Roll up, roll up! A visit to the show is always entertaining and as I recently discovered this is very much the case for Kelmscott Show, which was held this year on October 20th and 21st at Rushton Park. I made my debut visit, heading along on the Friday afternoon. Gates opened at 4pm and when I arrived a touch after five there was already a healthy crowd inside and a short, but steadily moving line of folks ready to buy their tickets to join the happy revellers.
Thankfully the weather was lovely and the temperature was perfect. It has been a while since I visited a show, Royal or otherwise, but I was pleased to see many familiar sights and sounds as I wandered inside. Like the sectioned off area for all the wood chopping action and let’s be honest it is always impressive when those fellas get going. Towards the back you could then see some rides, already filled with smiling happy youngsters and a few big kids at heart.
I first called into the Perth Hills Armadale Visitors Centre stand. They had plenty to look at and you could even take an apple, grown locally and let me tell you it was crisp and delicious! On the Saturday they were scheduled to have a very special guest, subbing out a toy version for an actual koala, which I had no doubt would pull the crowds, along with a few other great interactive experiences.
From there I wandered myself past the showbags, and whilst the allure of the old favourite Bertie Beetle was tempting I managed to resist, but you could see plenty of kids grappling with the tough choice of which one to buy from the impressive line up.
Once you had your showbag sorted there were plenty of fun carnival games, including the swivelling clown heads, a show time constant.
One popular game was the classic ‘buy a ticket and if you get a chosen number you can pick a giant toy’. Again, tempting because the giant toy donuts and pieces of pizza did seem to be calling my name, but I left it for the youngsters.
Getting closer to the rides things got a little rowdier with each playing their own jaunty tune. Everyone seemed to be having a ball and there was a good selection to keep everyone happy. Good to see some classics like bumper cars in the mix too.
And no one would be going hungry. You either had the option of packing a picnic and bringing that along with plenty of grassed areas to sit, but if you’d come straight from work (like me) then rest assured it was very likely to be able to find something for dinner. I did a full loop around the many food vans, eagerly perusing menus and making the tough decision of what to have when so many things sounded delicious!
Whilst I contemplated a dinner just of fairy floss I decided to visit Meast in the end because they are a food van I’d long wanted to try. I went with their rice platter that came with beef, chicken and obviously rice, along with generous drizzles of garlic and chilli sauce, the latter with a welcome amount of kick. Then on the side was a refreshing tomato salad. It was such a mountain of food and I must have been hungrier than I thought because I fair wolfed it down. All the flavours were super tasty, working together so well with the contrasting temperatures and textures and it was perfectly delicious.
I needed a bit of a wander after such an epic feed so happily ambled past some of the live entertainment. I saw where the river markets were going to be held the next day and in the distance on the oval I could also see some impressive BMX tricks on display. There’s definite appeal to coming along on both days because you get the fun of the fireworks on Friday and then on Saturday there are the markets and some other different free things for the kids to do (including seeing a koala). And they do offer two day passes if that option takes your fancy.
But I’ll have to leave that til next year. I rounded out a very pleasant debut visit by hitting up an old favourite. Oh hey Mr Whippy, it’s been a while! Perching on a ledge and enjoying my soft serve with spearmint and chocolate sauce (because why not?), as the pipe band wandered past was not something I do most Friday evenings, so was good to be mixing it up.
So keep an eye on the Visit Armadale Facebook page because there’s plenty of great community events like this scheduled as part of the Spring Into Armadale program!
perthmunchkin 
Leave a Reply