Farm Fantastic

FARM Fantastic founders Lance and Christine Blatchford have handed over the reins of Queensland’s largest outdoor rural, retail, home and lifestyle expo. They said they were confident the expo would be in safe hands under the control of the new owner, Australian Events.

“We’re proud to be able to sell Farm Fantastic to a company that’s going to keep Farm Fantastic going because it does a lot of good for the Caboolture and Brisbane community,” Lance said. “We wish the new owners well and hope Farm Fantastic lasts forever.”

APN has covered many of the special moments at Farm Fantastic, and Australian Events director Bob Carroll said he was eager to continue working closely with APN to grow and promote Farm Fantastic. “We enjoy a very close working relationship with APN across all of their network in Queensland and we are very pleased indeed to now take charge of the event that they initiated and developed into one of Queensland’s most successful events,” he said. “We look forward to working with APN to promote Farm Fantastic as we move to grow and strengthen the event.”

The Blatchfords, who started Farm Fantastic more than a decade ago, said they were happy their time with Farm Fantastic could finish on a positive note and they were looking forward to retirement. “I’m 65 and we want to start doing the grey nomad thing,” Lance said. “It’s really been marvellous but there comes a time in everyone’s life when it’s time to move on.” Lance said he and Christine had enjoyed watching the expo evolve and grow and had fond memories of each event.

“There’s 1001 good memories and good experiences but they’re too numerous to mention them all,” he said. “The first show back in 2002 had 140 exhibitors and it was the community support from businesses that gave us the enthusiasm to do it.

“It grew very fast through the early 2000s and at our biggest show ever, we had just short of 900 sites and record crowds.”

Farm Fantastic changed sites in 2014 from its original location on Pumicestone Rd to the Caboolture Showgrounds, where it is held currently. Lance said the old site would be developed shortly. “The property is now going to be an industrial estate. It got approved for industrial development before Christmas,” he said.

The Blatchfords said they would cherish forever all the positive feedback from the event. “A lot of the joy of Farm Fantastic though was when businesses came back and said their business wouldn’t have grown as fast as it had if not for Farm Fantastic,” Lance said. “Every year just had wonderful memories for us,” Christine added.

Farm Fantastic this year will be held at the Caboolture Showgrounds from July 22 to 24.