Despite community criticism earlier in the year, Warrnambool Agricultural Society secretary Nartasha McNicoll said Saturday’s event was well supported.

“The one day event has been a huge success,” she said.

“We had more through the gates than over three days last year.

“There’s been lots of support shown to us this year and the team have done a great job.”

Ms Nicoll said despite last year’s dwindling attendance numbers, this weekend’s crowd numbers reflected a return of confidence.

“The community are backing us again. It has all been very positive.

“There was an amazing positive vibe from everyone and in total we had over 10,000 attend.”

Now in its 165^th year the Warrnambool Show debuted as a Super Saturday affair, cramming all of its activities into a 13-hour event.

The annual event, traditionally a three-day program, continued to woo crowds with its side-show alley, animal shows, petting zoo and agricultural events.

This year the committee chose to focus its attention on offering a ‘feast of family entertainment’.

Show president Rachel Alexander said earlier in the week that the committee’s aim this year was to “pack the showgrounds from fence to fence so that anyone that comes in has plenty to see and plenty to do”.

Brimming in new-found confidence, show senior vice president Jason Callaway said while attendance figures were positive, the show needed more volunteers to secure its survival.

“Sadly volunteer numbers are dwindling,” he said.

“Some of our volunteers this year are doing shifts from 6am to 10pm today.

“We need more people so the workload can be better shared.”

Mr Callaway said the committee would encourage community members to ‘lend a hand’ next year.

“You don’t have to be on the committee if you don’t want to,” he said.

“But we need helpers to put their hands up about a week before, setting up and on the day next year.”