The largest village show in England returns to Lincolnshire this weekend
The event welcomed 25 thousand people last year
Heckington Show returns for its 156th year, featuring all the agricultural, horticultural and craft activities of a traditional event.
The two day weekend event is the largest village show in England and welcomes around 25 thousand people each year.
Charles Pinchbeck is the Chairman of the Heckington and District Agricultural Society who put on the show - he tells us how they're expecting even more people this year:
"There's a real buzz around the show this year. I mean, people always feel good about it, and just as you go around the village, you can just sense the excitement. It like Christmas, but in the summer, and you get to choose who comes as well. It's just wonderful.
"But yeah, we've seen ticket sales going really, really well and our competition entries, some of the sheep and cattle is the highest we've ever had and we closed the entries for the 10 mile road race, at the beginning of the month because it was full. We also have an amazing donkey show, which actually has, again, record entries.
"The signs are that we might even have better attendance this year. Our peak before the pandemic, was 30,000 people, and now we see around 25,000 which is still about 10 times the population of the village coming to Heckington.
"I think it's really clear that as we're still coming out of COVID that the chance to be together, to compete in a friendly and positive way and to share what you're passionate about with everybody in Lincolnshire, you know, it really has a future."
The event is held on the last full weekend in July, each year and is well-known for the relaxed way that it combines the intimacy of a village show with the expectation of the national stage. ​It's also only run by volunteers!
There'll be a 10 mile road race, show jumping and a firework display tonight, Charles tells us what he's most looking forward to:
"I absolutely adore the children's running. It's the first event on Saturday morning. The children from the village and the visiting nephews and nieces, all have their go on the track. Plus, I actually own a couple of horse drawn waggons and one of those is in the competition for the best turn out on Saturday and I'm quite hopeful that we might actually win the trophy again this year.
"My sweet peas have done better than ever this year, all the rain in June just brought them on, so I'm going to be up at 5:00 on Saturday morning getting those ready and just seeing if I get a red card in showing - which is what you want, because that means it's first prize. Then, my highlight last year might be re-enacting my childhood dream as I got to drive the Steam roundabout!"
In addition, new for this year is the Belgian Bouncing Man who presents a half hour long comedy equestrian show. He's said to demonstrate the finest horsemanship skills including Roman Riding, Liberty and Trick Riding.
There's also been a few changes to to the WiFi after concerns on the issue were raised by traders last year - which detailed limited mobile phone connections, which has been previously too slow for card readers to work effectively, and after extensive research and investment in infrastructure, the team will now able to offer a WiFi connection across the site for all our traders and exhibitors.
To find out more go to the Heckington Show website.