Do any of you know if the shops/DFO's are open on Ekka Day? I am guessing that if they are open, it will be Sunday hours.

what is ekka day?

Good question! It's quite bizzare but they have a sort of farmers show here in Brisbane called The Ekka. It's a big thing here and families from all over go to it. (I have never been as anyone I know who goes, always pick up a bug of some kind ie flu, gastro virus) I think it goes on for about a week. They have lots of fair rides, animals and you see children all over going around with bags of goodies from it.
Anyway, they have this one particular public holiday called Ekka Day here in Brisbane. It is always on a Wednesday while the Ekka is on.
So there you have it!

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...highlight=EKKA

Think most shopping centres are open limited hours, 10 - 4 ish.

So what's the public holiday that they have in Redlandshire called (on the Monday before the Wednesday)?

Still EKKA day, everyone (from different areas) gets a different day to visit this spectacular!

I thought so. Thanks for that.

Actually I think almost everyone except Brisbane now gets the Monday....I know which day I'd rather have! :curse:

I think it's because they have further to drag their knuckles so they are given the whole weekend to complete the trip?

Anything outside of the Brisbane City Council area is open. So Logan Hyperdome, Redcliffe etc are all open normal hours.

Gold Coast get Wednesday. Don't know why - we don't need it. We have the 29th off for Gold Coast Show Day anyway. Probably be a riot if they tried to stop it though Our banks are still open so it's not universal closure down here.

The first Wednesday has always been "Peoples Day" for Brisbane The rest are just add-on holidays that have been granted in the last 20 years, instead of having the extra day off for their own shows.

Us Gold Coasters are a greedy bunch

Going back 20 years the school year was a 3 term year; and the start of the holidays was in August, coincided with the Exhibition. Thursday-Friday were regular school days but there was 2 weeks of school holidays after that. When the school changed to a 4 term 2 semester year the school holidays were in April - end of June and end of September plus the Christmas-January holiday period. The RNA(organises of the Exhibition(Ekka) forced the government(not sure which one) to have Wednesday as a public holiday in Brisbane so everyone could go to the show, and Monday was made a holiday for the outer shires of Brisbane so that the days holidays would be staggerred. Thursday is also a school free day for students as well. When I was in school Friday was usually a day that was not well attended as everyone took the day off school and some took the day off work. Where I work Thursday-Friday are usually days that people have off if they are to have any holidays in August.

Thanks to Brisbane Bound I can now use your version to explain the show day to my friends in the UK.