One of the most quintessential Syndey Royal Easter Show activities to do is to purchase, and get your hands on a show bag full of all your favourites. This easter show tradition dates back to 1913, when you could take a visit to the ‘sample bag pavilion’ formally known as the Royal Hall of Industries. Your parents always said you’d have to wait until just before going home before getting the bags. Every family made the same decision so the pavilion would be packed at day’s end. In 1949 over 1 million people passed through the Hall during the Show that year!
The origins of the show bags started out as free samples were given out by manufactures including biscuits, sweets and soap. By the year 1928 they were big business with thousands being sold, and the trend of upscaling the sample bag pavilion began. Massive brands such as Kellogg’s enticed potential buyers to sample Pep, All-Bran and the new-fangled Corn Flakes that year. In the 1930s Foster Clark Ltd sold one shilling (10 cent) sample bags containing custard powder, jelly crystals, milk pudding powders, lemonade crystals and baking powder. Later, the ETA bag was great value with peanut butter, mayonnaise, mustard, and salted, scorched, and sugar-coated peanuts. However, in 1950 many children and adults couldn’t go past the Minties bag with Minties, Chocolateens and a plastic pistol which as you could imagine, kids couldn’t get enough of.
With the Easter Show about to open for another year, the sheer scale of the show bag pavilion has changed immensely! Our media team at Show Radio 107.9FM have conducted some thorough research into large objects that you can fit inside the current pavilion.
The Findings are as follows –
- 4 A380 airbusses
- A whole cruise chip
- 643,901 miniature goats!
Our Conclusion – The Show Bag Pavilion For 2021 Is Massive!
