THE chief executive of the Westmorland County Agricultural Society (WCAS) reflected on what had been a ‘fantastic’ Westmorland County Show.

Christine Knipe was speaking following the conclusion of the event, which was held over two days for the first time in its history and saw 29,000 people attend in total - up from 27,000 the last time the show was held, in 2019.

Mrs Knipe said: “Our aim always was to produce the best show we possibly could given the constraints that we were under and I genuinely feel that we did that and we delivered on all fronts that we had intended.”

She said the public appeared to have enjoyed the sense of space that holding the show over two days created ‘both in terms of people and in terms of the environment as well’.

“You could see a smiling face wherever you went,” she said.

“People were just so glad to be out.

“Our traders and exhibitors, they really enjoyed the event, many of them embraced the two-day format amazingly well.”

She described a ‘reluctance’ among some stallholders and exhibitors.

“We fully understand the impact on their businesses at home by spending an extra day at the show, but we received overwhelmingly positive feedback,” she said.

“Our livestock exhibitors have been overwhelmingly positive.

“A lot of them have appreciated the effort that we have gone to to put the show on.

“It would have been easy for us to hide under the parapet and say ‘we’re not going to bother’.”

Mrs Knipe stressed the plan had ‘always been’ to return to a one-day event next year.

However, she said: “There is now an awful lot for the society to discuss and that will be done over a series of meetings over the coming weeks and months.”

The day was capped off, of course, by the Royal visit, and Mrs Knipe gave her thanks to the Women’s Institute tent for laying on afternoon tea for Princess Anne and the Countess.