Upbeat crowd, exhibitors at field days
With an enforced absence of two years, brought about by its cancellation in 2020, the Central District Field Days at Feilding heralded the first event of its type for 2021.
The event, on the 15-17 March, draws in close to 600 exhibitors and thousands of people from town and country and has been at the same site – Mansfield Raceway -- since it was started by Don Eade in the 1980s.
The idea of a regional field day is to attract local businesses and people with an affiliation to the agri sector. This year will see the usual array of farm machinery, cranes, farm products and motor vehicles plus other products.
Field days sales manager Cheryl Riddell says they also cater especially for women.
“I like to have something there for women, hence the outdoor furniture, cookers and clothing,” she says.
“Women come along and want to have a few hours doing their own thing and meet up with their partners later.
“They probably have more to say now, so if dad wants a new tractor he wants his wife to have a look at it as well,” she says.
Riddell says most people attending the field days come from the lower half of the North Island -- normally about two hours driving distance from Fielding.
But she says its different with exhibitors. “There are the national ones like Fonterra and Farmlands, but now I am starting to get a few from Australia. In fact, just a few days ago I had a call from Melbourne from a guy who wants to sell tools.
“There’s good support this year: all the initial sites are sold and I am now having to add additional sites for latecomers. Being an outside event we have plenty of room; it’s just a case of getting the foot traffic to them.”
Unlike Mystery Creek, the Central Districts Field Days doesn’t have a particular theme; it’s a case of see and sell. But the weekend coincides with St Patrick’s Day so a few years ago some food exhibitors tried to enter the spirit of the Irish feast day by dyeing their potatoes and corn green.
The lack of a theme has never been a problem for the event, she says.
“Every year, the rural community and many townies roll into Feilding either to sign a cheque or just to check out what’s happening in the farming sector.”
