THIS week, the Royal Adelaide Show was officially cancelled, less than 140 days out from its scheduled September 4 start date.
Royal Agricultural & Horticultural Society of SA chief executive officer John Rothwell said the decision needed to be made early for the sake of exhibitors.
"What is important for exhibitors, particularly livestock exhibitors, is ample notice, so we needed to make a critical decision," he said.
"There can be many months of preparation, but also interstate exhibitors or judges from overseas, so we needed that long lead time."
He said for many exhibitors, particularly livestock, they already would have been making preparations.
For the RAHS, the 2020 event represented nearly 12 months of preparation to get to this point, and at this stage they were "nearly in operational mode".
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