The town received over 62mm of rain over the weekend, but it didn't dampen spirits.

Show committee member Kim Rhodes said the show was forced to cancel its usual fireworks display by dry weather - when booking months in advance they assumed total firebans would continue.

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But instead committee volunteers arrived at the showgrounds on on Thursday to what felt like an oncoming monsoon - a "pit of disaster".

"I don't think we've ever run the demolition derby under water before," she laughed.

But despite drought, despite bushfires and despite life-giving rain, the committee made a commitment to "let everyone know there's going to be a show, rain hail or shine."

Shifting the NRMA rodeo to Friday night from Saturday was a particularly clever moving, more than doubling competitors, she said.

But new events included kids artwork with Rotation Creations, a bucking bull, a new fashion parade by artisan group Make It Tenterfield, a farriers' competition, and a bigger and better pamper tent and more.

In one striking new element of the show Tenterfield students were asked to draw their interpretation of the year's bushfire emergency.

Many of them would have watched the fires from close up as in September flames licked the edge of town.

Kim Rhodes said it was about helping the kids deal with a world-shattering event.

"The first fire that happened in Tenterfield was the Friday after the last show and it burnt all of our national parks,

"The shire was not fire free for a whole year.

"That affects a lot of children and a lot of thinks that go on in the community and that's why we wanted to see what the kids felt."

There's no definitive estimate of attendance because gates were free, but Kim Rhodes estimates attendance was up.