Kinross Show 2021 by Elna Chisholm

In mid-July the good news came through that the Kinross Show, after an absence of 2 years, would go ahead on 14th August 2021. As Enid would be on holiday at this time Jo Ramsay agreed to co-ordinate the event. The call for volunteers to set up on the Friday and man the tent on the Saturday went out to both associations.

Friday 13th (!) dawned and praying for a dry day the set up team of Jo Ramsay, Elna & Robin Chisholm, Sharon & Andy Rivers, Martin Kay, John Hendrie, Angie Blake and Jean Andrew assembled on site from 9.30 am to erect the gazebo and arrange the displays. Although windy, the rain held off until we had the gazebo up, at which point a heavy downpour ensued. By 11.45am the displays had been prepared and merchandise priced.

We closed up the tent and left the site, crossing our fingers it would survive any bad weather overnight.

On Saturday 14th at around 7.30am Robin and Elna arrived on site and on approaching the stand saw that the wind overnight had managed to partially open the zips around the doors. Although displays had fallen over, we were thankful to see nothing had been damaged and we quickly set to tidying up the gazebo. Around 8am John Hendrie arrived with the observation hive that he and Jo Ramsay had set up on the previous day. The rest of the show day team of Jo, Andy & Sharon Rivers, Ruby Rennie, Tim Masters, Sheila Fisher, Joan Sneddon and Chris Myerscough began to arrive.

For the first hour the showground was quiet and all the team took advantage of this time to finally meet in person the people they had seen on zoom over the last 18 months. From 11am the site started to fill up and we quickly had many members of the public coming onto our stand keen to learn about bees and beekeeping, a challenge to which all our volunteers were happy to rise. A last-minute addition to our display was a hive brought along by Andy. This along with our observation hive proved very popular with the public. The next 5 hours were spent enthusiastically engaging with the visitors on all aspects of bees.

The show site was operating Covid-19 level 0 regulations, with hand sanitising stations around the site and masks being worn in tents. All contributors had to complete Covid-19 Lateral Flow Tests before being allowed on site and temperatures were taken for both contributors and public before they were allowed into the event. Despite this, for the first time in many months, there was a sense of normality and the atmosphere around the whole site was very happy and relaxed. As the day drew to a close the whole team agreed it had been a very successful and enjoyable day. This was added to when we heard that we had been awarded “The Best Small Trade Stand” prize. We were doubly pleased when we found out the reason for the award was given as – Our live display and our engagement with the public, particularly the children.

Thanks go to all the volunteers; a great day was had by all.

Elna Chisholm