Exhibitor and vendor sites were sold out a month before the event, with 1100 stalls on display.
“When you have waiting lists for people wanting to exhibit and when you have queues of people down the road wanting to attend, those are issues about growth.”
He said organisers had begun planning how to better utilise space for next year.
Fieldays spent $3.2 million this year on a new water reticulation system to better accommodate the large crowds, Lindroos said.
Their next infrastructure build would be around energy resilience and energy security.
High fuel prices didn’t keep visitors away.
Public transport was up slightly more than usual, with about 18,000 people moving on public transport from the greater Waikato region.
However, Lindroos had expected public transport use to be higher.
Months ago, the team had prepared for “modified” Fieldays to accommodate high fuel prices, but these issues never came to fruition.
The turnout had also been credited to the current buoyant rural economy, with farmers in a good spending mood.
In April, dairy giant Fonterra’s thousands of shareholders received payouts, following a $4.2 billion sale of its consumer brands business of well-known products like Anchor butter and Mainland cheese.
Farmers are using the payouts to invest in long-term business decisions and repay debts, which have fallen almost $5 billion since a 2018 peak.
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford noticed spending was up at this year’s Fieldays as a result of the payouts.
He noticed his peers investing in new machinery and planning for the long-term.
“It was really awesome to see the sector humming again,” Langford said.
Clothing tents were also full at all times, with small-ticket items on the up as well, he said. Langford happily bought himself a new raincoat.
“It was great to see all the tents full, the laughs, the smiles, everyone connecting.”
‘Nearly the full Cabinet were here/
Among the growing crowd were many politicians across political parties, campaigning for the upcoming election.
Lindroos noticed more politicians at the event than usual.
”In fact, nearly the full Cabinet were here,” he said.
“Only a couple of ministers were missing.”
National’s Todd McClay spoke at several events over the four days, and announced that meat and wool export revenue climbed 14%.
“The rural vote is important, but this is an event that brings town and country together,” Lindroos said.
“It’s the direct marketing to your voters in election year, and it gives people opportunity to have those conversations they want to have and connect with the politicians.”
– This story was first published on rnz.co.nz