Voe show cancelled owing to soft ground

The organisers of the Voe Show are “devastated” that they have had to cancel the event following an inspection of the show ground last night.

Although it had been intended to hold the show as normal earlier in the week, following a cut of the site on Wednesday, the ground proved too soft and wet to continue with the show safely.

The committee had hoped to get around concerns about the car park with a park and ride scheme, but it was decided last night that the ground was too soft to safely erect marquees.

Show secretary Sheena Summers said: “The biggest concern with that is we cannot safely erect the marquees as the ground is not hard enough to hold the poles and we cannot risk a marquee collapsing so we had to make a tough decision to cancel.

“It is devastating for our committee who have put in so much work for the show and disappointing for all our exhibitors but we have to be responsible and safety comes first.

“We are still having the GTL disco in the Voe Hall at night and hope folks will come along and support that as our funds are going to take a massive hit this year. All we can do now is start working towards 2016 Show and hope for better weather next year

Voe is the only Shetland show to be cancelled so far this year, despite the poorest summer anyone can remember. Cunningsburgh, Unst, Walls and Yell shows are all planning to go ahead, weather permitting. There will be some re-jigging of the show events and layouts to take account of the sodden ground. See this week’s Shetland Times for more details.