THE Royal Welsh spring fair has been cancelled but no decision as yet has been made on whether July’s main show will go ahead.
The Royal Welsh Agricultural Society (RWAS) announced this morning it is cancelling its two events scheduled for May and June in response the coronavirus outbreak.
That means the Smallholding and Countryside Festival, also known as the spring festival, that was to take place at the Llanelwedd showground, near Builth Wells, on Saturday and Sunday, May 16 and 17 has been cancelled.
The organisers of the wool and natural fibres festival, Wonderwool Wales, that was due to take place at the showground on Saturday and Sunday April 25 and 26 have also announced it has been cancelled.
Also off is the Royal Welsh Grassland Event, that was due to take place in north Wales on May 7, which is an important fundraising event for the main show in July.
The summer show attracts up to 200,000 over four days to Builth and Llanelwedd every July and was last cancelled in 2001 due to foot and mouth disease.
The society hasn’t yet taken a decision on the Royal Welsh Show and said it will closely monitor the situation as it develops ahead of the show that is due to run from Monday, July 20 to Thursday, July 23.
The show is massively important to Builth Wells and the wider Powys economy.
RWAS chief executive Steve Hughson said: "The Society is deeply disappointed that we have had to make the difficult decision to cancel these important society events. However, as a responsible event organiser, we fully understand the need to work across the industry to minimise the spread of this pandemic.
"The Society appreciates that this will cause inconvenience for all concerned and encourage those with urgent questions or queries to contact us via, [email protected]
"The Society would like to thank our members, traders, exhibitors, competitors, sponsors and all stakeholders for their understanding and patience during this period of uncertainty. We will keep you fully informed regarding any further developments in what is an unprecedented situation."
It said the decision had been been made after taking account government advice against attending social events and said it felt it had no-option than to cancel the May events with people being warned against attending mass gatherings and to take social distancing steps.Wonderwool organiser Chrissie Menzies said they felt they had no option but to cancel the upcoming event but said next year's will take place in April:"We have already put a lot of work and money into organising the show and know that we will be disappointing lots of people, as we are disappointed ourselves. However, we do not want to put our staff, exhibitors or visitors at risk, so this is really the only decision we could make in the circumstances."