EKKA 2006

Hubby and I went EKKA yesterday.

What is EKKA? It's the annual show in Queensland. Formal title is the Royal Queensland Show and originally called the Brisbane Exhibition. The Ekka was first held in 1876.

EKKA is for ten days each August. This year, it's from 10-19 Aug. It's like one mega carnival...let's see what they have:
- Animal Judging (cattle, pigs, sheep, poultry, dogs....many more)
- Vegetable Judging (who grows the biggest pumpkin, cabbage, cucumber....)
- Animal Enclosures (like a zoo)
- Carnival rides (exactly like River Ang Pao)
- Game stalls (exactly like River Ang Pao)
- Food stalls
- Exhibitions & Shopping
- Concerts and Performances

Entrance tickets cost $15 bucks each and train tickets cost another $3 bucks each. So a total of $36 bucks for our 3-hour rendevous at the EKKA. It was an eye-opener, well, the animal competitions and exhibitions were interesting. But the carnival itself - the games, the mechandise etc, were quite disappointing. Because, these are things that we get for free back in SG. Haha....now we can tell people that we have been to EKKA! And probably the last time in the next few years.

1 thing that interests me was the way the kids and parents went "crazy" at the showbag pavilion. Almost everyone was holding at least 1 bag of stuff that either contains sweets, chips or toys. We saw people who bought trolleys, literally, of showbags. These are things that you can get at supermarkets for half the price! Why pay so much just to buy something at the EKKA? Well, we reckoned that if there was only 1 big carnival a year, people sure let loose on their purse strings. Unlike in SG, where the pasar malams pop up at heartlands every weekend. You just need to hunt for their roaming locations.

Despite these, I still enjoyed the outing. Especially looking at all the animals! Click HERE to see the photos.