14/09/2026
Zo here… to throw some love at the man behind it all. ❤️
A lot goes into an event like Farm Jam that is completely unseen and probably impossible to fully understand unless you’ve been behind the scenes of one.
Simple, mundane checklists don’t quite cut it when you’re balancing 50–100 different moving parts every single day, for weeks and MONTHS leading into one weekend.
Preparation for Farm Jam started back in January. And while everyone gets to see the finished product…the events, the athletes, the music, the atmosphere and hopefully a bloody good weekend, James sees everything that has to happen to make that possible.
Creating events that are fun, unique and challenging, while making sure they actually flow. Working out heats, rest periods and timings so athletes aren’t stuck in a paddock for 10 hours. Judges, volunteers, equipment, scoring, athlete correspondence, sponsors, vendors, DJs, PA systems, licensing, insurance, toilets AND keeping those toilets usable 😂, parking, traffic and crowd control.
Then there’s everything you hope you’ll never need, wet-weather plans, extreme heat plans, injuries and medical emergencies, equipment failures, athlete safety, spectator safety, hydration, shade and contingency plans for the contingency plans.
And somewhere amongst all of that, there’s dealing with venues, council requirements, suppliers, deliveries, registrations, weight classes, last-minute changes, cancellations, questions, signage, set up, pack down and about 700 tiny decisions nobody will ever know were made.
Farm Jam isn’t something that gets thrown together the week before. It has occupied a huge part of this man’s brain since January. 😂
So while there are a LOT of people who deserve thanks for bringing Farm Jam to life, I just wanted to give some love to the man behind it all.
James Kirkby the man of many hates (literally, he bought one from every vendor this weekend 😂)