries taking part, Did you know there are 3000 Filipinos in Mid Canterbury, 6000 in the greater Canterbury region?.”
Schikker said attendee numbers were up on 2019, the last time a full show was held (pre-Covid) but it was too early for any specifics.
“We are hoping for 10,000 attendees,” Schikker said.
What did we learn from this year’s show to implement next year? Just a bit of fine-tuning in some departments, he said.
“The horses are ever evolving. We have a few ideas there that the horse committee will consider.
“The trade exhibitors made a good effort – although we hope to see more back again next year. Some couldn’t make it due to constraints of staffing. I know one crowd couldn’t come because they literally didn’t have anything to display.
“What are we pushing is bringing town and country together.
"It is a country event but we like to see townies come and discover it’s not just about big tractors that cost a lot of money, it’s also about what they are for,” Schikker said.
Plenty of town people came this year – there was a good crowd watching the grand parade, he said.
“”Overall the show was an outstanding success.”

• By Pat Deavoll