Despite major players like Toyota and Mitsubishi deciding to sit out Fieldays this year, there was still plenty for the 4WD fan to see and do.

Having skipped a year last year thanks to fears of mass community transmission thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 52nd New Zealand Agricultural Fieldays event was held at Hamilton’s Mystery Creek event centre between June 16 and 19 this year.

Where, in previous years, you could have been forgiven for thinking that you had got your dates wrong and mixed Fieldays up with some annual NZ Motor Show, this year several of the big players on the Kiwi car scene – notably Toyota but also other former Fieldays heavy hitters like Mitsubishi and Nissan – decided to stay a home, meaning that ‘the show’ went back to relying more on its rural roots.

Obviously, that didn’t stop the likes of Ford, Hyundai and Isuzu returning. There were also more smaller companies, or companies on the expansion trail, particularly in the 4x4 parts and accessories game.

Great morale booster

After a ‘physical’ absence of 24 months New Zealand National Fieldays Society chief executive Peter Nation​ said the event was a great morale booster for the primary sector.

“You can feel the energy this year. It’s an exciting time for New Zealand and for the primary sector and the events industry,” he said.

“Our exhibitors have really invested in this year’s event; the sites are spectacular. In conversations I’ve had with exhibitors, they’ve said they have had strong sales and foot traffic through their sites and are enjoying having that face-to-face contact again with their customers.”

Indeed, official figures showed that with 132,766 over the whole four-day event, attendance at this year’s Fieldays event was within ‘cooee’ of the previous record of 133,000.

Fieldays is based on a 114-hectare site at Mystery Creek 10 minutes from Hamilton and is the largest agricultural event in the Southern Hemisphere.