PHOTOS: Horsham Ag Society already building on show success
01 October 2025
Excitement is already building for next year’s 150th Horsham Show after Horsham Agricultural Society leaders hailed this year’s show a resounding success.
Executive administrator Andrea Cross said attendance was up compared to 2024, with more than 6000 patrons flocking to Horsham’s Maydale Reserve at the weekend.
The show kicked off with a twilight carnival on Saturday night, with the most rides it has featured in 10 years, before the agricultural show competitions on Sunday, capped by a fireworks display along the Wimmera River at 8.30pm.
“The weather for a start was on point. We couldn’t have asked for better weather,” Mrs Cross said.
“Overall I think the community and the patrons were happy. We kept them entertained pretty fluidly across the weekend.” Mrs Cross said displays of wrestling, an annual sheep-shearing competition, games and camel rides were hits with people of all ages, while a maze, sandpit and lifelike dinosaur puppets kept children entertained.
She said organisers were already turning their attention to the show’s 150th anniversary in 2026.
“We’re looking at how we’re going to celebrate it, and we’ve already started putting plans in place,” she said.
“We will be looking at having a designated space for historical show-related artefacts.
“I’m sure there’s a lot of people at home who have got grandpa’s boxing trophy or a cattle prize from past shows.
“We might have a best-dressed competition and we’ll be doing a competition for the cover of the show schedule.”
Mrs Cross said the anniversary show would continue to celebrate the many stories of the patrons – both locally and from other parts of Australia – who made it what it was.
“A highlight for me this year was that we had two groups of an extended family, with one side living in Melbourne and the other side living in Kadina in South Australia,” she said.
“They met in Horsham to come to the show, and the grandmother and the grandson put entries in the photo competition.
“Having people travel so far to come to our show and for it to be a meeting point, that to me is a great story.”
