It may be the competitive spirit …
It may be the community spirit …
It may be the creative spirit …
But it’s most likely a solid combination of all three that has the Kalbar Country Day Hay Sculpture contest headed for another record.
“We’re just blown away with the number of entries and people are still making them,” said Fassifern Lion’s Joy Young.
And those entries are not just confined to the Country Day epicentre.
“There’s certainly lots around the town and out in the district around Kalbar,” Joy said. “But the hay sculptures go way beyond that.
“For example, there’s the Angry Birds in Harrisville where four neighbours have each made one of the ‘birds’.
“Then out on the road to Harrisville there’s another one.
“Then there’s the bear playing drums on a property near Milbong on the Boonah Ipswich Road.
“And I know there’s some at Roadvale and Aratula; they’re everywhere.
“It’s likely we’ll see even more than last year’s 81 entries.”
The Fassifern Lions have been organising Kalbar Country Day for more than 25 years and Joy and her husband, Don, have been involved from the start.
Don, who is now Club President, says he believes the sculpture entries will not be the only record to topple this year.
“The market stall record of 93 which we set last year has already gone,” he said.
“We have over 140 now and we’re still getting bookings.”
Crowd numbers are also set to push any previous record.
“There’s buses coming from the Gold Coast, Lockyer and Brisbane,” Don reported, “and with the enquiries we’ve received so far, we know there are carloads of visitors coming from all over.”
Last year’s crowd numbers made parking an issue, but this year the organisers are prepared.
“The Kalbar Show Society have opened up the showground,” Don said.
“We can’t park people in the arena but there’s lots of space all round the grounds.”
As an added incentive to park in the showgrounds, visitors will be able to hitch a ride on a wagon drawn by Clydesdales and driven by Terry O’Brien.
“For the cost of a gold coin donation, Terry can take up to eight people at a time from the showgrounds up to outside the Royal Hotel where the market stalls begin.
“And if people prefer, it’s an easy walk from the showgrounds up to Edward Street.”
While entertainment will run throughout the day, the main focus of the event is the gathering of market stalls.
“There’s so many this year, we’ll probably run them as far up as the school in Edward Street and also into the Salvation Army carpark,” Joy said.
“We want everyone to have plenty of room to browse, to enjoy their food, to stop and have a chat with friends and to enjoy the country market atmosphere.”
All money raised on the day through the 70 prize, multi draw raffle and sale of stall sites and the like will go to the Lions Club.
“As we do every year,” we’ll donate a generous amount to the community organisations that have helped us put the event together and the rest will go towards the Club’s community projects,” said Joy.
As will any profits from the sale of the Hay Creations Calendar.
Kalbar Country Day will run from 7am to 3pm on Saturday, October 16.
