High-dive acts, an after-dark offering and a human cannonball will join the usual woolly, hairy and four-legged staples at the Royal Easter Show.
Organisers expect the 2026 edition to entice just shy of one million visitors to Sydney's Olympic Park as farm collides with city for 12 action-packed days.
The venue will house some 14,000 animals, with about 1200 people living on site.
Despite fuel cost pressures, the show reports not a single exhibitor, including as far-flung as far north Queensland and Western Australia, has pulled out.
"They've been in months of planning, and they need to be here," Easter Show managing director Murray Wilton told reporters on Wednesday.
"It's the pinnacle agricultural event of the country."
Bracing for the show's opening on Thursday, James Kemp runs the farmyard nursery, where visitors can pet goats, feed ducks or take home a kelpie puppy.
"We're busy right from the word go," he told AAP on Wednesday.
"We get between one-and-a-half to 2000 people an hour coming through for 12 hours a day, for 12 days of the show."
Journeying from southern Queensland, Mr Kemp said fuel and fertiliser shortages were a threat to the event, but the worst was yet to come.
"I was very nervous about getting here," he said.
"I was wondering whether we'd actually have enough fuel to get down here or be able to buy fuel on the way down.
"Getting home will be the challenge, probably."
While still a traditional agricultural show at heart, some competitors in the judged events are already sporting blue ribbons as high-dive and human cannonball acts prepare to soar over barns and stables.
Eight-year-old Isaac Hobbs, from Molong in central western NSW, claimed top honours in the junior cattle paraders competition, enduring intense scrutiny from judges while wrangling a beast 10 times his size.
"The judge will ask him questions, how old the heifer is, is she in calf, what's her name, and if they know all that ... this is Isaac's prize", Isaac's father Stuart said.
Only old enough to enter the contest this year, Isaac was undaunted.
"I thought I'd win," he said.
The show is also introducing an afternoon ticket so families can enjoy its night-time entertainment at a lower price.
Mr Wilton said the show encouraged visitors to save money by bringing their own food, with all agricultural displays included in ticket prices.
The Royal Easter Show runs from Thursday until April 13.
