The committee received a Premier’s Volunteer Champions Award on Sunday for their “teamwork in regional and rural Victoria”, but festival director Caroline Moore said nominations were limited to teams of 10 people.

“If we could nominate every volunteer, we would,” Moore said.

Instead Bruce Leishman, John Young, Bernie Waixel, Gayle O’Keeffe, Shane Lenehan, Bob Handby, Ann Holmes, Gordon McLeod, Jack Smits, and Margaret Whitehead accepted the award from Governor Linda Dessau on behalf of the “1200 to 1800” volunteers who work on the festival.

Moore said the committee, which has a combined total of 148 years of volunteering, was like a “senior management team of the festival”.

“Most other festivals would have paid people in those positions, but if you had to pay for 20 per cent the volunteers do, you probably wouldn’t be able to maintain the festival and keep it affordable … and we wouldn’t be able to support the community,” she said.

“They live by the mission and the mantra that this is a community event.

“They do it because they love it and it means something to them.”

The festival committee gave more than $1 million to community groups and organisations in 2016 alone – something that wouldn’t happen without such dedicated volunteers, Moore said.

The volunteer champions award was one of four major awards given out at a special ceremony at Government House in Melbourne on Sunday.

Moore said the award “recognised not only the hard work the committee and the volunteers do to present the festival, but what the festival means” to the people.