THIS month council submitted to the State Government to have the Longreach Show as a public holiday next year.
This comes after the great turnout to the Longreach Show this year and is due to the fact the Westech Field Days event will not be held next year.
Show Society President Tony Jackson said after the Longreach Show had been given the Friday as a public holiday, the event had seen overwhelming support from the community.
“We turned the show into a two-day show,” he said.
“Traditionally the show has always been on the Saturday, but we took the decision to extend the show.
“We had the main day on the public holiday and carried over to the Saturday with events as well.”
Next year, Mr Jackson said the committee had plans to expand the Saturday program and turn the day into a genuine two-day show.
“This year was the first time for a fair few years since we had the Friday as a public holiday,” he said.
“In the past, people thought the Friday public holiday, people were making that a long weekend and they were leaving town.
“However with the advent of COVID people aren’t moving around as they would do in the past, so this year we had over 3,000 people in attendance.”
He said that was in part to the added holiday but also due to the fact the show didn’t run in 2020.
“We’ll just continue to do what we’ve been doing and with that show on the Friday, one of the obstacles will be in finding suitable entertainment for the show,” Mr Jackson said.
“We went with monster trucks this year, and we have a fair few things for next year as well.”
