by Sahar Foladi
Dandenong Show president Kate Reedy will be at the helm for the last time this weekend.
Continuing in the long family traditions of the show, Ms Reedy will hand over the reins to her aunt Leanne Graham, who will be taking over from 2025-26.
Ms Reedy welcomed her youngest child one month after last year’s show and has fulfilled the role of being the president as well as a new mother of two.
She used to attend the annual show as a child herself, and now her children are experiencing the same.
“I look forward to the whole show – I’ve been coming since a child. From horses competing to cattle, rides, show bags, it’s a really fun atmosphere.”
She says she’s “proud of the people on the committee” who’ve brought the show together for the community to give them a fun experience with animals amongst many other things.
The show was first held at the Dandenong Market site in 1872. And it’s back for the 153rd time, with some changes.
The show’s committee are trying to “drag” themselves “into the 21st century” shifting administrative tasks onto the internet and offering online ticketing, volunteer forms and competition applications.
Ms Graham, who has been on the committee for decades, shares the tremendous workload required for the past mailouts.
“It was a case of we’d be dealing with maybe 1000 entries at show time, and how-many thousand letters we wrote to put the tickets in envelopes and post them all out.
“We had issues with the post being slow or something happening to the mail, and we’d leave tickets at people’s gates.
“This is much cleaner, we take much more control over ensuring people have their ticket.”
The committee are also working hard to get their social media platforms to be more “catchy.”
Both Ms Reedy and Ms Graham say they hope to invite the municipality’s diverse groups to perform their cultural dances at the show.
“I’d like to work with attractions committee to ensure we have plenty on the stages around the ground and we have plenty for people to see. And that won’t cost anything once they pay for their tickets,” Ms Graham said.
“Maybe a dance competition, half a dozen different dance clubs from different nationalities, Samoan, Greek, Italian, something that’s very different from past shows.”
Ms Reedy will maintain her involvement on the committee along with her family as they have been doing for the past four generations.
