With show figures falling, could we see an end to the town’s traditional show with a heritage stretching back 150 years?

Monmouthshire Show saw only 8,000 visitors flock through its gates this year, a fall from the near 20,000 claimed visitors who enjoyed the show in 2011.Originally held in October and then September, it was brought forward to August in 1928 to improve the likelihood of good weather.The show’s iconic days were enjoyed when the annual agricultural event was held on the Vauxhall fields from 1946 onwards.2007 marked the 150th anniversary of the Monmouthshire Show Society. That same year the show moved to its new site on the Redbrook Road when the show society bought 106 acres either side of the road to Redbrook and a lot of work was done to make the showground a magnificent venue.It continued to enjoy huge success with its attendance figures almost breaking 20,000 in 2011 and livestock entries broke all records.However, Thursday was a working day and did not give families the opportunity to visit the show together if parents were working and a decision to move to a Saturday at the beginning of July was made in 2017.It didn’t help momentum when 2018 experienced one of the hottest days for a show day, enough to cancel the Grand Parade of show-winning animals and a World Cup quarter-final clash between English and Sweden on the same day meant that attendance was always going to be hit.Leaving Vauxhall Fields was not an easy decision but the committee knew that the surrounding area was going to be built on, and entrance/exits were going to be less and more difficult to access/exit”.  It was also inevitable that the search for housing sites in Monmouth would impact on the site; part of Vauxhall fields is one of the candidate sites for the new LDP and a 2013 plan for Rockfield Road east houses between the MOD site and Rockfield Road has been put on the back burner. The show took on a new look and a modern feel but not all members of the public took to the move positively.Finding entertainment that people haven’t seen before and would like to see is one of the main issues along with traders selling more via the internet than wanting to be present at a one day show.So the dilemma facing the show committee is how to proceed forward and safeguard its future.  Reverting back to a date in August is a possibility but doesn’t fit in well with other events on in the area in that month, though an option that needs to be looked at. The success of the present site, with its easier access and year-round revenue stream bringing people into the town with point-to-point meetings and caravan rallies on the site is a huge advantage to them and us and it would be a shame to lose such an historic day in the Monmouth calendar.