Many are calling for the vaccine mandates to be scrapped as more regional shows are forced to postpone and cancel due to COVID restrictions.
In a bizarre turn of events, one show society were forced to cancel their rodeo fundraiser due to the vaccine mandate, while half-an-hour up the road another committee got lucky and were able to hold a rodeo without restrictions, due to a change of venue.
Currently, under state government directives, you must be have two doses of the COVID vaccine in order to attend a show on government-owned showgrounds.
Show society's are buckling under the pressure of the vaccine mandate, with many lacking vaccinated volunteers and being forced to postpone in the hopes of eased restrictions, or in some cases, cancelling their events all together.
One committee facing the decision of whether or not to cancel their show is the Gympie Show Society.
Gympie Show Society Vice President Warren Smith said the committee is struggling with the idea of running their show under the current restrictions, particularly after the indefinite postponement of the shows main fundraiser this month.
"We have an annual rodeo in February every year as a fundraiser and that normally brings us $20,000 to $40,000 of clear money to be able to run the show," he said.
"We can't run that this year because we would have to check everybody at the front gate to make sure they're vaccinated.
"We'd be in trouble with the department of main roads because we'd have traffic backed up to the highway and half way back to Cooroy as we checked everybody's status when they come to the front gate.
"So we'd had the department of main roads on our back, we'd have the police on our back and we'd have the general public of Gympie, 10 per cent of whom are unvaccinated, on our backs."
Also read: Country shows postpone under COVID pressure
Mr Smith said the impact of losing vital funding for the show and a huge amount of patrons, along with the need to hire additional security, would put the show society in a financial hole unless the rules were amended.
"At this point in time, by the end of this month we'll be making a decision on whether or not we conduct our show. We're waiting for a change of rules but if not, it will be a straight out cancel, we're not looking to postpone because we can't.
"It would cost us $50,000 to have people manning the gate and the security that goes along with turning away those who are not vaccinated.
"We just can't do it because we would lose that many volunteers and patrons that we would then lose money on the show."
Due to a high percentage of volunteers being unvaccinated, as well as members of the general public, Mr Smith said the mandate will not only impact the show financially, but will also cause friction within the wider community.
"A lot of show societies are struggling in the fact that a lot of their volunteers are unvaccinated and you can't run a show without volunteers," he said.
"By not having the same rules and regulations for everybody, it also causes division within the community.
"We've had keyboard warriors who have basically bombarded us with abuse. Our president has had people ring her at work and abuse her because they can't access the rodeo and how dare we divide the community.
"We've done no such thing, it's the regulations that we're forced to follow, which we deem unnecessary and duplicitous, that are dividing the community."
Another issue angering the show society, is the contradictory rules that change depending on the type of event being held at the showgrounds.
At the Gympie showgrounds, markets are held every weekend in the same part of the grounds that would normally host sideshow alley, however both vaccinated and unvaccinated patrons are able to attend due to markets being classified as an essential service.
Queensland Country Life contacted Queensland Health for clarification on the rules surrounding showgrounds and were directed to the public health and social measures restrictions, which have not been updated since the 17th of December.
According to the current restrictions, "a showground is considered a multi-purpose venue," and "the rules that apply are based on the use of the specific area of the showground area at the time."
In the same week that the Gympie Show Society were forced to cancel their rodeo fundraiser, the Mary Valley State College Parents and Carers Association unknowingly found a loophole as a result of needing a bigger space to hold their own rodeo.
When the committee moved their growing event from the Mary Valley showgrounds to the Mary Valley State College oval, the event consequently fell under a different set of rules that meant both vaccinated and unvaccinated patrons could attend.
P and C association president Joanne Robey explained that the lack of restrictions was an added bonus for the committee after the change of venue was decided.
"Moving it to the school oval meant that we didn't fall under the ruling saying that you have to be vaccinated when you're on a showground precinct, which is a bit ridiculous when you don't have to be vaccinated in a council owned park," she said.
"Because we were on school grounds after hours when the school students are no longer there, it's considered an open community space. Hence we were able to have vaccinated and unvaccinated people attend.
"It was fortuitous that when we moved to the school oval we could have anyone attending, which I prefer as I'd rather not discriminate and put my volunteers in that position where they need to police it because I think that's really unfair."
Ms Robey said the planning required to run events in the current climate is extremely difficult and expensive for volunteer-run organisations, but her background in event management made things easier for their committee.
Queensland Country Life contacted Queensland Health for clarification on whether or not the vaccine mandate and restrictions around showgrounds would be eased or lifted and received no comment on the question.
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