The sun shone on us at the 2014 Dorset County Show at Dorchester this weekend. The weather was just glorious and the crowds turned out in their droves setting a new two day record at 66,000 visitors.
Once again we (Alpaca Pals and Inca Alpaca) had a trade stand booked along with our good friends Jenny and Roger Randall of The Alpaca Wardrobe. The Dorset County show is great for us as it’s only 15 minutes drive away. We set our trade stands up on Friday afternoon and then brought two females and their crias down on Saturday morning.
I have been attending shows for over twenty years now and the attention and the high level of interest that alpacas receive from the general public never ceases to amaze me. People were two deep at times around the alpaca pen all day long and we handed out hundreds of promotional flyers. What was surprising was the level of knowledge the public had about alpacas. I remember the Burnie show in Tasmania back in 1996 when we took some alpacas to promote the alpaca industry. There was this ‘father’ telling his son that alpacas were a cross between a dog and a calf!!! Can you believe it? Over the years people have become more knowledgeable about alpacas and their fleece and I have noticed less and less people calling them llamas. We all must be doing something positive to change the mindset and educate the common person on the street which is great. Our females – Inca Euphoria and Bettina and their black crias stole the show and behaved perfectly the whole weekend.
Not only did we have loads of interest in local residents wanting to own and breed alpacas but we, along with Alpaca Wardrobe, won second place in the trade stand competition. Hooray!
Anyway, I do not confess to be a writer at all so I will finish. Before I do I would like to thank Jenny and Roger for their company and support over the weekend and say thank you to those people who took the time to talk to us about alpacas and alpaca related crafts.
Here are some photos of our stands and alpacas at the show:
