Ganmain, Junee, Murrumburrah-Harden and now Wagga show organisers have all announced their cancellations in recent weeks, despite restrictions on public gatherings continuing to ease.

Wagga Show Society president Bruce Ryan said the society had little time to organise the event during the pandemic period when it did not have a clear understanding of what restrictions would look like come mid-September.

"It's not a two-week job to organise a show," he said.

He said the committee, which normally spends most of the year organising the show, had made the decision to cancel now to avoid being locked in to spending money on an event that may never happen. "From now on you have to start making firm bookings on things," he said.

Mr Ryan said with just three months to go before the event was due to go ahead, they would have needed to start spending to get the show on the road.

"By the time you start looking at getting entries in, you've got to organise prize money and ribbons and then you've got to look at advertising," he said.

"It all costs a fair bit of money if you can't go ahead."

Mr Ryan said the show society looked set to avoid financial difficulties from the cancellation because the committee had made the decision early enough to avoid making firm bookings for 2020.

The society is also not ruling out having a smaller event later in the year should restrictions lift.

"We're sort of leaving things open that there might be an opportunity for an alternative, smaller event, we're not gonna just shut up shop and say nothing's going to happen but it won't be a show as we know it," Mr Ryan said.

He said the health and safety of volunteers and the community would remain the priority.

Wagga's Ann Adams, state vice-president of the Country Women's Association, said the news was "a shame for the whole community."

"It's devastating really because everyone's been closed up for so long and we're really looking forward to getting out and about," she said.

Mrs Adams said many of the women in CWA had been hard at work through isolation preparing exhibits for the spring show season.

"The ladies are disappointed because we were looking forward to getting together and they've been getting their handicrafts and everything all going," she said.

She said as volunteers they could understand the decision to cancel, with uncertainty still making it difficult to organise meetings, let alone major events.

"We truly understand because nothing is really clear," she said.

"What it takes to organise these things, you just can't do it overnight."

She said it was difficult for volunteer groups to plan events with the lingering risk a late cancellation could undo all their hard work.

"This is what's making it hard now, that there's no definite time," she said.

Member for Wagga Joe McGirr said the cancellation was understandable, but he expected it would be disappointing for the community.

"I think there'll be ongoing care that people will take with social distancing, it's pretty understandable they're cautious about it, they're cautious about investing their time in the preparation of it," he said.

He said he believed there was still anxiety in the community around attending events and it was likely to be difficult to organise large-scale community gatherings for the rest of 2020.

However, Dr McGirr said he expected greater certainty around the easing of restrictions would come soon, with plans to reintroduce crowds to stadiums and COVID safe gigs both promising signs.

"There's really very little community transmission at the moment and certainly none in our region so I think those restrictions will continue to lift," he said.

"But I think the amount of work that goes into these shows, you can understand why people are pretty anxious about getting underway."

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