Ready to go

“Yeah, I think we’ve got it all pretty well sorted out and set, ready to go.”

That seemed to sum up the general feeling of early breakfast eaters in the food-hall tent, which had been busy since 7am. Already, the first wave of diners had been and gone, leaving plates and paper cups strewn across the tables, which the second wave simply pushed aside.

Most of the customers were in a hurry – there were still last-minute touches to be added to displays and sales tables; there were problems with electrical connections; tills and Eftpos machines needed to be double-checked; late arrivals of merchandise had to be unpacked and made ready; and there were high expectations that this year the National Fieldays was going to be good for business. So they scoffed and scooted, keen to get back and be ready for the inevitable influx.

And it occurred, as it always does, right on time – at 8am precisely the several public-access gates were hauled open, and an orderly series of human tsunamis began to sweep across the massive site. Some people had been standing on the high ground at the main gate, waiting patiently for almost an hour, and shivering in a good frost as they watched the dawn come up out of a clear sky.

Yet even after sunrise it continued to get colder, and people sought out every last sliver of sunlight they could in an effort to suck up supposed warmth. But it wasn’t until about 10am that any appreciable comfort could be gained – which time an eternal optimist running a sidewalk stand begin his spruikking call: “Warm up with an icecream.”
Hot pies, punnets of hot chips, hot coffee, or thick steaming roast-meat sandwiches were somewhat more to the crowd’s liking, so long as it was warm and filling, and barristas found themselves coping with growing queues. So too did the fresh-cooked mussel or whitebait fritter short-order cooks.

Even so, the early crowds were somewhat thinner than usual in the first few hours, and while some clothing and household stands were strongly attended by early-bird bargain-hunters, those manning the more traditional rural sites, where they were showing off machinery, farm equipment, stock and pasture remedies, had the chance to be a little more leisurely in chats to passersby.

Maybe, because the weather was so good, farmers decided to stay home and make the most it, banking on a possible deterioration later in the week, giving them reason to take a day off.