2024 Dungog Rodeo's crowd sets record

Dungog's own rider Thomas Hudson, who has been attending the event since he was a baby, took home first place in the Open Bull Ride, winning the Tony Hudson Memorial Open Bull Ride Buckle for the second year in a row.

Gloucester's Lane Edwards won the novice saddle bronc ride.

"We all sat here and cheered for Thomas. You should've seen his father behind the chutes. We're very proud of him," Dungog Rodeo Secretary and Treasurer Carol-Ann Cummings said.

"He's come a long way. It's really good. I think he attended his first Dungog Rodeo at two weeks old."

Ms Cummings said rodeo organisers were overwhelmed by the crowd.

"We didn't expect to have this many people, eight and a half thousand. It caught us unawares really so we did have issues with things like rubbish because we just didn't have enough bins," she said.

"We learn from it every year and we get better at it and we obviously are getting better at it because we're getting more people to our event. It was pretty much standing room only.

"I don't know what caused it. All rodeo's are getting bigger. Spectators are just coming in droves now, it's becoming very popular which is great for us."

This year's rodeo broke the previous record set in 2023 of just over 6000 attendees.

Ms Cummings said the jump in attendance brings its own problems, mainly around catering and the subsequent logistics that are needed.

"We ran out of beer, we ran out of every scrap of alcohol. There was three cartons of ginger beer left at the end of the night. We would have had at least 150 cartons of beer, you couldn't get any more alcohol in the cool room and we still had to go and get more," Ms Cummings said.

"It was just amazing. It's a good problem to have. I'm still numb."

As a result of this rapidly growing crowd, Ms Cummings said that the rodeo committee will have to look at outsourcing the logistical side of some things such as parking.

Alongside this, the challenges that a sloped showground present were also highlighted.

"It made it difficult to do my job of putting everybody in position," Ms Cummings said.

"We're going to look into having a more professional group do the car parking. We're always trying to improve on what we're doing every year because the crowd is getting bigger and we know it's becoming more than what we can manage without professional help."