The North Otago Bird Club is hosting the National Bird Show in July in the Oamaru Drill Hall.
It will be the first time in 15 years and just the second time ever that Oamaru will host the show.
Holding it here will cost the club more than $30,000 with almost $20,000 of that coming from fundraising, assistant show secretary Joanna Anderson said.
"That’s all through volunteer time through members of the club.
"One of our major fundraisers has been firewood, so we’ve been selling that and we’ve had a huge response from the community."
That money will pay for a range of things such as staging for the hall, accommodation for the judges and prize money for the winners.
The national show comes to the South Island once every three years and tends to be in Christchurch.
However, North Otago thought they could "give it a crack", club president Malcolm Oakes said.
"It’s the New Zealand national show, you don’t get any bigger or better.
"For me personally, I think it’s just a great thing for Oamaru and we’ve got a committee that’s willing to do it."
The club expected more than 150 exhibitors to attend, meaning it would benefit the entire town, he said.
They have been advertising to other clubs "what Oamaru’s got to offer", show secretary Diana Tonkin said.
"So that they can be prepared to go to Steampunk [HQ] and the trails and the penguin colony. It’s pretty exciting."
Having the show in town also made it easier for their own members to enter.
Mrs Tonkin hoped the Oamaru locals would come out and support the show.
"It will be nice just to show the Oamaru public just what is available out there, so that if anybody does have birds in Oamaru that wants to join a club, they can come to the show and we’ll certainly sign them up."
There would be activities for children at the show and the committee hoped to have face painting as well.
Mrs Tonkin was also looking forward to the different variety of birds that North Island exhibitors breed.
The club was very grateful for all the financial support they had received from local businesses, Waitaki District Council and Network Waitaki.
