Chairman's Column G'day everyone, Well, what can I say? This year would have to be one of the hardest years Agfest has faced to date, but also one of the most exciting. We have gone from being the first Committee back in March to ever cancel the event to then creating Agfest in the Cloud in an amazing six-week turn around. I could not be prouder of the Agfest Committee for what we have achieved this year and what we are aspiring to achieve in May 2021. I cannot thank our members, staff, past members and clubs enough for helping Rural Youth and
Agfest get through 2020. Cheers, From the Paddock - Site Hire Appreciation In November, the wedding of Alex and Rhiannon Griffiths was celebrated with a ceremony at Entally House followed by the reception at Quercus Park. Appreciation post written by Sharron Griffiths - Mother of the groom The Latest from the Event DeskWe are full steam ahead with our planning to return to the paddock in 2021. Application have closed and our selection committee have started allocating over 500 exhibits and will be working through the Christmas break to ensure successful exhibitor notifications are ready for distribution at the end of January 2021. Agfest Committee Spotlight - Ash Reynolds Name: Ashleigh Reynolds Area of the State where you live: Kingborough Agfest Committee title: Safety and Compliance Assistant Brief description of your Committee role: The Safety and Compliance role is there to ensure the safety of everyone on site. Part of the role is to coordinate and manage emergencies and site issues, as well as ensuring the health, wellbeing and compliance of our team of volunteers, the patrons and exhibitors when necessary Share a snapshot of your Agfest / Rural Youth history: I joined Rural Youth in 2017 and have thrown my hat in the ring for every opportunity that has arisen. I have been a part of fantastic Rural Youth run events – including Agfest, amazing learning and development opportunities, and created some life- long friendships Why did you decide to join Rural Youth: My partner at the time actually signed me up as he had been a member for years, and I will be forever grateful for that. The reasons I have stayed include the opportunities, friendship and ongoing development that I have received since joining What are the key skills you have gained from your involvement in Agfest: Communication, attention to details, negotiating, problem solving, multitasking, adaptability and resilience Describe the most hilarious moment so far of your involvement in the field days: There are far too many to count! One of them has to be watching three of the boys try and hold down an auger to drill a post hole, and them all taking a bit of a spin with it Share a description of any other jobs / voluntary positions you hold: My employment is in a Social Welfare role and I am currently not volunteering anywhere outside of Rural Youth and the Salvation Army Describe the three activities you love to do on the weekend: Camp, fish, hunt and spending time with loved ones Favourite movie: Hunt for the Wilderpeople Favourite food: A good big brekky. Bonus points if it has salmon Favourite book: The Complete Book of Australian Flying Doctor Stories If you could invite any three people to join you for a dinner party, who would they be: Dwayne Johnson, Barrack Obama, Anne Frank If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be: To remove human greed Merchandise GiveAway Have you kept up with the changes to Agfest 2021 due to COVID-19 ? Agfest and Rural Youth are committed to providing a safe and compliant event and have made changes to congested patron areas to enable social distancing. Please email support@agfest.com.au by COB 21 December 2020 and tell us what changes have been made to the craft pavilions. Congratulations to Christine Puckeridge on winning the November Agfest Antics Newsletter family pass giveaway. Christine sent through this great shot of the bullocks from Quercus Park’s Central Arena. We look forward to welcoming Christine back to the paddock in 2021! Community Focus - The Rotary Club of Westbury Name of community group: The Rotary Club of Westbury Location of group: Membership is drawn from Westbury and surrounding districts Two-sentence description of the group’s vision, membership and goals: The Rotary Club of Westbury has 28 members, meets weekly and focuses on community work – both locally and internationally. The Club offers a wide range of benefits to members, including public speaking opportunities, promotion of businesses, networking, working on international projects, and construction and maintenance of local community developments Number of years exhibited at Agfest: All 38 years through gate keeping and catering Describe the preparation involved to participate in Agfest: Our Agfest applications, planning, food van maintenance and compliance commences about six months prior to the event. In the final two months, we develop the menu, order produce and finalise rosters (we have more than 45 volunteers working on our site over the four days including the day prior to opening) Describe your site and what you deliver at Agfest: The Rotary Club of Westbury brings it own food van to deliver wholesome and scrumptious food to Agfest patrons. We aim to provide as much seating as possible for our customers so they can take a break and enjoy our food. Our menu consists of egg and bacon rolls, Devonshire teas, toasted sandwiches, hot chips, steak sammos, soft drinks, tea and coffee. This year we will also be offering hamburgers. Our focus is to serve our customers promptly and efficiently Overview what difference the proceeds you take from Agfest has made to your community: Agfest is our major fundraiser for the year, enabling the Club to support local and international projects on a consistent basis. Some of the projects that we have worked on include installing an electric BBQ and shelter on the Village Green at Westbury, supporting the local prostate cancer fundraising, erecting a new awning patio at the Westbury Community Health Centre and sending building teams to Fiji to construct several houses for local residents and every year we donate money to Polio Plus to assist in the global efforts to eradicate polio Share one memorable Agfest moment: When we used to do the Agfest gate at both Symmons Plains and Quercus before the ticket boxes were constructed, we used to collect all the entry takings in nail bags! In your words, how important is Agfest to Tasmania: The event has been a growing and huge success for almost 40 years, providing a massive impetus for farmers to review and purchase latest technology and machinery. It’s also a great economic enabler for the accommodation and tourism industry. We are ever so thankful to the young Rural Youth volunteers who work so hard to make this event possible for so many exhibitors and patrons From our Rural Youth CEO - As an organisation Rural Youth is no different to the rest of the population, we can’t wait for the year to end!! We also know we are extremely fortunate to have ‘survived’ the year, as cancelling Agfest was a severe blow to our budget. Many events and organisations did not fare as well. We are extremely grateful to the Tasmanian Government for providing us with $300,000 to assist with delivering Agfest in 2021.
Christmas Closure From Rural Youth and Agfest, we wish you all a joyful Christmas and good health and happiness in 2021. We look forward to seeing you at Quercus Park for Agfest in the Paddock from 5 – 8 May and in the Cloud from 8 – 15 May |