Highland Show carves place in record books

Published on Sunday 27 June 2010 23:31

SCOTLAND'S major showcase of all that's best in farming, food and the countryside is celebrating its most successful year yet.

Bumper crowds flocked to the Royal Highland Show as box- office records were smashed on three out of the four days of the agricultural showpiece at Ingliston, near Edinburgh Airport.

The overall attendance was up 6.3 per cent on last year's record-breaking show, with 187,644 tickets bought by late afternoon yesterday, when the gates closed.

Some 57,000 people flocked through the turnstiles on Saturday alone, up more than 12.5 per cent on last year's figure, notching up by far the biggest one-day attendance in the show's history.

The 2009 Royal Highland Show had easily been the most successful in the event to date, attracting 176,522 visitors.

However, fine weather on all four days of this year's event saw that figure easily surpassed, with the show attracting some 33,000 more people than it did ten years ago.

Major attractions included some 5,000 livestock, displays of rural skills, a food and drink "expo", traditional arts and crafts, live music and clothing stalls.

The only downside was the cancellation of yesterday's main cattle parade because of the hot weather.

Organisers said efforts to promote the Royal Highland Show to new audiences and families were clearly paying off, and added that they were looking to extend the site arena in future years.

The event – held for the 170th time this year – is now seen as the UK's main agricultural show after the cancellation of the long-running Royal Show in Warwickshire.

Figures released in the run-up to this year's Royal Highland Show, the 50th to be held at its current home at Ingliston, revealed that the event generates some 70 million for Scotland's economy.

Gate takings were just 52 when the first show was held in the Canongate area of the city, in December 1822.

Despite the rival attraction of the England-Germany World Cup match, 42,114 people visited the show yesterday, an increase of more than 3,000 on last year's figure.

One trader, David Townend, who runs a county clothing company, said: "It's been a great show. There was a phenomenal amount of people on the first day and it's seemed busy every day.

"We've noticed a lot more people coming from places like Ireland and it just seems to get more popular.

"Some people might think 22 is a lot for a ticket, but it's a whole day out and there's something for everyone."

Show manager David Dunsmuir said: "Everything really has gone swimmingly this year.

"We didn't have any rain in the run-up to the event and we then had four days of really good weather.

"Our marketing research has told us that people who haven't traditionally come to the show are looking for something a bit different from animals and tractors, so we've put a real effort into promoting the huge range of things there are for people to see and do.

"We've found over the last few years that people have discovered the show for the first time and are now coming back year after year."

Exhibitors were being turned away weeks in advance of this year's show, after all on-site space was snapped up.

Mr Dunsmuir said work was under way to look at extending the show site, with part of the west caravan park likely to be included in the next couple of years.

"We've checked with the police and there were no problems with congestion around the arena, as people seem to have been pretty spread out.

"However, we were already looking at options to extend the site before this year's show and it may happen next year."

More than 300,000 people are employed via the farm, rural, food and drink sectors, with one in ten Scottish jobs said to be dependent on agriculture.