79th Show Report

On behalf of the Show Committee, volunteer helpers and sponsors, welcome to our 2022 Show!!

The Aldermaston and Wasing Show was first held 80 years ago to support the ‘Dig for Victory’ Campaign in 1942, but next year will actually be our 80th Show as the 1997 event was cancelled as it clashed with the funeral of Princess Diana.

You may notice some small changes from previous years. This is the second year that the Show is held on its new regular day, first Sunday in September, but at an earlier opening time of 1pm. I would appreciate any feedback on this, for or against. We are also making the Show Competition Schedule and Programme brochure available on-line to download in a bid to reduce printing costs, add to our eco-friendly efforts and to enable more of what we raise to go to our chosen charities.

The aim of our Show is to present a focal point in the calendar where people from local Parishes can gather. We hope they will be entertained and enjoy what we offer in what is a most beautiful and peaceful rural setting. During the year we offer the chance for people to prepare for and enter our horticultural and other competition classes to be brought to the Show with prizes on offer for the best in class. We aim to do all this in a sustainable way and to raise money for local charities.

Sustainability is increasingly on all our minds with what is going on around us and with the climate. Sustainability is also is at the forefront of my mind as I take on the Chairmanship of the Show Committee for the first time this year. I believe that the local community will be much the poorer should the Show cease to be held, but without younger more energetic practical help and ideas there is a real prospect that in a few years’ time there will be no one left to put on the Show for you.

Therefore, I conclude this years’ message to you to ask you to come forward, if you are able, to offer your time to help to set the Show up beforehand, or on Show Day or the following weekend to put it away again. We are all time poor these days, but your help is needed. If you’d like to get more involved, then please consider joining the Committee, which can be a social event in itself.

I hope you enjoy our Show this year and that we can all work together to make our 80th Show next year the best ever!!