But the Great Escape Expo is set to pave the way to "an AgQuip on steroids" with the twice-cancelled mega rural field days set to come back bigger and better than ever.

ACM Rural Events Group Manager Kate Nugent said not only is the event the first major expo since coronavirus, it's the biggest of its kind ever held in the region.

Want more local news? Subscribe to the Leader to read it here first

"We have over 100 exhibitors and we have hundreds and hundreds of products and services that will be showcased over the two days of the Great Escape Expo," she said.

From 4WDs to camping, the event is set to be one of the state's largest outdoor, adventure and leisure events ever held, she said.

Building the event up from scratch during a pandemic was a huge task, Ms Nugent said.

"This is one of the most challenged events ACM Rural Events has organised for some time," she said.

"We really have worked so hard, we just said well we're not giving up. There has been certainly times of great challenge for the team to try and encourage and understand how important it was for these companies to take the opportunity."

With 80 per cent of exhibitors either from the New England region or from elsewhere in NSW, organisers of the Great Escape are hoping locals will throw their support behind the event.

Ms Nugent said they need all the local support they can get to make the event a success.

"It's really exciting, but been a great deal of hard work. We're really saying please, please take an opportunity to come and support a local event," she said.

ACM Rural Events is meanwhile busy organising its flagship event, AgQuip, the southern hemisphere's largest agricultural field day.

READ MORE:

Ms Nugent said the August event was shaping up to be one of the biggest ever.

"We've been given permission to be able to stage AgQuip. That's come through the department of regional development working with NSW public health. So we are back!

"Our enquiry rate is up 20 per cent on previous years. Now understanding that we came from a base in 2019 when we were in the deepest darkest drought. But by all means it is just absolutely super dooper. This is an AgQuip on steroids with respect to the enquiry, the interest from exhibitors from right across Australia."

AgQuip is typically held in August, but was last year initially delayed to November then cancelled completely due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The event draws thousands to Gunnedah and is the largest agricultural field day event in the southern hemisphere.

The Great Escape Expo runs on the weekend of Saturday May 1 and Sunday May 2.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: