A BUMPER crowd poured through the gates at the 154th annual Penola P. A. and H. Society Show over the weekend with more than 1200 people in attendance.
Gate takings were up around $500 this year, taking the total past $10,000 and show society president Kerry DeGaris believes the perfect weather was a major factor.
“We were really lucky to have amazing weather on both Friday night and Saturday,” she said.
“I think it definitely impacts people’s plans when the sun is shining, so we are grateful for that.
“We also had a lot of new and exciting events this year, which all proved to be really popular.”
The farmer’s challenge, gum boot throwing competition and grand champion rose were some of the hotly contested events, but this year’s stand out was the Penola and District Community Bank Bloke’s Chocolate Cake competition.
Last year the event had a modest six entries and the society was just hoping for a little more than that.
In an unexpected turn of events, the competition received a whopping 77 entries with Penola resident Ian Tregenza taking out first prize.
Penola and District Community Bank branch manager Heather Devlin said she was blown away with the response the competition received.
“Sponsoring the event was a bit of a last minute decision,” she said.
“It all came together in the last few weeks leading up to the show and then all of a sudden we had all of these people around town talking about it.
“We had posters around town and even an ingredient trail at the IGA and people were all really excited about it.”
The competition has received an Australia wide response, with social media sites from across the country sharing the amazing story.
With such a huge response, the bank is already planning to sponsor the event next year and make it better than ever.
“Next year we want more than 100 entries,” Ms Devlin said.
“Hopefully we can get a celebrity judge on board and up the prize money as well.
“We are just really proud of how it all turned out and we cannot wait for next year.”
Overall, show society secretary Kathy Fennell hailed the weekend’s celebration a success for the town.
“We are so proud of how the whole weekend came together,” she said.
“Everything was really popular and we had so much support from the community.”
The society is already planning how to make next year’s event even bigger and better.
