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The Ekka 2014 @theekka | a foot long Dagwood dog #ekka

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I’ll get to the foot long Dagwood dog at The Ekka later in this post

This weekend I flew to Brisbane to see my daughters. Over the last few months we’d agreed we would go to the RNA Show, ‘The Ekka’ aka The Exhibition. 

Miss17 had been ill during the week with an upper respiratory tract infection and when I arrived on Friday evening Miss13 was febrile having been infected by her older sister. Fortunately Miss19 was well. Despite being ill though Miss13 was adamant she wanted to go out and enjoy the day. What a trooper. 

Miss13 and Miss17 both had gymnastics training first so I started the day with fried eggs and avocado with a mug of coffee. Mum has worked out that my diet is mainly protein so she had some eggs and avocado ready for me. What a great Mum. With her new iPad she now receives an almost daily feed of my food photography and even though she has complimented it she did say on the weekend she much prefers the photographs I shoot of the lake and pelicans.

After picking up the girls from training we agreed we’d catch the bus from the Chermside bus exchange straight to The Ekka. In the past we’ve caught the train but this bus is fabulous, we can walk to the exchange and the bus takes a direct route using the new tunnel system straight to the Brisbane RNA show grounds. With my Translink GoCard it couldn’t be more simple. 

On arriving we sought food for lunch. With no desire to dive straight into Dagwood dogs and strawberry ice cream sundaes we went to the food hall and looked around. There is no shortage of food to enjoy, what there is a shortage of is tables and chairs for patrons. After walking around we agreed on dumplings and walked outside to the dog pavilion and ate while we watched some dog judging. 

We all had some pork and prawn dumplings and we shared some barbecue pork buns. It was all good and filled the holes in our bellies. 

The dog judging was cute and reminded the girls to buy dog treats for Nelson.

After eating, we went back to the food hall to check out all the displays and enjoy the samples on offer. It’s possible to consume enough free snacks to substitute lunch. Not that I would ever do that 🙂

On leaving the food hall I was approached by a young lady to be interviewed for the RNA and Queensland Museum. The project involves interviewing people at The Ekka for about five minutes asking questions about early memories of The Ekka, what it is we like about it and in three words define it. The RNA will use the information for its future planning to improve the show and the Queensland Museum will put some of the filmed interviews on display. After signing three waivers I sat down had a few photographs taken and then began answering questions. I opened with early memories of attending the show with my grandmother and parents over the years and the stories they would tell of free sample bags and show bags costing as little as ten cents each in the 1960s. I explained how the show is great for city dwellers to understand and appreciate more what happens in the country and on farms. It gives kids and adults regular exposure to agriculture so we don’t forget where we get our meat and produce from. Finally I summed up the show in three words, viz., Queensland, Happiness and Food.

There were three things on my food list for The Ekka 2014, 1. A strawberry ice cream sundae, 2. a Dagwood dog, and 3. a Funnel cake.

Funnel cakes are an American state fair food that is like a waffle and a doughnut combined. In The Ekka guide there was an article which I read about which I reproduced here. Funnel_cakes

We went for a walk to check out the cake decorating and photography exhibits. The cakes were amazing. So many fantastic works of art. Every show I attend I always visit the cake decorating exhibit. Every year the standard seems to get better. 

After the cakes and photography we went for a walk through all the animal pavilions and checked out the exhibits. I didn’t shoot that many photographs in the halls because I wanted to really enjoy seeing all the animals. I did capture a few short videos in the poulty section though because of the noise and well, chooks and ducks are cool. 

At this stage Miss13 started feeling a little more poorly and wanted to rest. We took the opportunity to sit outside and enjoy The. Best. Part. Of. The. Ekka. 

I just love strawberry ice cream sundaes that are sold to support The Prince Charles Hospital Foundation. The best description comes from The Ekka website

The Ekka Strawberry Sundae is mouth-watering top to bottom, from the crunchy wafer cone to the smooth white ice-cream, sweet chopped strawberries, delicious gourmet strawberry ice-cream, swirls of fresh cream and topped off with a tasty fresh Queensland strawberry.

Unfortunately I horribly overexposed the photograph but this was so good. The strawberry ice cream is so rich and creamy, the chopped strawberries so sweet and the white ice cream is just that pure ice cream. Perfect. 

We’d agreed that at about 4 pm we’d find a good spot to sit in the main arena so we could watch all the big events from a good vantage. We had some time to kill and Miss13 was feeling a little better so we went for a walk through side show alley. Miss17 wanted to have a go at a few of the games so she tried throwing rings at bottles and archery. No luck on the bottles but the funniest thing I’ve seen in ages was watching Miss17 try to use a bow and arrow. 

We found good seats in the arena three rows from the front. The arena filled up pretty quickly with everyone having the same idea of getting a good seat. 

To pass the time Miss13 and Miss19 went to the show bag hall and bought some show bags. They bought me one full of my favourite potato chips. Miss17 and I went to buy dinner when Miss13 and Miss19 returned. We had a voucher for 20% off from the burger bar so burgers it was. 

The burger wasn’t too bad. The bread and meat were a little dry and very salty. Given it’s the RNA show, why not use lots of butter?

After dinner and a couple packets of potato chips we settled in for the night’s entertainment. 

Here’s a list of the entertainment, some of it was entertaining and some of it was a little boring.

Miss Show Girl

We could not see them even though we were close to the front. 

Wood chop

I love the wood chop. This was a two team relay race. One of the blokes was 73 years old. One team opened a sizable lead after one competitor had a tough piece of wood but in the end it turned out to be a very even contest.

Goldie the Clown

Um what can I say, he’s a clown and he had a funny car. No one laughed.

Sheep dog trials

Somehow this is more entertaining when you watch it on television. We all went to the toilet during this phase.

Wheel stand jeep

This was cool but he only did one pass. More wheel stand jeep would have been good.

Harness racing

I’ve never been into horse racing of any kind. Three sisters were driving and they came in first, second and third out of an eight horse field.

National anthem with mounted police, police motorcycles and patrol motor vehicles, Australian Light horse, RNA Four horsemen

This was good. With the centenary of the beginning of World War One, there was a dedication to the role of horses in Australian history. The Queensland mounted police have been going for 150 years. We saw a few light horse representing the AIF and then four RNA horseman came in bearing the Australian, Queensland, Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal flags.

Troy Cassar-Daley

He sang some songs. I have no idea what they were about. I didn’t find it that appealing. 

Keith Urban

This bloke was born in New Zealand but grew up in Caboolture near Brisbane and spoke on screen about his memories of visiting The Ekka. Apparently he’s a singer, something about country and western.

Monster trucks, FMX freestyle kings, GearFactor Go-Girls Race team, Jet trike and VB Utes

These were fantastic. The jet trike was cool but only did one lap. The MX blokes were cool and the monster trucks awesome. The Ford vs Holden drifting utes raced and the FORD won! 

Prinnie Stevens

This woman just screeched. I have no idea what she was screaming. 

Ekkanites fireworks

Best. Fireworks. Ever. 

I loved them. So so good. I’d happily go back just for the fireworks. 

Sorry I need to do a lot of work on my fireworks photography.

After the fireworks it was time for the final piece of my Ekka food needs, a Dagwood dog. If you read the Funnel cakes article you’ll see a piece of the story on the history of the Dagwood dog.

As we left for the bus stop I bought a foot long Dagwood dog, that’s 12 inches of goodness people. It took two hands to handle it.

So ended a fantastic day with my daughters. We’ll be back. 

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