It’s weird, it’s loud and the Royal Adelaide Show has been doing it for almost a century

For some it’s a place to rest after managing sugar-hyped kids for a day, others want to see performing animals, but for many, it’s about fast cars, stunts, and the occasional flying human.

The Royal Adelaide Show Main Arena has seen everything since the venue opened in 1925, from human cannonballs, drone racing, motorcycle jumps, giant chickens on quad bikes, and a steady stream of rocket men.

Royal Agricultural & Horticultural Society (RA&HS) of SA Museum and Archives coordinator, Erin Reardon, said a rocket man first came to the show in 1968 wearing a Bell Rocket Belt.

“These rocket packs were initially developed by the US Army but required large amounts of fuel for very short flight times, thereby becoming a novelty attraction rather than a practical transport or military vehicle,” he said.

“Rocket men came back to the show various times over the years, even in recent years.”

Other highlights of the arena, which will welcome more acts when the show begins on Saturday, include human cannonballs.

“The Zacchini Brothers were a human cannonball act that came to the Royal Adelaide Show in 1966,” Mr Reardon said.

“There have been multiple human cannonball acts over the years … the Zacchini Brothers, and particularly Hugo Zacchini, who was a bit of a renaissance man, led very interesting lives.”

Hugo might have been an accomplished artist, but he travelled the world getting launched into the sky by a compressed-air cannon, a mechanism perfected by his brother, Edmondo, who had studied mechanical engineering.

Both suffered several injuries during their career getting fired from a cannon, including broken legs and a broken back.

Cars and motorcycles have also been regular features of the arena’s entertainment, particularly the precision driving teams, which perform stunts such as driving on two wheels, jumps, and having four cars tear towards each other at an accelerating pace before crossing paths within inches of each other.

“An interesting aside is that it hasn’t always been V8s and Holden or Ford,” Mr Reardon said.

“In 1968, dozens of Volkswagen Beetles performed a very precise, albeit very slow, precision driving demonstration on the main arena, footage of which can be seen in the Show Museum at the showground.”

Mr Reardon said horses-in-action had also been a constant arena attraction throughout the decades, and continued to feature, along with the popular sheep dog trails.

“The Grand Parade is also a long-running tradition, whereby animals from all areas are paraded on the main arena,” he said.

A ‘broad brush’

RA&HS marketing manager Jordan Philp said the Main Arena had always offered a “broad brush of entertainment” to appeal to all show goers.

“I’ve always pictured it as the place that you end your show day,” she said.

“You’ve done everything you need to, the kids sit and rummage through their show bags, the parents can put their feet up and eat — they just come together and watch.

“New this year is the HLS Trick Riders, so people performing stunts on horseback, which is very impressive, and there’s a bit of fun with car soccer, so two cars kicking — although I don’t know if you can call it kicking — but they’re playing soccer with a ball on the arena as well.”

Capping each night off are the arena fireworks, sparking a long show tradition for children to shout what colour they expect to erupt into the sky as the rockets are fired.

“Just like a sporting chant, people kind of get behind it and shout out the colours as they go up,” Ms Philp said.

“It’s a lot of fun.”