Broke Village Fair Committee president Eden Anthony leads the effort, but it is supported by five other committee members.

Without the helping hands though, Mr Anthony said, organising the event would be “impossible”.

“It’s by sharing the load that the Fair keeps on running year-in, year-out,” he said.

“You’ve got to understand that we’re all volunteers with our own businesses and jobs, and the workload in the lead-up to the event really adds up.”

But according to Mr Anthony, it’s the members of the local community, the unsung heroes, who in an instant will drop what they’re doing to pitch in, that make the annual festival so strong.

“It’s a beauty - when you need something it’s only a phone call away,” he said.

“Those of us on the committee are lucky we have time to go to meetings and those sort of things but typically when you need help with something, someone in the community can assist.

“I’m always confident that I’d just need to make a phone call, and whatever we need will be delivered.”

Planning typically starts with an informal meeting in January or February before a series of meetings through the year, before things get busy in the weeks leading up to the Fair.

Throughout the week the volunteers have helped with the deliveries or 

marquees, fences, rides and stalls and that is set to continue over the weekend.

For Mr Anthony and his volunteers the days over the weekend will begin around 6am to help mark out stalls, set up marquees as well as everything else that goes into making the Fair work.

The committee will also be aided by the Broke Rural Fire Service, who 

provide the heavy lifting to help with marquees and fences.

As always, the Fair will showcase an array of vintage and classic cars, motorbikes, trucks and tractors as well as rides, slides, laser tag and jumping castles for the kids.

In addition, there are a number of musical performances, ranging from an Elvis impersonator recently moved into the area to children from the local school, as well as traditional favourites such as tug-o-war, whip cracking and bush poetry.

A rocker car racing track has also been set up for the day, with students from Muswellbrook TAFE helping with the construction of the cars.

Mr Anthony notes that the committee is consistently looking for new and innovative attractions for patrons, but admits it’s the simple things that keep most coming back.

“I think in a lot of ways it’s the old-fashioned nature of whole thing that people love, it goes back to the days when people were kids taken along to the local country fair,” he said.

“And there’s no fuss about what we do here, it’s very rural and homely and we try and keep that look and feel about it.

“The nostalgia never dies, people always hark back to better days and I think a lot of people like to get back to the grassroots.”

The 2014 edition of the Broke Village Fair takes place on Sunday at McNamara Park, and runs throughout the day from 9am until 3pm.