By Tania Phillips
Showtime is coming Yeppoon and Show Society President Ken Landsberg and his band of volunteers are counting down days to the event on 10-11 June.
“We are doing it a little bit different this year, we haven’t got a lot of room in the ring but we do have a bit of vacant area up the top end so we’re going to have a bit of a trade display there as well,” Ken said.
“We have got a few people from the Rockhampton area and around the coast who are going to put some of their stuff there so people can see it. They want to come both days so normally we bring the cattle down there but we’re going to keep the cattle down the bottom end on the Sunday and let the trade show have the two days. They’ll come in and set up on the Friday.
“We’ll have tractors, implements, caravans, camper trailers, we’re hoping for some tanks, the local guys with their ride-on mowers, we’re trying to get the jet ski fella because our theme this year is water. So we’re trying to get some people to do something with water. The school kids will be good – we’ve got our education pavilion which is named after me – it’s the Ken Landsberg Building. The kids there will have a colour in competition and they grow plants in wheelbarrows and each school will put in a display. Their display will be about water – that will be their them. They can draw lots of things that water is used for.”
He said this year there will be an entry prize.
“When people are coming in they can sign their ticket and put it in box to be drawn, that could win them two nights over at Great Keppel for a family of two adults and two children with free returns in the boat -so it’s a great prize,” he said.
“We normally have fashion parades in the little theatre – we’ve only got a small little opening and not much room to view the fashion parade so this year’s it’s down in the bigger building, there will be a lot more room and people will be able to sit down and enjoy it better. The fashions come from around the local area and some from Rockhampton.”
Ken, who is 85, has been president for the past eight years and has been involved in the show for the past 13 years.
“We had a construction company and I retired when I turned 72 and the then president Brian Dorey had been there for quite a long time and because I still had a building license he got me to come in, they were putting in accommodation for a caretaker and they needed a builder to help them get it placed and approved by council,” he said.
“I did that and the then president asked what I was going to do now I’m retired, I said bugger if I know, I’ve still got cattle on me farm. He said what about getting involved with the show, he said you’ve got cattle you’d be a good cattle steward. I said, yeah righto and the first year I was cattle steward, next year I was chief ring steward, the next year vice president and then he had a heart turn and that was it I was in as president.
“I’ve got a good group of volunteers, though some of them are getting a bit old like me – not as old as me – but they’re up in their late 60s and early 70s so we’re always looking for new volunteers.”
