Participation in this week's Sport Southland holiday programme has skyrocketed compared to attendance during the last school holidays, organisers say.

Programme co-ordinator Brittany North said 39 children, aged between 5 and 12, took part in the day-long activities at Winton yesterday.

"Last time [in the July holidays] we only had about 15 turn up, so it's been a fantastic turnout actually," she said.

The day before, 36 children took part in Te Anau and numbers were also "tracking pretty good" for today's event in Gore, she said.

Tomorrow, the holiday programme will be held in Riverton.

The higher numbers were possibly because of better advertising but could also be because of a greater variation of sports, she said.

This holiday programme included cricket, volleyball, football and squash.

The programme was about encouraging youngsters to get active and give a variety of sports a go, she said.

Twelve-year-old Blake Dunnage and Jackson Hunter, 11, both said they were most looking forward to playing a bit of cricket.

"I've been thinking about doing cricket this season and it just encouraged me a bit more," Jackson said.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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