When I was a young girl my parents took my brother and I to the Adelaide Royal Show every year without fail. As we were only allowed two showbags each, my brother and I spent days comparing the relative merits of different showbags, using a complicated formula I would be hard pressed to recreate today. The day itself was spent wandering through the animal enclosures, marvelling at the prize-winning produce, watching the various demonstrations, going on a ride or two and oohing and ahhing at the fireworks display.
Every year we indulged in the kind of food you only ever eat an outdoor fair: fairy floss, chips in cups and dagwood dogs. For those unfamiliar with dagwoods, they are a frankfurter stuck on a wooden (dagwood) stick, dipped in batter, deep-fried and plunged into a vat of tomato sauce. They’re really quite dreadful but as kids we used to love them and begged for them every year.
It wasn’t all trashy food though. I remember eating my first ever avocado at the Royal Adelaide Show in the early 80s. Back then they were a wholly exotic fruit in Australia and were being promoted in the produce hall. I had never seen an avocado before, let alone eaten half of one with fresh lemon squeezed into it as I did that day. It was a revelation.
This year I decided to go to the Show with my brother and sisters in law, taking all our kids (five and a half in total) with us. I hadn’t been to the Royal Show in at least 15 years and was feeling nostalgic.
We started off doing the Farm Walk, taking in the piggery, milking farm and the barnyard and nursery.
On our way to the pig diving and racing we spotted an equestrian event taking place on the oval.
Unfortunately, the pig racing had attracted such a huge crowd that we couldn’t see a thing. So we walked a little further on and checked out the woodcutting competitions. These burly guys below chopped through their logs of wood in under a minute – the winner took just over 40 seconds.
Then we were off to the Early Learning Centre where the kids could get up close and personal with some animals. They also loved the sheep shearing demonstrations, the free face painting and having a go on the miniature tractors.
After this, we were in desperate need of food and drink so took a break for lunch. I couldn’t bring myself to buy a dagwood dog so settled on some excellent fish and chips and sushi, the latter of which was almost certainly not available when I first started going to the Show. Ditto the octopus balls and baby cinos the kids enjoyed.
The girls were allowed one treat and chose fairy floss.
After this we headed over to the ride area so the kids could have a turn on the carousel.
After that it was time to call it a day. There were many exhibitions we didn’t get to see – the produce hall, the craft hall and the food hall – but we were just too knackered. We walked back to our cars, tired but happy and extremely glad that we had another year to rest before the next Royal Adelaide Show!
