District won First Prize for Display, celebrating the
Federation of Australia The Sydney Royal Easter Show is the largest ticketed event held in Australia and one of the largest in the world. The Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales (formed a year before the event) held its first Show in 1823. Its initial purpose was of encouraging the colony's rural industries. The site was at
Parramatta Park, west of the town of
Sydney. It initially showcased horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry. In 1869, the event moved from
Parramatta to
Prince Alfred Park. In 1881, the
Government of New South Wales provided land for the Royal Agricultural Society at
Moore Park; the show was held at that venue for the next 116 years. In 1998, the event moved to a new showground within the
Sydney Olympic Park precinct at
Homebush Bay. The former
Sydney Showground at Moore Park has since become
Fox Studios Australia, with associated development known as
The Entertainment Quarter. The show since continued uninterruptedly after 1869, except in 1919 (during the
Spanish flu outbreak), the years of 1942 to 1946 (during
World War II) and 2020 (during the
COVID-19 pandemic). As per the event's namesake, it starts on the Friday before Easter and ends on the Tuesday following Easter (with closures on Sundays and
Good Friday). During that Thursday, it becomes a Children's Day, when goods such as discounted showbags are on sale. Yielding to pressure from the public, the show was later to be opened on Sundays and
Good Friday. With the move to Homebush Bay, the show was extended to 16 days. In 2000 it was reduced to 14 days. In 2007, a revised program took into account changes to NSW School Holidays, the show commencing on the Thursday before Good Friday in order to increase the holiday time for families to attend. In 2017 over 922,000 people attended the show, when about 850,000 were expected. The previous record was 964,000 in 2004. If Easter falls in March the show is held outside of school holidays. The 2021 show ran from 1 to 12 April, under some restrictions due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. Attendee numbers were reduced to 60,000 a day to allow maintenance of distancing as well as separate pavilion entries and exits monitored by COVID marshals, maintenance of distancing in queues, and caps on the number of people in arena, pavilions and stands. Venue cleaning was also increased. No cases of COVID-19 were associated with the show.
Show cancellations The Royal Easter Show has been cancelled three times — during the
Spanish flu pandemic, the
Great Depression and the
COVID-19 pandemic — during its over 200-year history.
Incidents On 10 April 2022, the organisers of the show closed one of the rides after the operator failed to secure the four-year-old boy who was on one of the rides on Sunday. It was found via social media that the children on the ride were restrained except for the boy. The next night on 11 April 2022, a 17-year-old boy was stabbed to death at 8:00pm in the adult carnival area of the show whilst working at the Sydney Royal Easter Show. That night, a 16-year-old was also stabbed and suffered a leg injury. It was subsequently revealed that police had arrested the people who were involved in this incident. ==Pricing==