White sails of marquees have begun to dot the Agfest site at Quercus Park as preparations for this year's field days gather pace.
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The first marquees were erected at the site on Tuesday in preparation for the event, which took a year's hiatus due to the pandemic.
Agfest committee operations manager Callum Forbes said work had begun on the site a few weeks ago, with line marking and site maintenance, including gardening and lawn mowing.
However, this was the first significant marquee to be put up ahead of the field days, held on May 5-8.
RELATED STORY: How Agfest will operate in a COVID-safe way
"I think everyone is pretty excited to be back here, it was disappointing to have to cancel last year, so we can't wait to have it back," he said.
Mr Forbes, who has been with Rural Youth Tasmania for nine years, said he never thought Agfest would ever be cancelled.
However, due to the uncertainty around the pandemic at the time, the group made the difficult decision to pull the pin.
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However, work with underway for this year's iteration of the event and will be the first large-scale field day event of its type since COVID-19.
Mr Forbes said Quercus Park has always will be "the home of Agfest", and exhibitors and the committee were getting excited.
Planning Agfest is a task that takes "365 days of the year", and this year was just a little bit more complicated due to COVID restrictions that need to be in place.
Mr Forbes said the main changes were removing the food marquee into Agfest Taste laneways, and the craft exhibitors had also spread around the site, instead of being in one place.
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"We have had to find other people to fill those marquees, but we have had strong exhibitor interest," he said.
The Tasmanian Government approved the Agfest COVID-safe plan on April 2.
Committee chairman Ethan Williams sincerely thanked the Tasmanian Government for its cooperation in assessing and approving the plan.
"The Rural Youth volunteers understand that this will be the biggest event staged in Tasmania since the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the state," Mr Williams said.
Agfest will be held in the paddock at Quercus Park, Carrick, on May 5-8 and followed by an online cloud event on May 8-15.
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