Bad weather blamed for show loss

The rain-hit Royal Welsh Show faced extra costs and reduced gate receipts

Last year's bad weather meant the Royal Welsh Show finished in the red for the first time in 33 years.

Wales' premier agricultural fair made a loss of �171,487, the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society said.

The "atrocious conditions" at the four-day event at Builth Wells were the worst in 50 years, said organisers.

But cancelling the show, which had 200,000 visitors, would have been "disastrous," claims the chairman's report, bringing losses of up to �4m.

The report said the society had a number of lessons to learn.

It was committed to an expenditure of �2.5m by the eve of the show.

The event faced almost �95,000 in extra costs, about half of it for towing vehicles, additional car parking and shuttle buses and reinstating the site.

The report said the show had handled "atrocious weather conditions that wiped out a number of less resilient events across the UK".

The report highlighted that, except for 2001 when the show was cancelled due to the foot-and-mouth outbreak, this was the only time since 1974 that the show had failed "to make a surplus".

David Lewis, chairman of the society's board of management, said in the report that the society could cope with the loss because of the success of previous years.

In December last year, Mr Lewis had said organisers expected the event to lose �300,000, as gate receipts were down �447,000 on the previous year.

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