THE Westmorland County Show will be held over two days once again after last year’s success.

The popular show, which attracts more than 30,000 visitors to the showground in Crooklands, will be held on September 7 and 8.

Last year saw the show spread over two days for the first time in its 222-year history in response to Covid-19.

Christine Knipe, chief executive of the Westmorland County Agricultural Society, which organises the show, said a combination of Covid uncertainty and the success of the show’s format last year led the society to go ahead with another two-day event.

The society has also decided to keep elements of 2021’s reconfigured show including a cap on guest numbers and extra spacing of tents and stalls, after feedback from visitors revealed they had enjoyed the show more because of the extra space and reduction in crowds.

“There’s still a lot of uncertainty out there surrounding Covid,” said Ms Knipe.

“People are still coming to terms with how we’re working in the new normal and we still want to create as safe an event as possible.

“And it went so well last year, the show achieved on every single level and the outcome was so much better than ever we imagined it might be.

“So on the back of that the committee feel it is definitely worth trying again.

“We learned a lot last year.

“We introduced a raft of changes and quite a lot of those were so successful that they’re going to stay, at least for this year.

“And that will give us information about the show and if it can, long term, be sustainable to run over two days.

“As an agricultural society we’ve been in existence for 222 years and we’re where we are because we constantly evolve.”

The society is busy planning this year’s showcase of everything Westmorland and overcoming the challenges of organising a large-scale event.

“We’re working with contractors on how they can manage to pitch us in over two days bearing in mind there were so few events last year, so it was significantly easier,” she said.

“We also need to make sure our visitors want to attend over two days as an option going forward.

“We’re in the mega throws of planning and working with all the sections to try and develop a show that we all want.”