Phil Anderson: The Christchurch Show Director on the event kicking off today

60,000 Cantabrians are set to descend on the Canterbury A&P Showgrounds for the Christchurch Show. 

The three-day event kicks off today in place of the usual New Zealand Agricultural Show. 

The previous board had called it off due to financial struggles before local company, Event Hire came to the rescue in June. 

Director Phil Anderson told Ryan Bridge they're hopeful to turn a profit, although a show like this is costly. 

He says this event in particular has been a strong learning curve, with heavy amounts of infrastructure required. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Alpacker judge and competitions, lawn mower racing, sheep and equestrian events.
Christ Church Show is back this week, but smaller. They
have one hundred thousand visitors last year, expecting sixty thousand
this year. But it's still an amazing feat for Anderson's
event high christ Church Show event director Phil thanks for
being with me. It's quite a rabbit you've pulled out

(00:22):
of the hat here to get this all together.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah. Sure has been, specially for the last three months,
which is yeah, the time we've had, which is usually
a year to organize such an event. So yeah, still
such an oppressive lineup and the look and feel of
a normal AMP show. So yeah, we're so excited because.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
It was going. I mean it was basically off, wasn't it.
And you guys came in and you're doing a bit
of a rescue job here.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, basically we said can't be done. A new board
came in and they went, I reckon, you guys are right,
let's make something happen here, and yeah, it all just
flowed from there, which we are so grateful for.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
How many events have you got your How big will
the turnout be? I know that the numbers are about
sixty thousand they're expecting. But in terms of the trade stores,
et cetera, compared to last year.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, trade there is probably about thirty forty percent lease.
But in terms of everything else around the AMP show
experience much the same, if not more. Maybe entertainment or
a real good mix of entertainment like lawnmar racing. Never
seen it so excited, you know, that just seems so unusual,
and I just think there'll be it's like that a

(01:35):
part of the show that people are just going to
really go what a core experience.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Hey, do you guys make money out of something like this?

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Phil? The aim is too, but yeah, not a lot though,
to be fear, there's a lot of costs associated with
this event, especially you know when we consider the other
events that we do, this thing's very heavy in terms
of the cost. Is so much infrastructure that goes into

(02:04):
this that's been such a massive learning curve.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Good on you're for getting it done in such a
quick amount of time. Phil, I really appreciate you coming
on the show. And best of luck with a christ
Church Show which is on this week. That was Phil
Anderson event Higher christ Jitch Show event directed for more.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
From Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to news
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