THE Swan Hill show has been bringing families and friends together for more than a century.
As a child, Marilyn Chisholm fondly recalls making the trek from Tresco into Swan Hill each year for the annual agricultural event.
“It was like coming into a big city,” she said, noting she attended the show with her parents and brother.
“I loved it, meeting up with friends, the boys, and back then, the biggest thing was the flying horses merry-go-round.”
While she’s watched the show evolve over the years, the family-friendly element has remained a big part of the event, and one that has stood the test of time for Ms Chisholm.
The tradition of attending the yearly show continued once she had her own family and she loved attending the event with husband Keith, son Lyle and daughter Catherine.
“The kids love it,” she said.
While her two children have grown up and now reside interstate, the annual show still plays an important role within the family.
Today, Ms Chisholm and her family remain actively involved in the show.
She’s the head steward for jams and bottled preserves and is part of the entertainment line-up, performing alongside her husband in the Happy Wonderers old time band.
“It’s nice to support the show,” she said.
Ms Chisholm has been a steward with the show for 12 years, a role she continues to fulfil with her son, Lyle.
“Each year he makes the special trip, travelling back to Swan Hill from Sydney to help out,” she said.
“He takes time off work so he can attend each year.”
Following two years of cancellations due to COVID-19 and the worldwide pandemic, Ms Chisholm is looking forward to getting back into the swing of things.
“It’s good to get back to it,” she said, adding the jams and bottled preserves category always attracted a lot of high quality entries.
Covering everything from jams and marmalade to lemon butter, jelly, sauce, chutney, relish, pickles, honey, oil, vinegar and fruit cordial, Ms Chisholm said the younger generation was stepping up to the challenge and taking an interest in homemade goodies.
“There are lots of young ones coming through with entries now, which is really good,” Ms Chisholm said.
She said one of the challenges was to keep the show fresh, and with this in mind, new sections had been introduced this year, including alcohol for homebrew enthusiasts, with the competition open to beer, alcoholic and non-alcoholic ginger beer and liqueur.
Hoping for a large turnout, Ms Chisholm encouraged the wider community to show their support for the show by entering one of the many categories on offer.
“If you enjoy it, give it a go,” she said.
“It encourages them to keep country shows going and the more entries, the better.”
