Around 20,000 people descended on NFU Lincolnshire council delegate Andrew Ward’s Heath Farm over two scorching days in June.
This was the third time Andrew has hosted Cereals and he spoke about the painstaking 10 months of preparation that went into it.
“It was a real honour to be asked to host Cereals again, but also to put my own stamp it,” he said.
“At a time when the industry is struggling, I wanted it to be an event for people to let their hair down, take the lid off and just have two days of positivity.
Extensive groundwork
“I did a lot of things that went above what’s expected of hosts, some that visitors could see, some they couldn’t.”
Andrew Ward MBE
The groundwork for hosting the thronging crowds started in September last year, Andrew said.
“We double-seeded the grass walkways by broadcasting the grass, not drilling it in rows, and adding nitrogen in the spring. We got much better establishment and made sure, whatever the weather was going to be, people would always be walking on grass and not mud!” he said.
A gargantuan mowing task was undertaken by Andrew and his team too.
The entire site was shorn by tractor mowers but these could not be used once the 426 exhibition spaces were marked out.
Andrew and his team then mowed hundreds of plots individually with standard mowers to get the site looking shipshape, with the remaining exhibitors cutting their own grass.
'Little details'
The Heath Farm team also used 30, one-tonne potato boxes strategically placed around the site for exhibitors to empty their grass clippings into, rather than letting them slowly rot in full view of the public on-stand.
“I looked at the little details, things your could miss, that made the show site as pleasant a place as possible to look at and walk around,” said Andrew.
“It’s all about the visitor experience.”