THE occasional heavy early morning shower did little to deter Agfest patrons yesterday, as 15,339, mostly raincoat and boot-wearing patrons filed into the Quercus Park site.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Agfest chairwoman Amanda Bayles said she had always been optimistic the weather would be reasonable because she'd been studying the weather bureau radar closely.
``We knew it was only a morning shower, Ms Bayles said, about an hour before the heavens opened and people headed for their warm and rainproof cars.
But not everyone saw the need for weather protection.
Kenneth and Terece Dron, of Tullah, admitted to having fold-up umbrellas in a back pack, but warm clothes were deemed unnecessary, as a shorts-wearing Mr Dron, showed.
He said the couple awoke at 4am yesterday and left Tullah about 5am arriving at the Agfest site about 20 minutes before opening time after a ``delightful'' drive via Cradle Mountain.
``You could hide in the marquees when the rain got too heavy, but it hasn't really been too bad,'' he said.
``I expected 20-30 millimetres of rain, but it just didn't happen.''
Some sites, like work clothes and tool retailer Blackwoods, made a virtue of the rain squall that punctuated the afternoon with increasing regularity.
Their Main Street site was the perfectly situated oasis, with a spruiker urging Agfest patrons to enter and in so doing, take shelter from the storm, but to clean the mud off their shoes first.
``You'll get a bargain, we've reduced prices and not just because of the rain,'' he advised all and sundry.