The Agricultural Show welcomed 615,000 visitors this year

It will still be necessary to wait for the record to be broken. More than 600,000 people (615,204, to be precise) passed through the gates of the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris this year to visit the International Agricultural Show (SIA). This is more than the 500,000 visitors last year, but less than the 700,000 in 2014, the year in which the show welcomed the most visitors in its history, which began in 1964. This attendance, which remains very high, also confirms the SIA at the forefront of the most popular trade fairs in France.

The president of the International Agricultural Show, Jean-Luc Poulain, hailed on Sunday a “beautiful edition2023. However, this will have been marked by an unprecedented event: the closing of the doors, Saturday, March 4, more than two hours before the time initially scheduled. The measure was taken as a precaution on the initiative of the management of the Salon, while traffic became impossible in the crowded aisles of the seven pavilions of the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. “The atmosphere was friendly but the slightest crowd movement could have been dangerous given the crowds», justified Jean-Luc Poulain.

A controversy over the drunken state of some visitors also tarnished the image of the 59th International Agricultural Show. To deal with this growing phenomenon, the organization has regularly broadcast a message encouraging the consumption of alcohol “with moderation» in the loudspeakers of the Porte de Versailles. Nicknamed employees “thirsters” also have the task of distributing water to visitors.

As usual, the Agricultural Show has also turned into a political arena, where party leaders and government ministers come to meet the agricultural world. The President of the Republic did not fail in reputation by opening the ball, Saturday February 25, on the first day of the SIA. Emmanuel Macron took the opportunity to announce a new plan on pesticides.