Horse and livestock events won't go ahead this year at Suffolk Show site

Livestock and equine events which were due to take place this year at the home of the Suffolk Show have been cancelled due to coronavirus.

Suffolk Agricultural Association (SAA) - a farmer-led charity which hosts the Suffolk Show - took the difficult decision to pull the plug on the 2021 show last year.

But it had hoped that other livestock events might be possible - including staging the show's usual livestock and equine events without an audience as it did successfully with the Autumn Horse Show in September 2020.

But now it has decided not to run either its equine and livestock events at its showground at Trinity Park, near Ipswich, because of the ongoing health crisis.

The School Farm and Country Fair for 2021 has already been cancelled.

"Due to the continuing uncertainty presented by Covid-19 and the likely impact on our community for the months ahead the Suffolk Agricultural Association has taken the decision to cancel its equine and livestock events planned for late May/early June 2021," said SAA spokeswoman Helen Fomenko.

"The association has determined that it would not be appropriate to run the Farms Competitions or the Autumn Horse Show this year so these too have been cancelled."

It did not take the decision lightly but the organisation's first priority was to protect human health,  she explained. 

All the charity's efforts now were focused on delivery Suffolk Show 2022 - and enabling all the SAA's other activities to resume as soon as it is safe to do so, she added.

Next year's Suffolk Show is due to take place on Tuesday, May 31, and Wednesday, June 1.

This is a slight change to its usual half-term slot because of planned Platinum Jubilee Bank Holidays to mark the Queen's 70-year reign. 

The May bank holiday weekend is set to move to Thursday, June 2, and an additional bank holiday on Friday, June 3, has been added to mark the occasion.