History
The Sydney Royal Easter Show is the largest event held in Australia, and the sixth largest in the world. The first Easter Show was held in 1823 by the newly formed Agricultural Society of New South Wales, with the aim of encouraging the colony's rural industries. The site was at Parramatta, 24 kilometres west of the town of Sydney, and the display included horses, cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry.
In 1869, the venue was moved from Parramatta to Prince Alfred Park until 1881 when the Government of New South Wales provided land for the Royal Agricultural Society at Moore Park where the show was held for 116 years. In 1998, the Show moved to a new showground in Sydney Olympic Park at Homebush Bay. The former Sydney Showground at Moore Park has since been converted into Fox Studios Australia with associated development known as The Entertainment Quarter.
The Show has been held every year since 1869 except during the severe outbreak of the Spanish flu in 1919 and between the years of 1942 and 1946 when it was interrupted by World War II. Traditionally, the Show began on the Friday before Easter, was closed on Sundays and Good Friday and packed up the Tuesday following Easter, the Tuesday being "Children's Day" when goods such as showbags were reduced in price.
At the RAS Showground at Moore Park, the largest single event of the Show was the Grand Parade on Easter Saturday when hundreds of beasts representing the various classes of livestock were paraded in a series of concentric circles. To the public eye, this spectacular sight, which involved creatures ranging from newborn lambs and Shetland ponies to Brahman bulls and Clydesdale stallions, was staged with such skill that it invariably took place without a hitch. However, on one memorable occasion a steer broke loose and plunged into the quarters of the Royal Agricultural Society. The Grand Parade continues to take place, though on a somewhat smaller scale, at the Sydney Stadium venue.
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 two weeks. 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.
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