“Bermuda Home Grown” will be the theme of this year’s Agricultural Show with all produce and talent on offer hailing from the island.

The event is being run by the recently formed company Ag Show Ltd in conjunction with the Bermuda Government, which is providing the Botanical Gardens venue and some help setting up the buildings.

The three-day agricultural celebration makes its return following a break last year due to the Bermuda Government withdrawing its funding.

While all the traditional events will be included, the only overseas representation will be the international judges. Ag Show Ltd’s new show secretary Mica Murray told The Royal Gazette: “It will have all the traditional staples of the show as in previous years — we will have the chickens, pigs and goats, the flower arrangements and food stalls.

“The only difference is that the Ag Show Ltd will be hosting the event in conjunction with the Government of Bermuda.

“We are looking to add new and exciting things with the integration of a fun zone for the children and we are changing the layout of our entertainment in terms of the tent and staging so it is more conducive to a more picnic style, open-air type event.

“Our theme is Bermuda Home Grown and with that we are focusing on home-grown entertainment, home-grown crafts and home-grown exhibits. Ministry of Public Works is finalising all the buildings, making sure they are in a good condition to which we are grateful.

“The schools are definitely on board this year and they were really excited about it. We want to thank our sponsors for their support in ensuring the financial success of the Ag Show.”

This year’s event is expected to cost about $250,000 to run, which has been raised via major corporate and individual sponsors and is supported by a team of volunteers.

The one Bermuda Alliance last year pulled the $400,000 it says it cost to run the event. One less cost this year is personnel as Ag Show Ltd has managed to amass a team of volunteers to staff the event.

The Ag Show runs from April 14 to 16 from 8am to 6pm — the buildings open at 9am.

There is still time to enter exhibits into the show — the general deadline is March 18 and the deadline for equestrian entries is March 11.

In another cost-saving measure, Ag Show Ltd has not printed a large amount of event catalogues — an electronic version is available via www.theagshowbda.com.

Entrants can also submit entries by e-mailing secretary@theagshowbda.com