AN Apache helicopter crew from RAF Wattisham dropped in at the Trinity Park showground outside Ipswich yesterday as the final countdown to this year's Suffolk Show got underway.

Duncan Brodie

AN Apache helicopter crew from RAF Wattisham dropped in at the Trinity Park showground outside Ipswich yesterday as the final countdown to this year's Suffolk Show got underway.

The annual two-day showcase event - taking place this year on May 27 and 28 - is aiming to help the county set aside the economic gloom, styling itself as “a beacon of all that is great about Suffolk”.

And in a gesture towards local servicemen and women who have served their country in the wider world, the Suffolk Agricultural Association, which organises the show, is distributing 450 free family tickets to the event to personnel based at Colchester Garrison and the Honington, Wattisham and Woodbridge RAF bases.

The first of the tickets were handed over to the Apache crew yesterday - and there are hopes that one of the helicopters will also be able to make an appearance during the Suffolk Show.

Confirmed attractions at this year's event include top class show jumping, the Bolddog Lings motor-cross display team, the Jive Pony horseback acrobatics team and Abba tribute band Voulez-Vous, which will be performing on the middle evening of the show.

The foodhall, branded the Adnams Food and Drink Experience under a three-year deal between the SAA and the Suffolk brewer, will again showcase locally produced goods and will this year also include a cookery theatre, sponsored by the Health Ambitions Suffolk campaign which aims to highlight food which is not just local but also healthy and affordable.

The demonstrations will feature chefs from Adnams' hotels in Southwold and Marks & Spencer, together with local chefs Franck Pontais and Mark David and Master Chef finalist Chris Gates. BBC Radio Suffolk's Mark Murphy and Lesley Dolphin will also take part in a “Ready Steady Suffolk” cook-off challenge, featuring meat from the local Red Poll cattle and Suffolk sheep breeds.

The link between food and farming will, as usual, be to the fore at the show, with livestock classes having attracted strong, and in the case of cattle, record entries while the Farminanglia demonstration area will feature the role of Suffolk's arable sector as a “Grain Basket for England”.

The skills of local students will also be on display, ranging from construction and landscaping to hair and beauty, and the show will also offer its usual wide range of retail opportunities, with more than 100 new tradestands taking space this year.

Reduced price tickets for the show, including a �36 family ticket covering two adults, two children and car parking, are available in advance of the show by visiting www.suffolkshow.co.uk or calling 01473 707117.

Entry at the gate on the day will cost �17 for adults, �6 for children, �14 for senior citizens or �40 for a family ticket, with car parking at �5.