The Hawke's Bay A&P Show runs 22-23 October 2026 at the Tomoana Showgrounds in Hastings, a two-day agricultural and pastoral exhibition drawing around 15,000 visitors with livestock, equestrian, trade and community programmes.
The Hawke's Bay A&P Show returns to Hastings on Thursday 22 and Friday 23 October 2026, running across two days at the Tomoana Showgrounds. Billed as the region's annual gathering where "country comes to town," the show blends competitive agriculture, livestock and equestrian classes with trade exhibits and family entertainment, and it typically welcomes around 15,000 visitors over its run.
The show is organised by the Hawke's Bay A&P Society, a charitable, not-for-profit society founded in 1858. The Society describes its purpose as promoting the primary sector to a wide audience by running events, recognising heritage, fostering education and celebrating excellence to help Hawke's Bay's agricultural and pastoral industries grow. It confirms the 2026 dates on its official show pages, and the event is also listed on the Royal Agricultural Society of New Zealand's national A&P show calendar.
The programme spans trade sites and exhibits, school programmes and competitions, livestock competitions (cattle halter, young-stock judging, poultry and fleece), equestrian classes, and rural skills such as shearing, fencing, dog trials and a pig competition. Community-facing features include a Salute the Ute competition, a dachshund competition, a Kubb championship, handmade and woodcraft competitions, a community performance stage, a pet competition and a hobby-horse race. The mix draws exhibitors and trade stallholders alongside a broad general-public and school audience.
The show is held at the Hawke's Bay Showgrounds, better known as the Tomoana Showgrounds, in Hastings. As neutral context for anyone attending, the grounds sit within the Hastings urban area and are managed in association with the Hastings District Council, placing the show close to the town's accommodation, hospitality and transport links; Hastings is served by the wider Napier-Hastings arterial network and is about a 20-30 minute drive from Hawke's Bay Airport at Napier. Two-day, high-footfall agricultural shows of this size concentrate visitor and exhibitor movement into the venue and surrounding roads across the show days.
A&P shows are a long-running fixture of New Zealand's regional events calendar, and the Hawke's Bay A&P Show is one of the country's established spring shows. For the business-events and exhibition sector it functions as a recurring, large-scale trade and public exhibition that reliably activates a major regional venue, supports rural-sector exhibitors and trade sites, and anchors a broader show-week programme in the Hastings and wider Hawke's Bay region.
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