Agricultural Show: sharp drop in attendance with 27.9% fewer visitors this year, in the absence of cattle

The numbers are not good. This year’s Agricultural Show recorded a drop in attendance of 27.9%, penalized in particular by the absence of cattle, the Show organization announced on Sunday evening.

This year, the event brought together 437,402 visitors, compared to 607,000 during the previous edition, far from the 2014 record (703,000).

“When someone is missing in the family, it’s not like usual (…). And that was really felt in a drop in attendance,” the show’s boss, Jérôme Despey, explained to AFP a little earlier.

Over the first four days of the Show, the number of visitors already showed a decline of around 25%. “The context was a little special”, with the absence of cattle, a first in 62 years, which “had a lot of impact” and also “a lot of concern from the agricultural world”, underlined the president of the event.

“Some hesitated to come”

The Show had “respected” the choice of breeders not to bring their cows due to contagious lumpy skin disease.

“Beyond the legitimate emotion, a climate of wait-and-see attitude resulted. Some hesitated to come. Others chose not to participate. Calls for boycotts, conflicting speeches, sometimes overblown controversies may have contributed to fueling doubt: a Show announced as a place of tension makes people want less,” the organizers of the Show also highlighted in an open letter released on Sunday.

“We must not damage the Salon,” Jérôme Despey told AFP.

The lower attendance can also be explained by several “exogenous factors”, such as school holidays – for the first time in 8 years, all three zones were on vacation at the same time over several days during the Show – or the rainy weather with flooding in several regions, which may have prevented some visitors from coming.

Jérôme Despey, however, notes some positive aspects, with a “more qualitative aspect” for certain exhibitors who had the impression of “being able to dialogue better” among themselves but also with visitors and political leaders. But “of course next year will be different,” assured the president. “The show will come back stronger. »

He intends to meet quickly with the presidents of other fairs and the government to “enable us to have protocols that allow us to secure” this type of event and their participants “beyond the health protocols decreed by the State” in a context of necessary adaptation to new potential crises.