PRESS FEATURE

Royal Highland Show – Enduring Popularity

The Royal Highland Show At A Glance

2008 Facts & Figures

Introduction: The Royal Highland Show is one of Scotland’s top summer attractions with an average attendance in the last five years of more than 152,000 over its four-day run in June. Wet weather in 2007 affected the 148,283 attendance but in 2006, visitor numbers were a record for the Ingliston venue at 161,409.

Billed as one of THE great days out, a visit to the “Highland” offers a multitude of features to enjoy with fine food and drink, prize-winning livestock, outdoor living and countryside, traditional rural skills, music, cookery demonstrations, forestry events, farm machinery, handcrafts, heavy horses, motor zone and shopping, just a few of the attractions.

All of these are contained within well-signposted designated areas making it easy for visitors to get around the showground. Look out for the Outdoor Living Area, Agricultural Machinery Area, Livestock Judging Area, Countryside Area, Craft Fair, Equestrian Village, Motor Zone, Food & Drink at the Royal Highland, Forestry Arena, Lifestyle Area and the Shopping Arcade.

Dates: The 2008 Royal Highland Show will take place from Thursday, June 19, to Sunday, June 22.

The organisers, the Royal Highland & Agricultural Society of Scotland (RHASS) held the first “Highland” in 1822 in Edinburgh on a site now occupied by the Scottish Parliament. This year’s will be the 168th show.

Venue: The Royal Highland Centre (RHC), Ingliston, Edinburgh. The RHC is situated adjacent to Edinburgh International Airport on the A8, a short journey from Edinburgh city centre and a few hundred metres from the main UK motorway network.

The Royal Highland Show has been held there since 1960 making this the 48th show at Ingliston. Prior to that, the show moved around the country to locations in the RHASS’s eight electoral areas – Perth, Stirling, Strathclyde, Aberdeen, Lothian, Borders, Dumfries & Galloway and Highland. This year, Strathclyde is the “host” area.

The area within the showground extends to 100 acres and there is 150 acres for parking up to 25,000 vehicles - the largest car park in Scotland!

Show Opening Times: Thursday: 07.00 – 19.00. Friday and Saturday: 08.00 – 19.00. Sunday: 08.00 – 18.00

Ticket Prices: Admission price on all four days is £20 with concessions at £15 available for senior citizens and students. There are “early bird” discounts available at £18 and £13. Discounted rates of £2 per ticket are available for groups of 25 or more. Car parking is £5 per day. For “early bird” tickets, visit the website www.royalhighlandshow.org

All children under 16 accompanied by an adult go FREE.

Some of the main attractions:

Livestock – one of the world’s best displays of livestock breeding. Around 4000 head of the finest cattle, horses, goats and sheep compete for coveted Royal Highland rosettes and almost £1 million in prize money and trophies.

This year, there is a special focus on Simmental cattle with the World Simmental Congress including the show in its programme. The grand parade of prize-winning livestock on Friday, Saturday and Sunday is one of THE spectacles of the show.

Climate Change and Renewables - a subject now high on the public agenda. The Scottish Government and the Forestry Commission Scotland will be demonstrating the impact of climate change on the landscape. In a separate exhibit on renewable energy, a number of companies will be featuring wind and solar power, biomass and alternative energy sources.

Food & Drink at the Royal Highland – the top exhibition of Scottish food and drink plus speciality foods from other areas, non-food ancillary products and cookery demonstrations by celebrity chefs. Emphasis on the current trend “buy local, eat local.” A special exhibit – Strength of Strathclyde – will showcase up and coming food and drink companies from the region. Great Grog will be offering tutored wine tastings featuring wines from France, South Africa and the New World.

Scottish Food and Drink Theatre - the theatre within the Food Hall brings together the exciting diversity and quality of Scottish food and drink and its associations with agriculture, tourism, retail, food service and cuisine. Rolling programme of events including chef demonstrations, tastings, retail product demos and presentations on where our food comes from and how it is produced.

Highland Games - part of the Strength of Strathclyde President’s Initiative for 2008. At the weekend in the main ring, some of the world’s best heavy athletes will be demonstrating caber tossing, stone putting and weight for height, including world champion Scotsman Gregor Edmunds.

Outdoor Living Area - a host of ideas and concepts in this popular area…whether it’s for pottering about in the garden, cooking alfresco on the barbecue, relaxing on some new garden furniture or soaking in the hot tub!

Highland Hall - the country’s largest temporary cattle shed! The Highland Hall is the biggest single span building in Scotland and houses around 1000 beef and dairy cattle at the show. The sheer scale is breathtaking and visitors can get up close to hairy Highlanders, dainty Jerseys and cute calves.

Countryside Area - this 7-acre site, entered from the West Gate or from the main showground, incorporates a one-acre loch and stunning landscaping. Trade stands, demonstrations and events reflecting a range of country sports and activities – gundogs, falconry, fly fishing, ferrets, terrier racing and sheepdogs. The Rural Marquee features traditional skills, from bagpipe making to drystane dyking.

MacRobert Theatre - all action sheep shearing at this purpose built facility which in 2003 hosted the “Golden Shears” World Championships. National pride is at stake in the Highland Shears Open competition.

Children’s Education Centre - run by the Royal Highland Education Trust with a theme this year of “So You Think You Know About Farming?, this bustling centre is a must for the young visitor, either in an organised school party or with mum and dad. Hands-on activities help children understand more about the countryside, food and farming.

Motor Zone - sixteen companies will be exhibiting the latest car models with Volkswagen also featuring the David Beckham Football School and Peugeot offering a mini driving experience.

Music - an eclectic mix of music and dance featuring a Welsh male voice choir, Scottish country dance, jazz, folk, Latin, pipes and drums, Irish dancing and “Strictly Come Salsa”.

Forestry Arena - pole climbing with new poles installed earlier this year, axe throwing, timber shifting, wood carving by chain saw. The sights and sounds of the forestry industry in one specialised location.

Trade Stands & Shopping - the “trade” regard the Royal Highland as one of the best shows for business in the UK. The show has remained true to its core base with a high percentage of its 1000 exhibitors featuring farm machinery, equipment and services although there is an ever-widening variety of shopping opportunities for farm, country and town visitors – from combines to crafts, food to fashion, wellies to whisky! Almost £100 million is either spent or pledged during the show.

The RHASS - The Society was established in 1784 to promote the trade, agriculture, poetry, language and music of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Today, it is principally known for the Royal Highland Show but its activities cover much more. In addition to making awards and grants, the Society has a strong educational role in promoting all aspects of rural life in Scotland including agriculture, horticulture and forestry. The Royal Highland Education Trust fulfils this role through links with Scottish primary schools.

Membership - The RHASS membership currently stands at 14,000. At its foundation in 1784, membership was 128.

Show Attendance - The Royal Highland Show is one of the largest public events held annually in Scotland and attracts on average more than 150,000 visitors.

2002 - 134,780 2003 - 150,386 2004 - 146,762

2005 - 155,368 2006 - 161,409 2007 - 148,283

Three year average attendance – 152,441

Major Sponsor - The Royal Bank of Scotland is the major sponsor of the Royal Highland Show. The bank has a long association with the show and Scottish agriculture.

* General press information from Ross Muir or Judith O’Leary at O’LearyRMPR on 01383 432608. If you would prefer to receive press releases by e-mail, then please e-mail your details to ross@olearyrmpr.co.uk

* Information on Strathclyde Initiative, Ladies Day and Lifestyle Features from Heather Middleton at KD Media on 0131 624 9840 or heather@kdmedia.co.uk

* All enquiries on media accreditation to O’LearyRMPR, Dunfermline Business Centre, Izatt Avenue, Dunfermline KY11 3BZ

* Show website: www.royalhighlandshow.org

April 2008 rhs08prfacts

If ever there was evidence of the enduring popularity of one of Scotland’s most iconic events, it came on a wet weekend last June when a staggering 75,000 visitors made the trip to the Royal Highland Show on the outskirts of Edinburgh, boosting total attendance to more than 148,000.

For 2008, the organisers will be hoping for a kinder weather pattern from Thursday, June 19 to Sunday, June 22, with numbers anticipated to be well over the 150,000 mark, a figure more in keeping with recent statistics.

So let’s forget scenes of children splashing happily through puddles or horses galloping through the mud and look forward to four days of spectacle and entertainment as the spotlight shines on Scotland’s major summer event with its focus on farming, food and countryside.

The beauty of an event like the Royal Highland Show is its number of core attractions – grand parades of livestock, tempting aromas in the Food Hall, rural pursuits and skills in the Countryside Area, gargantuan farm machinery, shopping till you drop!

Visitors have a fair idea of what to expect, but each year Show Manager David Dunsmuir and his team endeavour to change the formula, introducing new features and welcoming new exhibitors.

“It’s a bit of a moving feast,” says David. “We have to keep things fresh to attract, not only our regular visitors, but those coming for the first time. Many have heard about the show but are not sure what to expect. We can guarantee them a few surprises and a day out full of interest, new experiences and above all, enjoyment.”

Despite its title, the show has rarely featured one activity central to the Scottish summer calendar - Highland games. This year, though, as part of Strength of Strathclyde - the initiative being staged by the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society Presidential team – international “heavies” will be demonstrating the skills involved in caber tossing, stone putting and weight for height where a 56 lb weight is heaved over a high bar.

The Highland sports demonstrations take place in the main ring on Saturday and Sunday and include Scotsman Gregor Edmunds, the world champion.

Although Strathclyde is often regarded as a built up industrial and urban landscape, the region, extending from Argyll to Ayrshire and Lanarkshire, is famed for its farming and food production.

Clyde built once represented the strength of industrial Scotland; Clyde valley grown now represents the very best of food from Scotland.

This is the other important strand to the Strength of Strathclyde feature and a specially built pavilion in the Food Hall will showcase a number of up and coming local food and drink companies - beef and lamb from Clyde Valley Farms Direct, free range eggs from Corrie Mains, Mauchline, Simple Simon’s Pies from Coulter, Biggar, beer from the Fyne Ales Brewery in Argyll, smoked salmon from Burns’ Country Smokehouse at Minishant and from Glasgow (and using Corrie Mains eggs) the Handmade Meringue Company.

Strength of Strathclyde will be a focal point in the Food Hall which has become the Royal Highland’s most popular attraction with around 100 top food and drink companies, loads of products to sample and a full programme of demos and advice in the Scottish Food & Drink Theatre, put together by one of Scotland’s top foodies Wendy Barrie.

The hall also features prize winning cheese and butter from the various Royal Highland competitions and as a reflection of the increasing interest by many dairy farmers in diversifying into ice cream manufacture, the summer favourite now has its own competition featuring, not only farmhouse varieties, but entries from some of Scotland’s top ice cream parlours.

Since its inception a couple of years ago, the section has grown out of all recognition and from 2008 it will be known as the Scottish Ice Cream Competition with classes for vanilla, strawberry, chocolate and “open” flavours.

Many ice cream makers, of course, have their roots in Italy bringing an international dimension to the show. Indeed, such has become the universal fame of the Royal Highland that it is now classed as one of the world’s best agricultural events, appealing to both a specialist farming audience and to a huge cross section of other visitors.

For 2008, many will be travelling from abroad, from the Commonwealth, Europe and some further flung countries such as Russia, China and Saudi Arabia.

The international contingent will be swelled this year by Simmental cattle enthusiasts who will be in Scotland for the World Simmental Congress, which will include special classes for the breed at Ingliston.

Many foreign visitors will be unfamiliar with our Scottish weather and with imminent climate change, it can be difficult to anticipate what to expect!

Warmer summers, milder winters and fewer frosts may appeal to most of us but the change that is forecast over the next 50 years will have a major impact on Scotland’s landscape and farming practice.

In a special exhibit, the Scottish Government and the Forestry Commission Scotland will be demonstrating that impact on the landscape, from the high mountain tops, down through the uplands, to woodlands, farm pasture and meadows - an educated assessment of how land forms and farming might alter over the next few decades.

Everyone, of course, can make their own contribution to minimising the effect of global warming by reducing their carbon footprint. It’s for that reason that “renewables” will have a high profile at the show with a section dedicated to wind and solar power, biomass, alternative energy and the like.

It’s all part of the Royal Highland’s Reithian principle to inform, educate and entertain.

Whether it’s children learning more about where their food comes from with the Royal Highland Education Trust posing the question “So You Think You Know About Farming?” or adults and juniors alike marvelling as the sparks fly at the blacksmith’s forge or ladies who lunch enjoying the special programme on Friday’s Ladies Day, the Royal Highland will deliver.

An area to look out for this year is the motor zone which has increased in size with sixteen car manufacturers represented. They include Volkswagen who will be featuring the David Beckham Football School and Peugeot who will be offering a mini driving experience.

Add in 4000 head of prime livestock, tips on outdoor living, agri-trade exhibits, gundog demonstrations, premier class show-jumping, music and dance from a Welsh male voice choir, the pipes and drums of the Queen Victoria School to Strictly Come Salsa, and it’s easy to see why the show is enduringly popular.

And even if it does rain? David Dunsmuir: “No worries…we have miles of permanent roadways but more importantly, there is so much under cover that you can spend the best part of a day taking in most of the attractions. But at the moment…we’re thinking sunshine!”

*The 2008 Royal Highland Show - major sponsor The Royal Bank of Scotland - takes place at the Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Thursday June 19 to Sunday June 22. Adult admission on all four days is £20 (£15 senior citizens and students). Children under sixteen go free if accompanied by an adult. Car parking is £5. Early booking discounts apply (£18 and £13) - phone 0131 335 6236 for details or check the website www.royalhighlandshow.org

*General press information from Ross Muir or Judith O’Leary at O’LearyRMPR on 01383 432608. If you would prefer to receive press releases by e-mail, then please e-mail your details to ross@olearyrmpr.co.uk

*Show website: www.royalhighlandshow.org

April 2008 Rhs08prfeature