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NEWS
Leisurefest to head to Pakenham?
Melbourne's second-largest RV show could be moving east...Melbourne's Leisurefest camping and RV expo could relocate to Pakenham if the current lobbying by the growing Victorian satellite city is successful.
While Leisurefest will again be staged at Sandown Racecourse from October 6 to 9 this year, the annual RV show is believed to be on borrowed time at the venue despite the Melbourne Racing Club's denials that the future of the combined horse and motor racing complex has been decided.
Located just 25 kilometres from the CBD near the geographic population centre of Melbourne, with its own railway station, extensive on-site parking, a 10,000-seat grandstand and excellent road access, the venue is a 'natural' for housing redevelopment, but will be hard to replace as the site of Victoria's second-largest caravan and camping show.
The CEO of the Caravan Industry Association (Victoria), Rob Lucas, told caravancampingsales that the Association was actively looking at new venues for Leisurefest.
The Dandenong Showgrounds and Waverley Park, both in Melbourne, were amongst those that had been considered, but were deemed to be too small to allow for the show's projected growth.
Mr Lucas said this year's Leisurefest was an early sell-out with around 200 exhibitors, making it about half the size of Australia's largest annual RV show, the Victorian Caravan, Camping & Touring Supershow, which is staged at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds in late February.
"We will be having a series of meetings to consider a new Leisurefest venue following this year's show," said Lucas, who conceded that Sandown still might have "up to five years left in it" for the event.
He confirmed that the CTIA (Vic) was determined to pursue its current model of having an annual show in Melbourne's east.
Some 62km southeast of the Melbourne CBD and perched on the edge of the West Gippsland region, Pakenham is less than an hour's drive thanks to its direct freeway access and offers ample display and parking space. It is also home to three major caravan manufacturers – Avan/Golf, Goldstream and Jurgens.
"Pakenham has been chasing us," Lucas confirmed. "It has a number of positive features."
Meanwhile the CTIA (Vic) is cutting back on one of the traditional attractions of Melbourne Leisurefest. The off-road caravan demonstrations are now off this year's programme due to the difficulty and rising cost of risk insurance, Lucas said.
The 4WD display area is also expected to be smaller, but Lucas was upbeat about the number of new caravans and campers making their debut at this year's show, including new releases from New Age, Retreat and Complete Campsite.
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Written byMichael Browning
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