Wairoa A & P Show cancelled

Rodeo, an annual feature of the Wairoa A and P Show. The 2022 show has been cancelled. Photo / NZME

The 2022 Wairoa A and P Show has been cancelled because of the continuing Covid-19 crisis.

The show was to have been held on January 13-15 but, faced with needing to know well ahead of the Christmas-New Year break the decision was made at a meeting on Sunday.

Show manager Laura Hooper said there were many mitigating factors that played a part in this decision.

"However the overriding reasons came down to the uncertainty of the Covid-19 restrictions, the possible implications of opening the Auckland border and the fact we are dealing with the highly transmissible Delta strain," she said.

"Although not an easy decision to make, we all feel it is absolutely the best conclusion for the current situation," Hooper said. "Our grounds are vast and there are many entry points, not all of them officially manned. Because of this, we would be unable to guarantee a 100 per cent fully-vaccinated audience, despite our best efforts, and therefore it is for the good of everyone that we cancel the show."

But, as with some other cancelled shows throughout the country, there is still the possibility of a jumping show going ahead. Organisers are currently sorting through the rules and regulations with the governing bodies before this can be confirmed.

Shearing competition organisers, who were unable to be at Sunday's meeting because of work in the woolshed and who have in recent years run the biggest shearing-only shearing sports event in the North Island, are considering options, with the experience of having twice in the last decade had to switch at short notice to woolsheds outside the town because of heavy rain flooding the showgrounds.

"The Wairoa A and P show has been a highlight in the community for over 100 years, and whilst we are crushed not to be running this fabulous event, the health and wellbeing of our community, especially our most vulnerable tamariki, is paramount," Hooper said.

"Planning a show takes many months of hard work, dedication and commitment so organisers and committee members are naturally disappointed."

Wairoa Mayor Craig Little a former show president said it was a "sad day" and a "shame" for a community which had already its other major annual event – the Wairoa races, gone as part of a restructure of racing throughout the country.

"I wonder what will be next to hit the smaller towns," he said.

The Wairoa show, one of five cancellations of shows which were all to have been nationwide on January15, becomes the fifth cancelled on the east coast of the North Island this summer. The Poverty Bay, Hawke's Bay and Wairoa shows were cancelled in October, as was the Central Hawke's Bay show earlier this month.

The Dannevirke show is still set to take place at the start of February.