Well thats another trip to the world show done and dusted and what a weekend it was.The last time the world show was hosted in Porto was in 2020 and i have to say this year topped that ,The over all show experience and lay out of the venue was so much better ,with a seperate sales hall where you could see all varieties of Birds and equipment .
I arrived into Porto on Thursday and very much to my surprise and delight i met up with Jason Green in arrivals ,Another member of the Down the shed traveling party to Porto ,We shared the afternoon having a beer and reminising over the 2024 world show trip to Madrid and of course chatting and sharing our views on all things Bird Keeping related .
When we return to the hotel we met up with more fanciers Chris ,Darren and Graham from Co Cork in Ireland and lets just say because of a slight mix up on what Airport to fly into they had a longer then expected journey to Porto but that didnt matter they where here,
We gathered in the hotel bar and as all bird men do when they get together we talk birds and it was brilliant ,Im very new to keeping Natives/British birds and the lads shared there experiences of keeping a vast and wide variety of Native/British birds and for me this is what the hobby should be about …..Bird keepers talking Birds to other Bird Keepers
It was an early start on Friday morning as we made or way out to Santa De Maria .
Staying in the heart of Porto it was only a 20 min taxi journey,The remainder of the lads from the UK had soon landed and we where joined at the show by Brian ,Adam ,Russell and Matt ,
We spent the whole day looking around the incredible array of birds on display ,We met up with many fellow fanciers from all parts of the world who had all made the annual journey to yet another world show ,Jeremy Faria is just one of many fanciers who travel huge distance to be here,Jeremy had travel all the way from Canada .
It was also great to meet up with my good friend Andy Early who this time last year had passed his exam to become a Com Judge .
This year two of my fellow Irish fanciers Mike Fraher ( Norwich) Alan Dempsey (Yorkshire) had succesfully passed their Com Judges exams ,They are the first ever fancier from Ireland to pass the Com Judges exam a huge acheivement.
By the time our taxi arrived to pick us up at 5pm the legs had been walked off us .
We headed back to the hotel and then headed out for our group dinner which has become a customary part of our world show trips .
We shared stories ,ideas and memories over a bottle of wine and even shared a mic in the Karaoke Bar in the small hours of the night ………. I can honestly say we started doing trips to the world show as a group of fanciers but we have 100% become a group of friends
We missed a couple of the Madrid crew this year Alan and Bob but they will return for our trip to the 2026 world show in Belgium ,We are heading out to Belgium from the 13th to 18th of Jan 2026
Down the Shed 