Armidale's annual show ended with a bang and a roar on Saturday evening as fireworks and the demolition derby put the 2020 event to bed for another year, despite the show society almost not holding this year's event at all.
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Society president Kelso Looker said the society was concerned about the drought, water problems and the earlier bushfires throughout the region.
"We did have a lot of talks about possibly not having the show," he said.
"It's not actually a cheap event to run, the town is struggling so sponsorship would be worrying and people don't have a lot of spare cash, but we finally decided to go ahead.
"It's something for the community, and the council's worked really well with us supplying water, but I should have sent the letter to them 18 months ago because the day after I got approval from the council it hasn't stopped raining."
Kelso said Friday was a little quiet as usual.
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"It always is, with work and school, but on Friday night we had a good crowd turn up for the grand opening and the rodeo, and then Charlie Fittler played some live music," he said.
"We actually had to shoosh people out of the bar so we could close down for the night.
"On Saturday there were people rolling through all day. It was always shaping up to be really good."
Kelso said the drought was showing throughout the region.
"You have a look at some of the other shows around here, their numbers have been down and their competitors have been down, but on the whole ours were on average," he said.
"Some sections in the pavilion were up, and some things that we thought were going to be really down actually surprised us, like the cut flowers.
"It's noticeable, but it's not as bad as we thought it was going to be.
"I think we had about 85 head of beef cattle, which is a bit down, but the quality they've got makes up for 10 times that number, and they do have commercial sheep and some studs."
Kelso said the society tried to make this year's event as family friendly as possible, and an adult entry cost of $10 and $30 for a family was a good place to start.
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