RURAL GET-TOGETHERS are set to stay off the calendar for 2020 with Deloraine, Westbury and Longford Shows cancelled.

Organisers say the uncertainty of possible break-outs of COVID-19 make it impossible to organise the events.

Stacey Tweedale from Westbury Show Society said the plan to cancel its November 7 Show was disappointing but the right decision. The society recently was granted $1200 by the RACT Community Support Fund to help make up for income lost due to COVID-19.

For Deloraine Show Society the cancellation is doubly disappointing because by the Show date of November 21 its new $300,000 facilities would have been ready.

‘Our committee made the decision after four meetings in a month,’ Deloraine president Lynette Gleeson said.

‘We thought it may have been possible but it was too difficult to plan. We have no staff to monitor hand sanitising and social distancing.

‘Hopefully we’ll be back next year, bigger and better than ever when we’re not still in this predicament.’

Deloraine Show Society is hoping to attract users for its new 17m x 25m pavilion, which will include a new commercial kitchen and dining area, toilets, showers and a baby change room. It will have a capacity of around 250 people.

‘The project would not have been possible without the funding we received from the Tasmanian Community Fund, the Deloraine and Districts Community Bank, the Tasmanian Government, Meander Valley Council, Rotary Club of Deloraine, Tasmanian Junior Beef Expo, as well as funds that the Show Society have raised through our fundraising efforts,’ Mrs Gleeson said.

‘Thousands of people visit the show grounds each year to attend the annual show, Tasmanian Craft Fair, Deloraine Markets, Winter Fire, Tasmanian Junior Beef Expo and other shows and field days, and these are necessary improvements needed to ensure the facilities remain attractive and usable for current and potential users.’