Show holiday schedule under review

Sunshine Coast Council is encouraging local residents and organisations to have their say regarding the future scheduling of the region’s show holidays in order to evaluate the economic and community impact of any possible changes.

Economic Development portfolio councillor Peter Cox said that with the recent and ongoing debate within the community and the media about the show holidays it was clear that council needed to accurately understand all the options and views of key stakeholders and the impact that any changes might have.

“This consultation specifically focuses on the date of the annual holiday for future years and will not consider the shows themselves in any way,” Cr Cox said.

The consultation will help determine the future of the Maleny Show holiday in May and the Sunshine Coast Show holiday in June and will take into account a number of possible variations including retaining the status quo of two separate show holidays, selecting only one show holiday for the Sunshine Coast region or potentially doing away with the show holiday altogether.

“We recognise that the Sunshine Coast Agricultural Show has more than 100 years of history and the Maleny Agricultural Show celebrated its 76th show this year and we understand that the show holidays are an important part of these events,” Cr Cox said.

“However, the current approach of offering two show holidays across the unified Sunshine Coast region also brings with it some challenges for local businesses and schools and recent media coverage indicates that the community wants us to explore the options.

“The independent report will provide feedback from all stakeholders on the possible options so that council can have an informed discussion on which to base their decisions.”

There are currently five possible options that have been suggested, namely:

• Option One – Keep the current holidays as they are. This means a holiday in the Southern region of the Coast for the Maleny Agricultural Show in May and a different date in the Central region of the Coast for the Sunshine Coast Agricultural Show in Nambour held in June.
• Option Two – Keep only the Sunshine Coast Show Day in June for the whole region. This means both the Southern and Central regions will have the June show holiday and there will be no show holiday for the Maleny Show.
• Option Three – Keep only the Maleny Show Day in May for the whole region. This means both the Southern and Central regions will have the May show holiday and there will be no show holiday for the Sunshine Coast Agricultural Show.
• Option Four – Have a show holiday on a completely different day. In this case the Council will select a date other than one of the two current show dates. An example of such a day could be during the Ekka Show.
• Option Five – Having no show day public holiday at all – this holiday is only gazetted by the State Government if it is requested by the council. It is therefore possible for the Sunshine Coast to forgo the holiday altogether.

People are encouraged to have their say by completing the survey at the council's website by 8 July 2013.