Fancy Dress at the BAS National show 2014

Wow! I first saw this event in New Zealand at their National Show around 2008 in the young peoples arena. Then again when I judged the Yorkshire Alpaca Group Show in Thirsk a couple of years ago. Now here we are with it centre stage at the BAS  National and I have to say it remains the biggest crowd puller of the weekend. The people were four deep around the ring to see Harry Potter and the Unicorn, Batman and Robin and the  Princesses strut their stuff during the lunch hour. The crowd vote for the winners with a show of hands and fantastic appreciation and encouragement was shown by the general public and the UK Alpaca Breeders for this unique and fascinating distraction.

A fantastic amount of effort was put in by all the entrants and I should imagine hours of fun were had in preparation for this event. Although Batman & Robin came out the winner, everyone was truly a winner and the alpacas seemed to love it. The entrants obviously pick their favourite pets, acclimatise them to the costumes and must spend some hours performing in full cossy to get them to be so settled.

It's fun, challenging in its preparation and certainly a wow with the crowds and the young handlers who took part must have found it a rewarding experience. 

Personally I have never liked dressing up in fancy dress myself but as an alternative alpaca entertainment  I love it, as long as it is well done, enjoyable for alpaca, exhibitor and crowd alike I believe it emphasises the 'show case' element of our industry and certainly must appeal up those who adore keeping these wonderful creatures as pets. Let's hope that more families take up the challenge for 2015, and make this a fantastic alpaca spectacle. 

A huge thanks on behalf of us all to the exhibitors and a special thanks Julia Smith of Astonishing Alpacas who did a great job in organising this event as well as supervising in the Young peoples area for the BAS National. There always seemed to be plenty going off in there everytime I whizzed past.

And the weirdest image of all was when I caught 'Robin' with his mask off -Spooky or What?