PREPARATION for this year’s Kent County Show is already well under way.

The show, which will run over three days from Friday, July 11, to Sunday July 13, at the County Showground, Detling, is billed as Kent’s largest outdoor event.

On the programme are the Band of the Corps of Royal Engineers, who play in the main arena each day, as well as the Dancing Diggers, a group of JCBs performing sequenced dance movements.

The countrsyide area is being expanded this year with displays on fly-fishing, ferret racing, birds of prey, otters, hounds and gun dogs.

There will be a large, interactive area in the Agricultural Zone called Why Farming Matters, that will focus on the importance of farming in Kent. It will include cookery demonstrations on how local produce can be used to make a variety of tantalising meals.

The livestock section will include the usual cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, llamas, alpacas and rabbits and will see the return for the first time in many years of the donkey classes.

Volunteers from Kent’s Neighbourhood Watch Association will be on hand to give out advice and information throughout the show.

The association will pitch a marquee near the Kent Police marquee. Tickets for the Kent County Show are on sale now at Clickthis or on the ticket hotline, 01622 633060.

Prices in advance cost £14 for adults, £6 for children, £10 for senior citizens and £35 for a family ticket.