James Harris said he was “blown away” by the number of people who drove up to two hours to go to Stroud Show which was held on Friday and Saturday last week.
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“We have a really good facebook page and we promote the annual event strongly online,” said the show president.
“But it still amazes me that people would want to drive all that way just to come to our show.
“They came from Sydney, Port Stephens, Forster, Maitland and Newcastle.
“This year’s [show] would have had to been the biggest we’ve had and the gate takings were the highest we’ve ever had.
“By Saturday night we had 4000 people on the ground which is astounding for a town of only 700 people.
“We run a bloody good show and we have a great committee who work very hard through the year to make sure it is going to run smoothly.
“Sandra Shoebridge is our ringmaster and there was something on in the ring from 7am until dark.
“We promote the show as being for families and we made sure there was plenty happening for the children.”
Last year there were only four head of fat cattle, but this year saw 25 front up to the judge.
And the produce pavilions were overflowing with pumpkins, grammas and squash, they had to put them on the floor.
The dog show was a roaring success with 420 entries.
Horse and rodeo event numbers were both up on past years and the dog trials were a crowd favourite on Friday.
Ute show entries were up on last year and the sound-off was very successful.
The fence post splitting and dog high jump were, as usual, very popular, as were the great market stalls.
Troppo Bob entertained both young and old alike.
For the first time the wife-carrying championships were held, with Singleton Show organisers helping with the organisation.
“There were 10 male-female teams who competed and it was a Stroud couple who won,” Mr Harris said.
“They will now go to Singleton Show for the national competition in September with the winner there to go onto Finland for the world event.
“The ride-on lawnmower demonstrations were fantastic and the crowd loved them.
“Saturday was a lovely day, not too hot and the rain earlier in the week just settled the dust.
“The Mason Rack Band kept the crowd entertained well into the night which turned out to be quite mild.
“I don’t believe we could have run a better show if we tried and it all comes down to the great committee who put their heart and soul into the event every year.”
