FOR the third year in a row, 400,000 people have made their way to the Royal Queensland Show (Ekka) since opening day to visit 10,000 animals and experience this unique once a year city/country get together.
RNA chief executive Brendan Christou said the association was thrilled with the response from the community who came out en masse to celebrate all that is great about their state.
“We had the perfect forecast for the full 10 days of show and we can’t thank the public enough for their support,” he said.
“This really is the people’s show, they came out in droves to support it and we’re humbled to stage it on their behalf.”
Mr Christou said the RNA was honoured to host the Australian of the Year Geoffrey Rush and Young Australian of the Year Marita Cheng on opening day, Brisbane born twins Jessica and Lisa Origliasso from The Veronicas plus world-class performances by the Ten Tenors and Eskimo Joe who take to the stage tonight.
For the first time in Ekka history, families and visitors to this year’s show were able to purchase the one ticket which gave them entry, food and rides.
Mr Christou said ticket pre-sales tripled this year compared to the 2011 Ekka.
“This shows that Ekka fans responded to the great value ticket bundles on offer this year, including one package which saved 50 per cent off food and 30 per cent off entry,” he said.
Ekka 2012 visitors were also the first to walk through the newly transformed Royal International Convention Centre (formerly the Industrial Pavilion) which was home to The Royal Queensland Dog Show proudly sponsored by Advance, the Brisbane Markets Agricultural Hall and Horticultural Exhibits.
Planning is already underway for the 136th Ekka as Queenslanders restart the countdown. Ekka 2013 will run from August 8–17.
BY THE NUMBERS
* 89 lambs born in the Little Miracles Newborn Corner including 12 sets of twins and 1 set of triplets. More are still on their way.
* 90+ chickens hatched.
* 130,000+ people visited the RACQ Insurance Animal Nursery.
* 100,000+ Ekka Strawberry Sundaes sold.
* 20,000+ Coon Cheese toasties sold.
* Most popular show bags: Bertie Beetle Blue, Dora the Explorer, Barbie, The Trash Pack, Moshi Monsters Bag, Littlest Pet Shop Bag, Spiderman, Men’s Health Magazine, Women’s Health Magazine, Girlfriend Magazine, SUPRE, Dolly and Abbott’s Village Bakery (which sold out by day 7).
* 180,000+ dagwood dogs.
* 2240 outfit changes in the Commonwealth Bank Cotton and Wool Parades over 32 shows.
* 44,000+ oysters sold at the Seafood and Wine Bar and the Royal Queensland Steakhouse.
* 16,000+ prawns sold at the Seafood and Wine Bar
* 7500 + glasses of wine sold at the Seafood and Wine Bar.
* 350kg+ Hot Smoked Salmon sold.
* 9500 giant pretzels sold from the King of Cakes.
* 8000 mini hot dogs sold from Gotzinger.
* 24,000+ slices of Fire in the Belly Woodfired Pizza sold.
* 2200+ Japanese savoury pancakes and 740 dumplings sold at Okonomiyaki.
* 7300 + loaves of bread sold at Abbott’s Village Bakery.
* 4500+ punnets of strawberries sold from Strawberry Fields.
* 7000 + CWA scones sold.
* 3 tonnes + of yoghurt sold at The Greek Yoghurt Co.
* 2t of peanuts sold at The Peanut Van
6000 macaroons sold from Pinks.
* 500kg of fairy floss sold from I Fairy Floss.
* 9000 Ekka Burgers sold at the Steakhouse Snackbar in Gourmet Harvest.
* 5000 steaks or 1.5 tonnes sold at the Royal Queensland Steakhouse.
* 1500 Wagyu tasting plates sold at the Royal Queensland Food and Wine Show Deli.
* 15,000 free samples of wine distributed by Twisted Gum Wines.
* 31,800 free samples of Australian Harvest Bio-Grape handed out.
* 14,500 samples of tea handed out by Tea Tonic. That’s more than 320 litres of tea.
* 25,000 free bite sized pieces of rocky road were handed out by Voodoo Rocky Road.
* 47,087 social media followers (including 41,512 on Facebook, 3505 on Twitter and 2070 on Instagram). This is more than double than last year.
* 2168 Ekkagram competition photo entries including 1643 from Instagram, 365 from Facebook and 160 from Twitter.
* 73,229 Facebook likes for a post by a member of the public about his good Samaritan deed.
* 931,742 people reached on B105 People’s Day via the Ekka Facebook page.
* 40,000 Ekka iPhone apps downloaded.
* 200,000 unique visits to the website – up 15pc on last year.
* 10,000,000 page views on the Ekka website.
* 1.1 million + people saw an Ekka related post on Facebook in the past week.
* 1115 most amount of Facebook likes in one day (B105 People’s Day).
