Durban - Next year’s Royal Show will be the last in its current form as the event returns to its agricultural roots and moves up the hill to Hilton from its home of 120 years in the provincial capital.
Royal Agricultural Society chief executive officer Terry Strachan told the Independent on Saturday that the show would take the form of numerous agricultural-themed events, starting with the presentation of dairy cattle in October.
There would also be a focus on education and upliftment.
Highlights such as the funfair will be something of the past.
“After June 4 next year, we shall sadly move on with heavy hearts and a great deal of anticipation and pleasure with regard to the future,” he said.
“We will no longer have a show of a mixed nature, akin to the Royal Show.”
Strachan added that the existing model of a mixed show had become unsustainable on the present show grounds, with urbanisation having made them less suitable to hosting an agricultural event.
“There are also high rates and there is a problem with traffic congestion,” he said.
The new venue, at Mount Verde Estate, was an eight-hectare former equestrian centre, with a considerable amount of the correct infrastructure, including arenas and horse paddocks, Strachan added.
The sale of the present site was expected to be fulfilled by April, he said.
Strachan would not divulge what the Hilton site cost the Royal Agricultural Society.
The Independent on Saturday