Tasmania’s biggest agricultural event, Rural Youth Agfest, has all you need — farming equipment, food, boats, cars — and plenty of activity ahead of Election Day.

Agfest Day 1 started off chilly, with a low of just 3 degrees, but the rest of the day the sun was out and beamed for all of Thursday at Quercus Park.

The cold start was great for alpaca farmers Janelle and Byron Jago.

Ms Jago said she was run off her feet in the morning selling beanies and mittens to the cold masses.

“Agfest for us is a really good outlet to promote alpacas as a great livestock alternative,” she said.
“We are also here to educate people on how warm alpaca wool is. It’s up to five times warmer than wool, but up to five times lighter than wool.
It’s eco-friendly, it’s hypo-allergenic, because it doesn’t go through a scouring process.”

Ms Jago said as a crafter, alpaca fibre was good for knitting and crocheting.

“Alpaca is the ultimate fibre and we want to shout it to the world,” she said.
“It’s more diverse, it’s lighter, it’s warmer, but it’s the luxury feel against your skin. We have been breeding for 20 years, and it’s all about that handle and how it feels on your skin.”

Tassie’s own AFL mascot the Tasmanian devil Rum’un was also roaming about getting plenty of pictures, hugs and high-fives from event-goers.

Agfest day one was packed with people exploring the hundreds of exhibits.

Tasmanian Governor Barbara Baker opened the event, and she is the patron for Agfest as well.

One Nation Party leader Pauline Hanson also popped into the event, accompanied by her daughter Lee, who is a Senate candidate for Tasmania.

Ms Hanson gave the election so far a thumbs up.

“We’re getting great results from the polling booths, people want change in Tasmania,” she said.

With daughter Lee running, Ms Hanson said she was giving her some campaign tips but “she didn’t need much supporting.”

And at the end of the day, if you were one of almost 15,000 visitors to Agfest, you might have needed a rescue finding your car — luckily, some volunteers were aiding people in finding their lost cars after a long day of checking out stalls, talking to vendors, and petting cows.