At the crossroads?

Extracted from the Farm Tender weekly Newsletter - Sign up and get the email every Wednesday morning before 5 am. www.farmtender.com.au

By Dwain Duxson

The euphoria surrounding the return of Field Days post-Covid has been epic as people get back to the events they know and love.

But, from a longer-term perspective, are these Field Days events at the crossroads? Will they survive? The return so far has been met with positivity but is it the "second" honeymoon period that will wear off once you have been there, done that?

These Field Days are events mainly run by volunteers, many of them Farmers who put in countless hours to help stage these events. Communities in and around these events are the beneficiaries of the money made, which filters its way back to the local organisations that make a community tick.

But are they social events dressed up as Field Days where the excuse we are telling ourselves is that we need to go see this, this and this? When all we actually want to do is network with other Farmers or catch up with mates. If that's the outcome, then Field Days are playing a significant role in a time when Farmers really struggle to get off their Farms.

But does that cut if the game at the end of the day is about dollars and cents? I would have thought these events have to make money, but if they can break even and do what they do, then keep them going.

And don't forget they are a 2 sided marketplace, where the events don't start without Exhibitors, and fewer Exhibitors will lead to less incentive for the public to go. The same applies on the reverse side. Exhibitors will be less likely to strike up the cash and time to attend if the crowd numbers drop off.

Some Exhibitors spend tens of thousands of dollars on their sites and have staff away from their usual posts for days on end. In our case, and going by the image above with our good friend Matt Henke, we were set up in less than half an hour. A tent and a couple of whiteboards were the only things we used to drag along. So they were cheap events for us to attend. At one stage, we were going to 25 events a year. It was full-on in that sense and they served us well.

To their credit, many Field Days probably saved or reinvented themselves several years ago by introducing the general interest side. This caters for the "townies" who make up a big slice of the numbers that attend these days. Especially those events closer to the rural cities.

Over the years of attending as an Exhibitor, I wouldn't mind a dollar for every co-Exhibitor who has threatened not to return next year, only to get a bout of the guilts on the back of having the thought of the opposition stealing their customers.

Am I being too harsh even to suggest or entertain their demise? Field Day committees might laugh, saying that I am way off the mark when their data tells them that things are chippa.

I am certainly barracking for them to survive, but running events is tough going, and you need a lot going your way. At the end of the day, if the event provides value and/or entertainment, people will return.

End of message