Wednesday, November 9th …..

It’s always a surprise, after the Craft Fair has finished, to discover that the world has gone on as usual and people have lived their normal lives as if the madness in Deloraine didn’t affect them. Reading Monday’s newspaper yesterday, I was surprised to see that the Westbury community, right next door to Deloraine, had held their Annual Show on the same weekend, the Apex Club in Latrobe had held The Truly Tasmanian Craft Exhibition, and there had been a Penny Farthing race in Evandale, just to name a few.

Surely, the organisers of these events would have realised that the world had slowed down while the Craft Fair ran its course, and that no-one would have the time to go to their events as well. The Latrobe one is interesting: clearly it’s an attempt to steal our crowd. Choosing the same weekend, and picking such a dodgy name is a blatant attempt to confuse our customers, appeal to the unthinking parochialism of Tasmanians (especially those on the North-West coast) and cash in on our reputation. The sad thing is that their Éxhibition’was started by disgruntled local artists who hadn’t been good enough to get a place at the Deloraine fair. And they have about 30 Tasmanian artists, while we have upwards of 180. However, we still get criticism that we are not truly Tasmanian and have too many mainland interlopers. Oh well, you can’t win them all.

The Westbury Show, like many other small-town shows, was only held on one day this year. Westbury is just 20 minutes from Launceston and most of the locals look there for their entertainment and community activities. There is certainly not the same feeling of anticipation as the date of the Show approaches as there used to be. Older residents still take part in the competitions and the local school teachers make a mighty effort to encourage their students to take part, but I’m afraid it is a dying event.

Still, the local paper continues to list the results of the competitions. M. Gibson once again swept the field in the Knitting and Crochet section, B. Dudman was the Most Successful Exhibitor in the Cooking, although P. Poulton’s boiled plum pudding took the prize in that section. In the Floral section, most exhibitors were listed with initial and surname, but one exhibitor is still featured as Mrs Fahey. I imagine an elderly lady who has been a stalwart of the show for decades and is known by everybody as Mrs Fahey (no first initial). Reading the results carefully throws up a few signs of the times: in the Photography section, there is a prize for the best digitally enhanced photo, and in the Primary Floral Art, there is a prize for ‘variety of garden weeds in a container’. That’s the sort of floral art I can relate to.

Of course, for the kids, it's the rides that matter. We can be cynical but the Westbury Show still plays a big role in the lives of a large section of society. It will certainly be a sad day when the last of the small, local shows closes its doors.