MORE than 100,000 people sizzled in scorching sunshine as glorious weather blessed all three days of this year's Kent County Show.

Shirt sleeves, sun hats and sun cream were essentials for most people as temperatures soared well over 80 F at the county showground, Detling, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The brilliant weather conditions helped draw huge crowds to the annual show where town meets the countryside.

Officials of the Kent County Agricultural Society, which organises the show, were delighted with the response which has re-established the event as a highlight of the county summer season after the slump which coincided the foot-and-mouth crisis.

The crisis meant there was no livestock at the 2001 show and attendance was down by more than a fifth. Last year the numbers of animals exhibited were noticeably down on the years before the foot-an-mouth crisis.

This year, however, the number of livestock at the show was markedly up with 471 cattle and 392 sheep.

Kent County Agricultural Society's new chairman Willie McKeever said he was pleased with the way the show had gone.

Mr McKeever said: "We have seen many smiling faces and if people have got smiling faces they go away happy.

"All the traders I have seen over the last three days are very pleased and we are very thankful that the public, when the sun shines, put their hands in their pockets and spend money."

He added that he was also very pleased that the number of livestock entries was moving back to the levels of the late 1990s.

He said: "I look upon this show as putting before the people of Kent what the rural economy can produce so they know what we are doing and what to look for when they go shopping."

This year's show was the second in a row staged on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday instead of the traditional Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It also marked the 40th anniversary of the move from Mote Park, Maidstone, to the county showground at Detling.

Arena attractions included four of the Queen's state coaches and carriages, trick riding and stunts by the Bolddog Lings Freestyle Motorcycle Team, and performances by the Kings Division Waterloo Band.

Other draws included an international sheep shearing event, performances by Ye Olde Redtail Falconry Display Team, and vintage tractors and traction engines. There were also some thrilling displays of horsemanship in the show-jumping classes.

There were also alpaca and llama competition classes at the show for the first time ever.

Baroness Byford, the Conservative spokesperson in the House of Lords on agricultural affairs, was one of the VIPs who visited the show this year.

The baroness, who visited the show for the first time last year, said: "It was so good I had to come back. This is a very special show. There is something here for everyone."

She watched the livestock being exhibited, visited the Kent Federation of Young Farmers Club marquee and the NFU Cherry and Soft Fruit Show.

Baroness Byford said: "I particularly enjoy coming to look at this fruit show. The standard of the cherries and other fruit is absolutely stunning. It is of very high quality and is a showpiece for people to come in and see and hopefully keep buying afterwards."

She added: "I think the way in which you promote what you are producing locally is so important. That is what county shows are all about."

The baroness also praised the young farmers clubs for the way they helped encourage an interest in agriculture and livestock farming.