Village show cancelled amid falling interest

THE Littleport Show — one of Cambridgeshire’s oldest community events — will not be running this year, it was announced this week.

The decision to cancel this year’s event was made by the show’s organising committee late last week amid spiralling costs and a continuing fall in revenue.

Committee member Derek Timbers said they had been left with little choice: “One of the reasons why the committee thought it was best to cancel the event this year was the lack of people to do all the work.

“The falling numbers of people actually coming to the event over the past couple of years was another factor, as was the ever increasing cost of putting on the show. With those three things together we thought it was best to have a rest this year.”

The Ely Standard revealed last year that the 2011 show was in doubt after it emerged that the show’s committee was struggling to find enough people to come forward and help organise the event, which costs about �20,000 to stage.

“It is not the end of the show but we thought we needed a year out to think about what we can do to improve it. We were all upset that we had to take the decision but we couldn’t go on as we were,” said Mr Timbers.

According to a posting on the show’s Facebook page, last year’s open air live event which followed the show lost money “and the profit made on show day was used to cover these losses.”

Mr Timbers said committee members would be meeting regularly to discuss new ideas for the show and that members would be visiting other shows to see what could be brought in to the Littleport set up.

The popular event regularly attracts thousands of people to the village to enjoy a range of events including craft stalls, horticultural and flower tents, trade stands and children’s rides.

The next meeting of the committee is on February 8 at Littleport Leisure Centre and Mr Timbers said he hoped more people will attend and get involved.