Winter Fair will be bumper event
With Christmas just around the corner the organisers of this year’s Royal Welsh Winter Fair are pulling out all the stops to make it a bumper event. Since the RWAS decided to expand the Fair, already regarded as Britain’s finest prime stock show, to cater for everybody as well as livestock producers, it has developed as a major attraction in Wales.
The two-day Fair opens on December 1 on the showground at Llanelwedd, Builth Wells, with record entries of 914 – some 281 more than the previous highest number – in the produce and handicrafts show which, with 29 classes, is among the most popular sections for visitors.
As in previous years, Christmas is the principal theme running through the Fair, and the Women’s Institute has taken up the challenge of the handicrafts competitions for the best-knitted Father Christmas by producing a record 106 entries – a number equalled by the entries in the children’s class for a Christmas Tree decoration which has also reached 106.
A joint competition between the YFC and the Royal Welsh Forestry Section in which counties from across Wales will compete in a Christmas Tree competition is included in this year’s programme. It will be judged in the Carmarthen-Dyfed Building on the showground on the opening day of the Fair by the Royal Welsh Lady Ambassador (Gwen Davies of Clwyd) and the Lady Ambassador Elect (Lucinda Dargavel of Glamorgan).
A new attraction this year especially for children is a Santa’s Grotto, which will be sited in the Clock Tower, Tŷ Ynys Môn, on both days of the Fair, and in response to overwhelming demand for stand space, another hall is being opened at the Fair – the Gift Hall. This will be located opposite the Food Hall and will house a large number of stands offering a wide range of gifts from gold and silver jewellery to handmade shoes and slippers, bespoke furniture, books, ceramics, clothing, toys and many other items.
Among the other interests at the Fair is a floral art competition which has drawn 79 entries this year, and entertainment at the event will feature a performance by the Builth and Talgarth Male Voice Choirs which will take place in the main ring of Exhibition Hall 1 at 5pm on Monday, December 1.
Entries for the Winter Fair Poultry Show this year total 985 and will comprise the largest number displayed at the event. Although a record 1031 entries were received last year the Poultry Show was cancelled because of Avian ‘flu.