Is it time to give Fieldays a reboot or the boot?

Brought about by Covid settings that were still at orange in March, the decision to postpone the event and move it to the end of the year was, said Fieldays chief executive Peter Nation, in response to regular exhibitors who were begging for an event in 2022.

However, many other long-time supporters uttered the immortal phrase, “Tell him he’s dreaming”. Early December is one of the busiest times in the farming calendar – and several big-name companies decided the delayed event wasn’t for them.

Not to be thwarted, Fieldays pushed the mantra “The same, but different”, suggesting that it was the same event, just with sandals and lashings of sun block instead of gumboots and umbrellas.

As we got nearer the event, we were told that exhibitor numbers were down about 10%. Yet when Fieldays opened to reveal many vacant areas, huddles of Portaloos on what previous sites and strategically-placed areas used as parking for emergency and event vehicles.

We also found that maybe scanning technology is not always as good as it’s cracked up to be. Having learnt that the 2021 event scanned in exactly 132,776 visitors, the 2022 event recorded a much less precise, and highly optimistic, “about 75,000” attendees.

Without doubt, the event had a very different feel. There were far fewer people, maybe on the first day because of the torrential rain and wind – now where did I put my sun block? As one longterm machinery veteran observed, “The place feels empty. You could shoot a gun down this aisle and not hit anyone!”

Fieldays keeps telling us that it’s responsible for an economic impact of $500 million-plus, but some are now asking, is the event really that important to the rural economy?

Since the Covid crisis kicked off in March 2020, ag machinery – as an example – has seen numbers rise by around 25%, with record sales leading to long delivery lead times. Has Fieldays played a part in this? Not really, given the event was cancelled in 2020 and, after a 2021 return, had an 18-month hiatus before the 2022 event in December.

As one industry commentator noted, “Elsewhere around the world, Fieldays-type events have become history, with organisers deciding to focus on more specialised events aimed at specific areas of the market”. That same observer also said “clever marketing people are starting to realise that spending a huge chunk of their annual marketing budget on just four days of exposure is crazy, given there are another 361 days in the year”.

So where do we go in 2023? Fieldays has already told potential exhibitors that despite there being motor vehicle and heavy machinery precincts, there will be no dedicated ag machinery areas – rather those exhibitors will be dropped into the main body of the event.

In fact, Fieldays has already announced that what made up a large part of the farm machinery area adjoining the neighbouring golf course has now been given over to the ‘Rural Living’ area.

One can only wonder if those companies who chose to stay away in 2022 made the right decision. Will they go on to realise that there is life without Fieldays? Will they stay away again and take more companies with them, as they too realise that the Fieldays business is mainly focused on charting visitor numbers?