The Morobe Show committee is excitedly preparing for this year’s 60th diamond jubilee show, scheduled for November 4th and 5th.
Organised by the Morobe Province Agricultural Society, a non-profit organisation run by volunteers, the highly-popular Morobe Show began in 1959 and is poised to celebrate its 60th diamond jubilee this year.
President of the show’s committee, Mike Quinn, said they have started having monthly meetings in preparation for the show. Their first meeting was on June 28th while the second one was on July 2nd.
“The show this year is on the 4th and 5th of November. It’s unusual for it to be in November. Normally, it’s somewhere in October but our dates are set by the weekend closest to the full moon and in this particular instance, the weekend closest is the first weekend in November,” said Quinn.
“We are very excited because this is our diamond jubilee show; it’s our 60th.
“Over the history of our society, 5 years we’ve not had shows; most recently because of two years of COVID, and three occasions prior to that. So our show society actually goes back about 65 years but this is our 60th show.
“We are going to try and make it a big one, make it a very special show.
“Last year was our first show after COVID so things were a little bit quieter in terms of preparation.”
Last year, the highlights of the 59th Morobe Show were the singsing groups, cowboy events, daredevil bike riders, parachute drops and spectacular flag displays, and mock battles by the PNG Defence Force.
Quinn said they are also fixing the Ferris wheel and hopefully, it will be in operation this year.
“Our councillors have been allocated their duties and so they are all in the process of looking after the various activities that they are controlling; agriculture, horticulture, traditional dancing and on it goes.
“Special one this year is going to be the family arena, down at the scrum oval,” he continued. “It’s proven to be bigger and bigger every year so that’s a whole lot of fun and activity down there and of course, our health expo will be operating again. It will be a great opportunity for people to come and see nurses and talk about issues like health, HIV/AIDS and all sorts of things in that area.
“The other one of course is the blood bank. It’s normally there so it’s an opportunity for people to donate blood.”
With the significance of this year’s show, the committee is looking to invite Prime Minister James Marape, and Deputy Prime Minister John Rosso, to the opening of the 60th Morobe Show on Sunday, November 5th.