Livestock, Agriculture and Industry Exhibition

 My father and I attended this year's Livestock, Agriculture and Industry Exhibition, also known as the Argentine Rural Exhibition or simply La Rural.

It is not our first visit, and the information available about it on the web is abundant. To get a bit more acquainted, you can visit the following links: www.exposicionrural.com.ar/ and https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposici%C3%B3n_Rural_Argentina. This year, the Fair is taking place from July 23rd to August 2nd, 2015, from 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Naturally, ticket prices vary: tickets on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays cost more than the rest of the week. Mondays and Tuesdays are free for senior citizens. For some reason, they extended this perk to Thursday, so today, Thursday the 27th, was also free for seniors. And it was packed. For everyone else, general admission cost 70 pesos.

It was around 11:00 AM, and a very long line had formed, reaching the end of the street. Since the street is closed off, the length spans two blocks. It moved forward slowly, but that was just the line to enter; to buy a ticket, you just had to walk up to the ticket windows, where there were only one or two people ahead of you before you could make a purchase. That part went fast, but once inside the gate, the entry process slowed down. The vast majority of the crowd were senior citizens, and there were all kinds of complaints: "it's not moving," "it's disrespectful," "how can they do this to old folks?", and a lot more among those who were waiting and moving forward slowly alongside those who were just arriving to find the end of the line and join it. An elderly man behind us said somewhat arrogantly to another, "Good thing today is free, otherwise why would we come? We'll just take the kids to the countryside, since anyway... to see some animals." The other man he was talking to asked, "What countryside?" And the grumbling man added, "Any countryside." Just then, the old man's son arrived; we had to buy three general admission tickets, as free entry is only for children under 8 and senior citizens. He wasn't heard saying anything else.

As we reached the ticket window area, the line split into two: one side for those with general admission tickets and the other for seniors entering for free. And that was the reason for the delay: the seniors themselves, moving at a slow pace, along with the difficulty of getting through the narrow entry setup. They got stuck trying to pass through the separating iron rails and the turnstiles. They had opened about three turnstiles, but they were insufficient, and combined with the sheer number of people trying to enter, it caused a bit of a bottleneck upon arrival.

Once inside—and it was packed with people—we began our tour. And so we walked through each of the pavilions. I won't comment on every single one of them, but I will upload some photographs of what we came across.

Right from the start, we headed straight to the back—a straight path crossing the entire fairgrounds that leads all the way to the end—with the idea of doing our tour from back to front. So we reached the pavilion where the machinery was located: the Blue Pavilion. All kinds of machinery. This year there were over 4,500 animal exhibitors and more than 500 commercial exhibitors.

These machines work the fields. Many of them are well known, especially in rural areas. The characteristic "mosquito"—a self-propelled sprayer truck or tractor common in the fields, especially in soybean plantations, though criticized for the use of polluting and aggressive agrochemicals for humans when used near urban areas. Here in the country, car transport trucks are also nicknamed "mosquitoes" due to the past existence of a company called Transporte El Mosquito. Nowadays, the nickname is given to these giant tractors that deploy their two boom arms, resembling a giant metallic mosquito.

You could also see a grain silo; the interesting thing was that it was cut right down the middle, allowing you to see its interior—useful for country folk interested in buying one, and something new to learn for younger people and kids.

There was also a giant print of a photograph that had participated in a photography contest called "Life in the Countryside with Mainero," organized precisely by this company. In another stand, there was a scale replica of the Argentine frigate ARA Libertad, launched in 1956.

Moving on to the next sector, the first part consisted of food products, followed further down by leather goods (talabarterías) and accessories. It was in this sector, on the outer wall of one of the booths, that we found the following framed acrylic painting, titled Araucanos and signed by Justo García Errecaborde, according to its certificate of authenticity. From what I could see on the web, he is a painter focusing on traditional customs and folklore (temática costumbrista).

We arrived at the Yellow Pavilion, where all the beef cattle were concentrated, showcasing every breed of these animals. After walking through it, we exited and passed through the door leading to the auditorium. On the other side was the main arena, where the stands were filling up to witness the start of an event. We kept moving and entered the area where the horses were kept, a large portion of them being Criollo horses.

Upon leaving the stables sector, we passed by the smaller arena. There we were able to see a horse exhibition, which I suppose are later auctioned off to the highest bidder. Next to this smaller arena, other gauchos were waiting for their turn to enter and show off their respective horses.

Our tour continued through the 4x4 pickup truck demonstration area. Useful for rural areas due to their ability to move across various types of terrain and roads that can present certain difficulties, automotive companies put on demonstrations here for the attending public. People wishing to participate in the ride first formed a line at the entrance door, then went in in batches and walked down a staircase. Down there, they waited for a 4x4 to arrive, three or four passengers climbed in, and then came the track tour: driving through water, over slanted logs, across a sort of seesaw, and up and down a steep incline. And so on, vehicle after vehicle.
Nearing the end of the tour, we made sure to visit the poultry sector. It was quite cramped, small in space, and with a huge crowd visiting, making it difficult to walk through peacefully.

They had set up a small inflatable pool where a few ducks were swimming. The rest of the birds were each kept in their own cages. Two sets of aviaries housed the smaller birds. While I was observing one of the chicken varieties, a lady walked up to me and asked, "Do you know what kind of bird this is?" I replied, "No." She said, "Well, I'll explain it to you, this is a chicken from..." and went on, "If you have any questions, just talk to me." "Well, thank you very much," and I continued on my way. I hadn't taken two steps when she interrupted another visitor with the same question, followed by the explanation.

Next was another food sector, mostly cheeses and cold cuts, along with some sweets. Afterwards came a sector featuring representations of the Argentine provinces, where you could buy products characteristic of each specific place, and finally the last sector featuring goats and sheep, absolutely packed with people. In our case, we left it for last, but for most people, it was the first pavilion they walked through since it's right next to the entrance, which is why it was overflowing with visitors.

As we exited the fair, we saw a living statue working on the sidewalk. I don't know what his costume was supposed to represent—he was dressed completely in black—but although it had nothing to do with it, the background advertising banner (which was for something else entirely) fit the living statue's activity perfectly: "Discover the movement that makes you happy." And it was true: several kids went over to leave a coin in the box, and the statue would surprise them with a greeting.

Thus concludes the chronicle of this visit to the 2015 edition of the Livestock, Agriculture and Industry Exhibition at La Rural.