THE three-day Kent Show is expected to attract around 100,000 visitors this year.

Lord Haskins, who recently conducted a review of the Rural Economay for Defra, and Peter Kendall, president of the NFU, were among the first those at the event. Both were speakers at a seminar on Why Farming Matters.

The show has placed renewed emphasis of agriculture and the countryside this year, with an expanded "agriculural zone" plus exhibitions from the Country Landowners Association, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, and many others, as well as hundreds of farm animals from sheep and cattle, to pigs, llamas, goats and rabbits.

There is also a strong emphasis on sport - with a visit from the 2012 London Olympics bus.

On the Kent Messenger Group stand there are scores of prizes to be won, including a family holiday in the Algarve.

Visitors also have the chance to meet KM Group editoral executives in our "editors on the sofa" event. Visitors are invited to call at stand 211 and ask any questions about the newspaper group.