Show society secretary Sue Dunn said the committee decided to put a halt on the show because of its small volunteer group. 

The Ararat Show has traditionally fallen on the last Sunday in October. 

However, Ararat Rural City Council mayor and show society life-member Gwenda Allgood has called an emergency meeting to save the annual show. She said too much energy has been put into the show to see it stop.

“Once the show is gone, it will be hard to get back,” she said. “People work many years to bring in a new events and spend a lot of money doing it, but here’s an event that is already there and locked in.

“That’s why I called the meeting because I thought that it would be a shame to lose the show.” 

Cr Allgood said the meeting was an opportunity to brainstorm new ideas that might help the show, but most importantly rally community support. She said the lack of volunteers was one of the main problems. 

“There are different things that we need to look at and I give great credit to the people that have been able to carry this forward,” she said. 

“The committee has worked tirelessly over the years to make the show a success. It just needs more people to be interested and lend a hand.”

Cr Allgood said the show relied on the community to both attend, as wellas, organise the event. 

“There might be more retired people like myself who can take a step up and give them a hand. Because it’s all about the community,” she said. “That’s why we have to support it – both by going to it and putting a hand up.” 

Cr Allgood encouraged people to come to the meeting with suggestions and ideas.

“This is a chance for them to make the show they want it to be – what they would like to see,” she said. 

The emergency meeting will be at the visitor information centre in Ararat from 7pm on Tuesday.