AS the curtain fell on this year's New Forest Show, delighted organisers celebrated a bumper crop of visitors.

Organisers predicted the annual showcase event's biggest attendance as early as day one when crowds were up by a quarter on last year.

With a second consecutive record crowd on Wednesday of 40,000, it was just a matter of time before the show smashed its record, which was confirmed as early as 11am yesterday as visitors continued to pour in.

The New Forest Show's chief executive Richard Cuzens said: "We're riding on a tide of adrenaline and happy the show has been flushed with success."

As the sun set organisers were confident of a bright future for the show, which was badly previously disrupted by the foot-and-mouth outbreak and bad weather last year.

If they were afraid of clouds on the horizon they could have consulted fortune-teller Betsy Lee's crystal ball. The gypsy specialises in tarot cards, tea leaves, palm-reading and claims to have read the fortunes of dozens of celebrities.

Those unable to digest her future predictions of burgeoning waistbands could head to the food tent to satisfy their appetite on wild garlic and nettle cheese made in the New Forest, frozen yoghurt packed with fresh fruit, or enormous strings of smoked sausages.

Visitors could dangle their toes in the crystal streams of the Forestry Commission's award-winning Life 3 project, which showed the work the commission is doing to revitalise the Forest's shrinking wetlands.

A host of keepers and volunteers dug out a horseshoe shape in the turf, which was divided in two.

Half showed the Forest's existing straight-river channels, with non-native planting. The other half showed the commissions' efforts to return the Forest's rivers to their natural state with shallow and deep river pools and deciduous woodland.