The city's big annual agricultural show was originally cancelled in April by the Canterbury A&P Association board who blamed financial difficulties.
But the company behind the popular Illuminate Lighting Experience came to the rescue of the 162-year-old event, striking a deal with the A&P Association to run 'The Christchurch Show', a trimmed-down and revamped version from November 14-16 at Canterbury Agricultural Park.
Event Hire managing director Phil Anderson said they are planning to stage the event over three days at the A&P showgrounds.
"When it got cancelled we had a lot of people contact us and say, surely you guys could run something on that date?
"And we're like, yeah, okay, that sounds great. We'll run something, and then we didn't quite expect it to go to this level to be running an A&P Show but it's been great."
The Canterbury A&P Association will continue running some of their traditional animal competitions and events separately to the new event.
But Anderson said his company will run the events and entertainment portion of the popular agricultural show.
The Christchurch Show event manager Karl Horwarth said they have had amazing support from the public and businesses, with around 300 trade market stalls planned for the event.
"They can expect to see all the traditional elements that they normally expect from an A&P show, but this year were able to bring on some really new exciting ones."
The event shifts forward a day, running from the Thursday through to the Saturday.
Organisers are limiting the tickets to control crowd numbers and halving the admission price compared to last year, charging $20 for adults and $10 for kids. Schools and community groups are also discounted.
"We've reduced prices for the public, but we've done the same for the trade sites.
"So we're really wanting to encourage people to come back to the show, make it a really good event for the trade sites.
"So we want a lot of people to come through, but we also want to them to then see a lot of different local businesses."
Horwarth said next month's event will include an expansion of a children's favourite, the 'City Farmyard' area.
Also confirmed is lawnmower racing, a BBQ Competition, Electric Dirt Bike Racing, and tractor pulling, along with other familiar sights.
"We hope to have wood chopping, shearing, wool competition, cattle. So they're the traditional elements that people expect."
Anderson said there has been strong demand for tickets.
- By Geoff Sloan, made with the support of NZ On Air
