The organisers of the annual Tockwith Show have decided to cancel this year’s event because of the continuing uncertainty about the impact of the Covid pandemic.
The show, which would have been the 75th to be staged since the event was first held in 1945, was scheduled to be held in August, but the show Committee felt there were too many question marks over what would be allowed and how to ensure the safety of the public, to make holding this year’s event a viable proposition.
Show President Michelle Lee said it was a disappointing and a hard decision to have to make but the Committee felt it was better to cancel the show now rather than end up staging something which didn’t match the quality of previous years, or put all the finance and time into preparing for an event that then had to be scrapped.
President Michelle Lee said:
The simple problem is we just don’t know what is going to be happening in August, whether there will be any restrictions still in force and what we would be required to do as the show organisers to meet any future guidelines.
It would be great if we could leave it until July and then make a decision, but the reality of organising one of the biggest agricultural shows in Yorkshire is that the preparation needs to begin months ahead of the event, and we are already well past the time when decisions need to have been taken.
The Committee are hoping that the second major event to be held on the showfield – the annual Bonfire and Fireworks night – will be able to go ahead in November.
President Michelle Lee said:
It’s tempting to say by November everything will be back to some form of normality but, again, without a crystal ball we just don’t know,” said Michelle.
However, we are going to try and ensure that the night is the best ever, and make sure that by starting planning now Tockwith Show is back next August and is a really special day for our 75th show.
One really encouraging thing to come out of all this is that we now have 20 new volunteers from within the community who have offered their help, and that really does bode well for the future.
