14 May Travels in Tasmania- Week 1
Week 1- Agfest
Day 1
From Hobart to Agfest at Quercus Park it was about 1 hour and 30-minute drive. Once arriving I met quite a few more volunteers from the rural youth organisation. Agfest is a very high contributor to the economy in Tasmania bringing in roughly 25 million dollars yearly. Fully run by volunteers organising the whole event.
Next on the agenda was being introduced to the function centre, which is where we eat each night, and the compound, where I would be living for the next week. This had our rooms and I would be sharing with 3 other lovely girls alongside the crib room which had the bar area.
After this I went to set up my room and went to sleep as it was a very long flight and needed time to adjust to the different time zone.
Day 2
After breakfast I was introduced to the event’s Livestock Handling Team, Ella, Maggie and Abby. We spent the morning spreading sawdust in the bull showing pens and putting more gates together.
After Lunch we went to back out to put some banners up around the livestock areas and cable tie them to the fencing along with setting up tables for the cattle judging.
Maggie needed a few things from Kmart so I went into Launceston with her and got to experience my first time in a Kmart.
When we came back it was dinner time and I got to experience all the volunteers in one room which would easily be over 90 volunteers.
Later on, after dinner we all got together in the crib room for an evening of fun card games, this is where I met the New Zealand exchangee Sarge.
Day 3
After lunch we loaded trailers full of bins ready for the areas of the site which had food exhibitors.
In the evening before dinner, we had a speaker come to talk about making a mark on Agfest and how much of an impactful opportunity this was for Rural Youth and the surrounding communities.
Evening jobs were then appointed, I helped Sarah, Ashtyn, Lara and Fern set up wooden fences around there eating areas and it was a lot of fun with the tunes blasting!
Day 4
In the evening we were allocated our jobs for the opening day of Agfest. I wasn’t allocated anything specific as they wanted to give me an opportunity to look round the stands.
I went to the crib room in the evening for a while and played a game of pool with one of my roommates and her friend, I won 2/3 games.
Agfest Day 1
I went to the ticket booths for the morning and thoroughly enjoyed it interacting with all the patrons ready to spend the first official day at Agfest. There was about 12,00 people that attended.
After lunch I was given the afternoon to have a look around and plenty of dollars were well spent!
Agfest Day 2
Later on in the evening there were nightly jobs for the volunteers. My job was picking up the rubbish ready for the busiest day of all on Saturday.
Fern then serenaded us with a version of Pink Pony Club dressed up in an inflatable Unicorn which got many laughs and kept up the positive energy people were starting to lack. It was such an amazing performance!
Final Day of Agfest
In the morning I was able to go to different teams and help out with different activities that were happening. I was able to help with the dog show! Then after lunch I went on a helicopter ride that was absolutely extraordinary to see the site from a different angle. Definitely had the adrenaline pumping through my system before take-off but the views were all worth it!
Then once the show was all over, we had a party with all the volunteers to celebrate the success of all the volunteers and their dedicated hard work towards the event running smoothly.
Overall, Agfest was such an eye opener with the sheer amount of hours and weeks the volunteers gave up to make all this happen. Everybody was so welcoming and such fun to work alongside. This week I am onto my first hosts so am very excited to see what is next.