Thousands of people flocked to the 2021 GEM Mount Gambier Spring Show on Friday and Saturday with the event hailed a success by organisers following its much-anticipated return.

Mount Gambier Agricultural and Horticultural Society president Danielle Tulak said following a two-year hiatus, 10,400 people flooded through the gates during the three show sessions.

“We usually get 10,000 on a good year,” she said.

“Attendance was similar to what we expected.

“We had about 2200 people attend on the Friday and we reached 4600 people on the Saturday of the second session.”

Praise has been rolling in for the event which included something for the whole family.

“A lot of families said everything was super family friendly with plenty of free entertainment for the kids while teenagers loved all the rides,” Ms Tulak said.

“The feedback this year has been super positive whereas in other years we tend to cop a lot of negativities for little things that are outside of our control.

“We have now had the opportunity to run things a bit different so that means we can review the way we have run the show and possibly make some positive changes going forward.”

Ms Tulak said organisers were pleasantly surprised as to how many people complied to the COVID restrictions including masks and social distancing.

“It is a credit to our community for complying and following the directions of COVID requirements,” she said.

“We could not have done it without our generous volunteers and sponsors.”

Ms Tulak said she hoped this year’s success would give other shows a boost in moving forward despite restrictions.

“The restrictions were challenging but I think now that we have gone ahead it will help other events realise they can go ahead too,” she said.

“If we can do it with 10,000 people hopefully the smaller events and country shows cannot be so daunted by the prospect.”