Organisers of the Littleport Show say they have been left with no choice but to cancel the event permanently.
The show committee told the Ely Standard that a lack of new volunteers prepared to help organise the show coupled with the mounting burden of health and safety has forced them to disband for good.
The future of the show had been in question after it was cancelled for three years running owing to lack of volunteers and poor weather.
The last show was held in 2010, in Highfields, but was cancelled in 2011 because of heavy rain. The last-minute cancellation cost the 12-strong committee a lot of money and the show ultimately failed to recover.
Committee member, Derek Timbers said: “It’s not the first show to go under and it won’t be the last, people just don’t have the time to help out anymore.
“You need a lot of people to put together something like the Littleport Show and the feeling of the committee was that if you can’t do it properly then you may as well not do it at all.
“The cost of the show was escalating all the time. Organising health and safety, fire safety, and toilets is so expensive and when you add the whole lot together, you have spent more than £10,000 before you have even started.
“Sadly, it’s been going this way for the last few years and the committee felt that it had run its course, at least in its current format.”
Mr Timbers said that a meeting had been arranged for February 18, in the Barn, in Main Street, Littleport, where the show’s assets would be formally disposed.
He added that a limited pot of funds would be available for good causes and anyone interested should attend the event, which starts at 8pm.
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