The 2017 Albury Show will be packed into two days rather than three, in one of the biggest changes in its 150-year history.
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The show will take place only on Friday, November 3 and Saturday, November 4.
Albury Show Society president Haydn Shipard said the unanimous decision to cut Sunday was made in March in a bid to “alleviate workloads” of volunteers and to strengthen the show’s offering.
“With condensing the show, it’s putting more entertainment on and being more cost effective,” he said.
“It’s making Friday and Saturday more of a feature, rather than spreading costs of entertainment over the three days.”
Show Society senior vice president Ray Walsh said other factors included Sunday penalty rates, unavailability of volunteers for clean-up on Monday, and stallholder variation.
“It was made in conjunction with the decision to move the horse show to the Albury equestrian centre, which will now be the Albury Horse Show on Sunday, September 17,” he said.
“With it being earlier, it becomes more important in the competitors’ minds in terms of earning points.
“When we were the last show on the circuit, it didn’t really matter to them, in getting points to qualify for Sydney and Melbourne.
“There’s a very good vibe on social media about the fact we’re going to the equestrian centre; it gives much better parking and stabling facilities.”
Mr Walsh said there had also been positive feedback in general about the timetable changes.
“We surveyed a lot of interested parties from the showmens guild, right through to local stallholders and people who attend … there was almost unanimous support,” he said.
“It’s only a decision that’s just been made, we’re working towards a fairly packed event schedule.
“It’s not considered survival, it’s making it bigger and better and we’re trying to take the show into the future.”
Mr Shipard said it was a positive move.
“The thing we’d like from all of this is some more volunteers and new ideas,” he said.
“The two-day show is a new idea – tell us if we’re doing the right thing and what entertainment we need – that’s what we’d love.”