Day 6 of the World Women’s Curling Championships in North Bay has competitors raving and impressed with the size and crowd engagement.

At any given moment, glancing up at the crowd at Memorial Gardens, you can see flags of all countries competing at this year's tournament waving.         

While some of the spectators may be visiting North Bay to support their home team, most of them are residents.

The supportive atmosphere is giving visitors an experience most have never felt playing at home.

The team from South Korea became national heroes while competing at the 2018 Winter Olympics on home soil, so for many South Korean people living in Canada, this curling event is allowing them the opportunity to get an up-close encounter with the Olympic silver medalists much closer to home.

Daniel Yoon came up from Toronto to meet the Korean Olympians.

"They are big stars in Korea and to actually meet them here, pretty much next to Toronto, it's a huge deal. I got my picture with them and autographs so it's been a pretty awesome experience for sure." said Yoon.

Scanning through the seats of Memorial Gardens, you can see supporters for every country, but not all fans hail from the countries of which they wave the flag.

Joshua Lawson is cheering for team USA.

"Well, Canada isn't playing today, so I thought why not cheer for my fellow United States? You know, it's good. Everyone is cheering for a different team. You've got to help them out and you’ve got to give them motivation." said Lawson.

While local curling fans have been making their way out to games, and even practices in droves, they have also been welcoming teams in to the community in a variety of ways.

On Tuesday it was a capacity crowd at the Davedi Club, as members held a dinner honouring the Italian curling team, making their Canadian trip feel a little more like home.

"It is absolutely special. We have more fans here than in Italy, because no one knows what curling is in Italy, so we are always alone playing in our curling championships. So it's been fun being so far away from home, but having so many people around. It's great." said Diana Gaspari the Team Italy skip.

The president of Davedi club, Vince Orlando, says it’s like having family around.

"It makes us so happy, because they are sisters and we really want to promote them. It means everything. It's like our daughters have left home and came back." said Orlando.

While there is no question which country garners the most support, the excitement of the crowd and its support for each country has impressed athletes in their world curling championship debut.

"I don't think I’ve played in an event where the crowd has been this involved, this loud. I mean most of the time they are cheering for Canada, but it's been just an awesome atmosphere to play in and we are fortunate to have a decent size American cheering section which is good. A lot of family came up from Ottawa, so I’m very fortunate to have that support." said Team USA skip Jamie Sinclair.

Victoria Moiseeva, the skip for Team Russia, shares how positive the fans are.

"It's so nice that fans here support not only the Canadian team, but also other teams. Because in Russia, we don't have that many people who can come to games and we don't have that many people when we play in nationals, so having fans there is really nice." said Moiseeva.

"The louder the better, it makes such a difference. It gives you this energy and as Kaitlin says, it almost makes you want to hit your shots more just so you can hear the crowd go crazy. And we are so thankful for them, so please keep coming out and cheering for us, it's made the experience even that much more special." said veteran curler Jennifer Jones, skip for Team Canada.

The competition will be particularly memorable for Canadian lead Jill Officer, who will be stepping back at the end of the season, making this her final World Women's Curling Championship as a full-time member of Team Jones.

"It's been awhile since we've been Team Canada at home, so earlier in the week I kind of forgot what it meant to be team Canada playing in Canada. So, it's just been really special and the crowd has just been so loud and supportive, that we are just trying to enjoy it all and give them something to cheer about." said Officer.