Battle cry: the show must go on

THE Battle is on to save the island's biggest summer show.

Hammered by year after year of wet August days, North Show organisers are in a desperate fight to keep the event alive.

Without a rapid injection of funds there is a real danger that 2010 might mark the end of almost a century of shows.

As has been seen with the South Show, once an event of this nature is lost it is far from easy to regain.

To the great credit of a handful of volunteers the South has carved itself a new niche in island life, but it still has some way to go to approach its past glories and it may be that the new, smaller South is here to stay.

It would be a great pity if the North Show, traditionally the biggest of the community shows, were also to fold or shrink into an indoor hall.

There are, of course, many more public events competing for our attention now than there were 50 years ago.

Bike shows, car shows, music concerts, charity hog roasts, open gardens, the list is ever-expanding and each places a drain on a family's budget and time.

Yet, the North Show has a heritage that these events cannot match and an ability to draw in the participation of entire families and mini-communities in a way that others cannot.

And while displays of cut flowers, caged birds and livestock may not be to everyone's taste, they form a link with a more gentle bucolic past that many would regret losing.

The Battle of Flowers itself is arguably Guernsey's most distinctive cultural event.

True, it's a little quieter now that hordes of children are prevented from ripping floats into shreds within minutes, but it is hard to think of anything else that is quite so far removed from events typical of seaside towns throughout England.

The Battle cry has been raised.

If the island is determined to hold on to its history and culture, it will be answered.