CEO Update - October 2025

07 Oct 2025

Thank you for your involvement in the 2025 Melbourne Royal Show. We are most grateful for your involvement and support.

The Melbourne Royal Show is the remarkable Victorian major event that brings much joy and happiness to the Victorian community, and we trust you had a most enjoyable experience being involved this year.

We are delighted that 400,000 people attended the 2025 Melbourne Royal Show with the highest attendance day being Saturday 4 October when more than 50,000 attended.

Visitors came to see the thousands of animals, the playful new attractions and farm experiences; stayed to enjoy the food delights, carnival rides, spectacular entertainment and fireworks; and left the Showgrounds with showbags, huge smiles and a lifetime of happy memories.

Early findings from our visitor survey indicate the favourite attractions were:

  • Sunrise Animal Nursery
  • Farm Animal Pin Trail
  • Little Farmers Field with the Kubota miniature tractors
  • Night of the Horse
  • Spectacular fireworks
  • Metro miniature railway
  • Pura Milking & Sheering in the National Storage Pavilion
  • Spotlight Makers Pavilion
  • Racing Victoria Off the Track horse tours
  • CWA Cafeteria where they sold a record 17,831 scones

Considerable thought, planning and effort went into maximising the appeal and success of the 2025 Melbourne Royal Show and I am very proud of the Melbourne Royal team for presenting a fabulous event.

The size, scale and complexity of the Melbourne Royal Show is like no other Victorian major event. To deliver such a massive event as a not-for-profit organisation, we rely heavily on the volunteers who generously provide their valuable time, experience and expertise.

We are most grateful for the support and assistance we received from a record 1310 volunteers who assisted us over the 11 event days in a variety of roles including as judges, stewards and customer service.

We are particularly grateful to members of our Show Competitive Section Committees who volunteer their valuable time and countless hours to assist us deliver quality agricultural and leisure interest competitions.

Their tireless work, commitment, passion and enthusiasm in assisting us maximise the appeal and success of their respective competitions is incredible.

We thank the thousands of competitors who competed to win a coveted Melbourne Royal blue ribbon at the 2025 Melbourne Royal Show.

The total number of entries across all agricultural and leisure interest competitions was 11% more than last year, and we thank everyone who has entered and trust they have a wonderful experience competing this year. 

Details of all the Blue Ribbon Champions and Best in Show winners are listed here for your reference.

The financial and in-kind support we received from our valued sponsors for the 2025 Melbourne Royal Show is very much appreciated. Thank you to the following:

Principal Partners and Major Sponsors - Coca-Cola Europacific, Metro Trains, Sushi Hub

Sponsors - Spotlight, TAC, PURA, Wonder Pies, St Remio Coffee, Kubota, Life Wise Pet Food, Cirka, Select Events, National Storage, International Animal Health, Vic Return, Hyatt Place and Highpoint.

Media Partners - Seven Network, ARN (KISS & Gold), SCA (Fox & Smooth) and the Herald-Sun

We were delighted to support Smiling Mind as our charity partner at the 2025 Melbourne Royal Show.

Smiling Mind is devoted to teaching kids the skills they need to be mentally healthy, and the Melbourne Royal Show is a natural fit as the Victorian major event that puts smiles on faces like no other.

Hundreds of casual staff and more than 750 businesses that were involved in some way with the 2025 Show including suppliers, service providers and businesses exhibiting at the event.

We particularly thank all the carnival operators, showbag retailers, food vendors and retail exhibitors for contributing to event experience.

We also appreciate the active involvement of Victoria Police, emergency services, Consumer Affairs Victoria, WorkSafe Victoria and other regulatory and community agencies, who assisted us deliver a safe and enjoyable event.

With wonderful sponsors, volunteers and staff, along the support of the Victorian community, we are very confident the Melbourne Royal Show will continue to be hugely popular and successful in the future.

The Melbourne Royal Show has grown and evolved over the past 177 years to be a unique and valuable platform to celebrate agriculture, inspire excellence through competition and bring communities together.

With your support, may this continue in the future.

Thank you once again for your interest, involvement and support and we trust you and your family and friends had a most enjoyable experience at the 2025 Melbourne Royal Show.

We look forward to welcoming you again next year for the 2026 Melbourne Royal Show at Melbourne Showgrounds from Thursday 24 September to Sunday 4 October. 

Brad Jenkins

Chief Executive