Organising Tamworth's first ever camping and caravan expo, one of the biggest in the state, was a task bigger than Ben Hur.
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But the Great Escape Expo is set to pave the way to "an AgQuip on steroids" with the twice-cancelled mega rural field days set to come back bigger and better than ever.
ACM Rural Events Group Manager Kate Nugent said not only is the event the first major expo since coronavirus, it's the biggest of its kind ever held in the region.
From 4WDs to camping, the event is set to be one of the state's largest outdoor, adventure and leisure events ever held, she said.
Building the event up from scratch during a pandemic was a huge task, Ms Nugent said.
"This is one of the most challenged events ACM Rural Events has organised for some time," she said.
"We really have worked so hard, we just said well we're not giving up. There has been certainly times of great challenge for the team to try and encourage and understand how important it was for these companies to take the opportunity."
With 80 per cent of exhibitors either from the New England region or from elsewhere in NSW, organisers of the Great Escape are hoping locals will throw their support behind the event. Ms Nugent said they need all the local support they can get to make the event a success. ACM Rural Events is meanwhile busy organising its flagship event, AgQuip, the southern hemisphere's largest agricultural field day. Ms Nugent said the August event was shaping up to be one of the biggest ever.
"Our enquiry rate is up 20 per cent on previous years. Now understanding that we came from a base in 2019 when we were in the deepest darkest drought," she said.
"This is an AgQuip on steroids with respect to the enquiry, the interest from exhibitors from right across Australia."
The Great Escape Expo runs on the weekend of Saturday May 1 and Sunday May 2.
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