Jade Promotions brings its long-running Wellington Home & Garden Show back to the waterfront from 4 to 6 September 2026, filling the 4,636sqm public concourse the venue itself calls the largest exhibition space in Wellington. One correction worth carrying: the venue is no longer Sky Stadium. Naming rights passed to Wellington accountancy service Hnry from 1 March 2026.
The Wellington Home & Garden Show returns to the capital's waterfront from Friday 4 to Sunday 6 September 2026. Organiser Jade Promotions and the venue both list the same run: doors 10.00am to 5.00pm on Friday and Saturday, and 10.00am to 4.00pm on Sunday. Trade-listing service TradeFairDates records the identical three-day pattern and the same opening hours, so the dates are settled across all three independent records.
One point is worth correcting at the top, because it will trip up any database still carrying the old entry. The venue is frequently listed as Sky Stadium. It is not Sky Stadium any more. The Wellington Regional Stadium Trust confirmed in late January 2026 that sole-trader accountancy service Hnry had replaced Sky Network Television as naming-rights partner on a five-year agreement, with the venue officially becoming Hnry Stadium from 1 March 2026, according to Austadiums' report of 28 January 2026. That makes Hnry only the third naming-rights holder in the stadium's 26-year history, after Westpac Stadium from its 2000 opening and Sky Stadium from 2020. The venue now trades as hnrystadium.co.nz. The event listing's "Hnry Stadium" is correct and current; it is the older "Sky Stadium" venue records that need updating.
The show is promoted and organised by Jade Promotions & Events, a New Zealand owned and family operated exhibitions company established in 1990 and based in Havelock North, Hastings. It runs two national show brands — the Home and Garden Show and the Better Home and Living Show — and describes itself as having the largest geographical spread of shows of any event management business in the country.
The current Jade calendar carries eleven Home & Garden Shows: Hawke's Bay at McLean Park, Wellington, Nelson at Saxton Stadium, South Canterbury at the Southern Trusts Event Centre, Otago at the Edgar Centre, Taupo at the Great Lake Centre, Taranaki at TSB Stadium, Auckland at Eden Park, Marlborough at Marlborough Lines Stadium, Rotorua at the Energy Events Centre, and Queenstown Lakes at the Wanaka Recreation Centre. Wellington sits second on that run, immediately after Hawke's Bay in late August and immediately before Nelson in mid-September.
The Wellington edition is not new. TradeFairDates records unbroken annual September editions from 2014 onward, including 5 to 7 September 2025 and 13 to 15 September 2024, with only the 2020 edition pushed to October. The 2026 dates move the show a week or two earlier than recent years.
This is a publicly accessible consumer exhibition with real trade depth on the floor, not a conference. The exhibitor mix described by the organiser and the venue spans kitchens and bathrooms, builders and renovators, windows and joinery, landscaping and garden supply, home maintenance, energy-efficient heating, smart home systems, outdoor living, homewares and artisan goods. Named Wellington exhibitors listed in the organiser's own directory include NZ Windows Wellington, Kitchen Studio Wellington, A1 Homes Wellington, Williams Corporation and Wellington SPCA.
The programme around the stands includes free "Ask an Expert" advice sessions run near the show entrance, Resene Paint a Pot on Saturday and Sunday, a Springfree Family Zone, and an appearance by Newstalk ZB resident builder Peter Wolfkamp. Jade has not published a Wellington exhibitor count for 2026 — the venue's own copy says "hundreds of exhibitors", and the organiser reported 190-plus exhibitors at its Auckland edition at Eden Park in May 2026 as a comparison point.
The show occupies the stadium's public concourse, which the venue lists at 4,636sqm and describes as the largest exhibition space in Wellington, rated to 5,000 for cocktail-style events. The venue names the Home and Garden Show and the Food Show as its recurring annual exhibitions. The wider function centre runs from 20 to 5,000 guests: the Members Gallery at 1,644sqm (800 theatre, 650 banquet, 240 classroom), the Members Clubroom at 777sqm, the Mezzanine Bar at 563sqm, combined Level 2 lounges at 509sqm, combined Level 3 lounges at 444sqm, and corporate boxes for groups of 10 to 25. The events arm now trades as Alto Events at Hnry Stadium, with O'Brien Group as exclusive caterer and AV Media as exclusive audio-visual supplier.
Access is unusually simple for a stadium. The site is at 105 Waterloo Quay, Pipitea, about a ten-minute walk from central Wellington. The Fran Wilde Walkway is a 650m elevated walkway running from Wellington Railway Station directly to the stadium entrance, a five to ten minute walk, with three access points: Thorndon Quay just north of the station, near Shed 21 on the port, and directly from railway platforms 8/7, 6/5 and 4/3. All regional train services terminate at the railway station and the bus terminal sits adjacent to the main walkway entry. For ferry arrivals, Interislander passengers take the shuttle to the railway station, Bluebridge passengers walk north along Waterloo Quay, and East by West passengers walk north from Queens Wharf. Wellington Airport is approximately 10km away, reachable by taxi, airport shuttle or the Airport Express bus.
On-site parking sits under the Fran Wilde Walkway with vehicle access off Waterloo Quay at the lights opposite CentrePort. Spaces are limited and campervans and caravans are not permitted. Height clearance is around 2.2m on both the mezzanine and ground floor. Free bike stands are on the ground floor of the car park under the western pedestrian ramp, with scooter parking on the eastern and western fence lines. The site sits at the northern edge of the Wellington CBD, where the city's hotel stock is concentrated.
This is an exhibition rather than a business-events programme, but it is a useful read on Wellington's exhibition capacity. The concourse that this show fills for three days is the same floor the venue markets to conference and trade-exhibition organisers, and a repeat consumer show at that scale is a working demonstration of load-in, load-out and crowd flow on the largest exhibition footprint in the city — in a venue whose core business is sport, not exhibitions.
The naming change matters too, and not just cosmetically. Venue records across New Zealand event databases, supplier lists and delegate packs still carry "Sky Stadium" for a site that has traded as Hnry Stadium since 1 March 2026. Anyone publishing Wellington venue data through 2026 has a housekeeping job.
Finally, Jade's eleven-city circuit is a reminder of how a large share of New Zealand exhibition activity actually runs: through regional stadium concourses, arenas and event centres rather than purpose-built exhibition halls. Wellington, Auckland's Eden Park, Napier's McLean Park, Nelson's Saxton Stadium and Rotorua's Energy Events Centre are all doing double duty, and the operators that can turn a sports concourse into an exhibition floor and back again are carrying a meaningful part of the national events calendar.
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