Kent County Show 2018

Video detling showground events 2018

The Kent County Show is a showcase event for farming, countryside and rural life, hosted at the Detling Showground on the outskirts of the county town of Maidstone. The three day event brings together the very best of Kent with animals and food, fun and excitement and above all a sense of what ‘The Garden of England’ has to offer, for the whole family. The Haynes Group have supported the show since its very beginning in 1923.

The annual event, organised by the Kent County Agricultural Society offers a wide range of diverse entertainment, with activities taking place from Friday, July 6th through to Sunday, July 8th. The main ring attraction was the Band of the Household Cavalry, who tapped into the mood of the nation with their emotional and patriotic repertoire, the crowds responding loudly to every rendition of the 3 Lions song “It’s Coming Home” with decibel levels nearly matching the cheers from around the arena when it was announced England had beaten Sweden to reach the World Cup Semi-final on the Saturday afternoon ! Their final display of pageantry on Sunday stirred a wonderful feeling of Britishness and pride; a lone officer carrying the three national flags rode at pace through the Astor Ring to really ignite the patriotic fervour of the crowd.

The Haynes stand this year featured an exclusive showing of the All-New Ford Focus, due for release early Summer 2018. Alongside the Focus Haynes paid homage to its long Ford dealer history by showing off its very own Model T from 1911. The car, usually found within the showroom on Ashford Road, was housed under a canopy with banners surrounding the car showing the history of Haynes. The vehicle and display drew a lot of interest from Maidstone residents, both past and present, to point at pictures of cars they had owned or the premises that they could remember from years past.

Joining the Focus and Model T was our Mustang demonstrator, resplendent in triple yellow and featuring graphics based on the Team Sky vehicles, an example of which was also featured on our demonstrator S-Max, also on display at the show. Haynes had held a ‘Tour De Ford’ event in early May in which 60+ cyclists had ridden the roads around Maidstone and both cars drew interest based on their appearance and meant our staff could interact with guests by sharing about the event. (Find out more here about our Tour De Ford event at https://www.haynesford.co.uk/Events-Tour-de-Ford)

To draw customers into the stand to see our Fiesta ST, Focus RS and new Fiesta Active Haynes offered customers a racing simulator, with the fastest time of the show winning its driver a Supercar driving experience. Also promoted was our ongoing ‘Win A Fiesta’ competition where we ask entrants to choose 6 of their favourite features on the new Ford range. If choices match, in order, those of a panel of experts customers are entered into a prize draw to win a Fiesta 3-door.

Haynes were pleased to be awarded the second best large trade stand award for this award. Shown here collecting the certificate are our retiring New Car Sales Manager Neil Treserden, who has spent the last 40+ years at Haynes and Richard Collison, Operations Director for Haynes Ford and Haynes Trucks.

Our Haynes Transit-Centre were represented on the show stand with all models from the Ford Commercial Range and also took the opportunity in showcasing the updated MS-RT Transit Custom. The Custom introduces the ultimate fusion of Ford’s state-of-the-art commercial vehicles and MS-RT’s motorsport expertise and proved a real draw to our Commercial customers.

The Haynes Agricultural department were also at the show debuting the New Holland CR10.90 combine and also were able to provide demonstrations of their new automowers and ride on machinery. This event provided the opportunity to be able to advertise the launch of their new website www.agripartsonline.co.uk for customers to purchase these items from the comfort of your own home. The Agricultural department were also awarded second place for their trade stand so all-in-all a very successful, award winning event for the Haynes Group.

The 2018 show drew more than 400 exhibitors and trade stands with more than 300 competitions, activities and displays over the event. In 2017 the show saw more than 80,000 visitors over the three days, so it will be interesting to read the visitor numbers for this years event given the fantastic weather and the World Cup taking place. Haynes look forward to the 2019 show, taking place from the 5th July 2019 – the 90th County show for Kent.