Royal Easter Show Flashback: 1996

Source: Harvey, A. 1996. "Dung, dancers: the fun begins". The Sydney Morning Herald, March 30: 5. 

This week, The Royal Easter Show commences at Sydney Olympic Park. Each year, I look back at the Easter Show as it was 25 years ago. 

This year, the focus is on 1996. It was the second last show to be held at the Moore Park site. In October 1996, plans for the new showgrounds were unveiled as construction commenced. 

Dates: March 29 - April 9, 1996

Admission & Transport:

Adults - $14 (up $1 from 1995)

Children - $7

Tertiary Students - $10

Pensioners - $10

Family Tickets - From $25

Showlink tickets were available combining public transport with show entry (Appears to include Moore Park buses and rail for the first time). 

Discounted evening entry was available for $6 after 6pm. 

Parking at Moore Park cost $7 per vehicle. 

In 2021, it will cost $43.50 for adults , $27.50 for Children and $28 for concession. However, discounts will apply if purchased early. Due to COVID-19, public transport will not be included in the ticket and tickets must be purchased online. 

Highlights

• Australian Defence Force Exhibition
• Supertank Mobile Fishing Show featuring the world's largest mobile fishing tank. 
• Battle Star Australis & Fireworks nightly. This also included Rocketman. 
• Closing Night Rock Concert featuring Silverchair, Spiderbait, Midget & Even Play

"The End of Grunge Music" uploaded Silverchair's performance at the closing night concert. Click here to view it. 

Source: Harvey, A. 1996. "A winning show for all creatures great and small". The Sydney Morning Herald, April 10: 2.

An estimated 920 000 attended the Royal Easter Show in 1996. COVID-19 restrictions have capped daily attendances for 2021 for 60 000 per day, allowing for only 720 000 attendees. 

Showbags

220 Showbags were on sale from $2 through to $12 (Compared with $2 to $10 in 1995).  In 2021, around 350 showbags will be on sale (down from 358 in 2019). 

Below is an assortment of Showbag advertisements. In 2021, we can inspect show bags online several weeks before the show begins and see the items featured. Advertising of showbags in the preview guide has been scaled back as a result in recent years. If you cannot attend the Easter Show but crave showbags, some suppliers e.g. Bensons will sell the showbags online. 

Most advertisements were sourced from the 1996 Royal Easter Show preview magazine that was published in The Sun Herald on March 24 1996 while several were sourced from a supplement published in The Daily Telegraph on March 27 1996. Unfortunately, page numbers were not published in either publication. 

Cola Cola

Always a highly recommended bag to buy

Mega Bags 

In 1995, they went for a smaller advertisement, but upsized for 1996.

Candy World 

Whenever I compare their offerings for the 1990's, one always got better value for money than today. While other suppliers improve the quality of their offerings, this is one that has slipped. This is referring to their general showbags

Pepsi had a great showbag on offer and I do remember purchasing the Tazo showbag. 

Triple M Showbag

Sourced from The Daily Telegraph "Show Guide '96" supplement (March 27, 1996).

Nestle 

Sourced from The Daily Telegraph "Show Guide '96" supplement (March 27, 1996).

Nestle provided another simple newspaper advertisement as in 1995. Note that Bertie Beetle was $2. 

Bensons

Unlike 1995, Bensons provided detailed descriptions of their bags in their advertisement.

Below are some extra feature articles. The first article is from The Sydney Morning Herald (April 6, 1996) reporting on Good Friday, which is traditionally the busiest day for show attendances.

Source: Lewis, L. 1996. "Show goes on but Dagwood's day is done". The Sydney Morning Herald, April 6: 4. 

On March 29, 1996, The Daily Telegraph published an opening day feature. It reported that a day at the Easter Show was set to cost families $200. 

Finally, 2021 will be the first year where is no printed Easter Show Guide or preview guide. It can only be viewed online but there is a small liftout in yesterday's edition of The Sunday Telegraph. I had collected Easter Show guides from 1999 through to 2019 and sadly are now consigned to history.