SOUTH SHOW organisers believe the high turnout for this year’s event bodes well for its future. ‘It’s been really busy,’ said organiser Brenda Sparkes, who for more than 20 years has been involved with the horticultural, arts and crafts show which this year featured more than 530 exhibits from St Andrew’s, St Martin’s, St Peter Port, the Forest and Herm.

‘The way things are looking now, it seems we will probably carry on for next year.’

Hundreds visited the show, which opened yesterday afternoon at St Martin’s Primary School.

Mrs Sparkes said the increase in visitors could have resulted from recent efforts to advertise the event better.

The show is a scaled-down version of its heyday years, when it used to share fields in St Martin’s with livestock exhibitions and a horse event section, which was held earlier this year.

Mrs Sparkes said it was important that the event remained alive.

‘We’ve got the West and the North Shows, but if we don’t have anything like this in the south, the exhibitors cannot exhibit in the other two shows.

‘Therefore, if we didn’t put something like this on, they could not exhibit anywhere.’