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13
Jul
Organisers gear up for 167th Great Yorkshire Show
Thousands of people are expected to attend the 167th Great Yorkshire Show this week as organisers put the final touches on the annual event.
The show will return to the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate from tomorrow (July 14) to Friday (July 17).
Hosting everything from birds of prey to giant combine harvesters, this year’s event promises something for everyone.
Speaking to the Stray Ferret at a press day today, David Tite, manager of Yorkshire Agricultural Society, said excitement was building ahead of the four-day event.
Mr Tite said:
I adore the next four days, it is absolutely fantastic. It is a great opportunity to bring the community together and they get to come and enjoy this gorgeous showground and everything that is on here.
The show will be the first time that organisers have increased capacity since tickets were capped post-covid five years ago amid “unprecedented demand”.
The society, a farming charity that organises the event, made an extra 2,500 tickets available each day, which takes the daily capacity from 35,000 to 37,500.
Rachel Coates, Great Yorkshire Show director, and Tori Goodall, birds of prey exhibitor.
Show director Rachel Coates said the venue had adequate facilities and traffic management to cope with the additional numbers.
She said:
We are working with our partners in traffic management and parking and all the facilities for the showground. We can more than cope with 37,500 people.
If you think back to pre-covid, we sometimes had 45,000 people and one year we had 55,000. So we are way under those numbers.
This year’s show promises – as ever – to be a grand celebration of farming, food and the countryside.
Among the attractions which will take centre stage will be a giant combine harvester, which punters will be able to get a glimpse of on the President’s Lawn.
David Tite on board the giant combined harvester.
Sam Colbatch, sales representative at Boroughbridge company Russells, said creating the giant harvester took 20 years.
He said:
It has the highest output in the world. It is untouched by anyone else and has about 800 horsepower. It is an incredible bit of kit.
It is something that the industry has never seen before in terms of output and scale. There’s nothing that can touch it.
Other attractions will include appearances from rural celebrities, including Kelvin and Liz Fletcher of ITV’s Fletchers on the Farm, Peter Wright of Channel 5’s The Yorkshire Vet and Jules Hudson of BBC’s Escape to the Country.
There will also be the usual array of food and drink stalls, 8,500 animals, cutting edge machinery and entertainment.
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