MONTPELIER, St James – The crowd was not as huge as in former years, but inspite of that and the protracted drought, the 26th staging of the Montpelier Agricultural Livestock and Industrial show provided a thriving business for exhibitors.

Patrons, apparently responding to numerous calls to produce more, bought a number of plants including mangoes, orange, avocado and sour sop trees and a wide variety of horticultural produce.

The livestock section showcased dairy and meat animals and top quality goats.

The educational displays by a number of companies were very informative and also well received by patrons.

A number of activities including the ever-popular bounce – about and horse-back riding kept the many young ones busy throughout the day.

Sumptuous traditional meals of jerk chicken pork, manish water, shrimp and roasted yam completed the picture of a near-perfect day which was let down by a rather disappointing stage show.

Apart from performances from Mackie Conscious and Fanton Mojah, Mickey Ranks and Carol Gonzales that segment of the day’s activities ran like a talent contest, prompting criticisms that organisers of the show will have to pay closer attention to the selection of artistes if they want continued support from patrons.

This year’s show was aptly held under the theme: ‘ agriculture the answer to our current economic recession.’