Tomoana Showgrounds

Tōmoana Showgrounds is a multi-use event venue on Kenilworth Road in Hastings, Hawke's Bay, about five minutes' drive from the Hastings city centre. It combines large indoor pavilions, outdoor arenas and gardens on a single site, and is owned by Hastings District Council, having been sold to the council by the Hawke's Bay A&P Society.

What it is

The showgrounds function as both an equestrian and agricultural showground and a general-purpose events site. The layout is built around multiple flexible zones that can be hired individually or combined, which is the key point for organisers: the site scales from a single-room meeting through to a full multi-zone festival or exhibition without changing venue.

Spaces

• Exhibition Hall — the principal indoor building and the heart of the site. It is used for seated dinners, banquets, exhibitions, conferences, smaller live performances and physical activities. Published capacity figures are not stated in publicly available sources; organisers should request the venue's capacity chart for theatre, cabaret, banquet and exhibition layouts.
• Wool Brokers Pavilion — a further covered pavilion on the showgrounds used as a ticketed event space.
• Waikoko Gardens — a landscaped outdoor area on the site, and the regular Sunday home of the Hawke's Bay Farmers' Market.
• Outdoor arenas and grounds — supporting equestrian competition, agricultural showing and large outdoor events.

History

The Hawke's Bay A&P Show traces its origins to an event held near Havelock North in 1863, and the show has been based at the Tōmoana site since 1925. The annual A&P Show remains one of the region's major public events. The showgrounds passed from the A&P Society into Hastings District Council ownership and now operate as a council-run community and commercial venue.

Event track record

Alongside agricultural and equestrian competition, Tōmoana hosts concerts, festivals, markets and community events year-round. Music acts staged at the venue include Fat Freddy's Drop, Leisure, No Cigar and Foley. Seasonal activations have included a public ice rink. The Sunday farmers' market draws consistent weekly attendance to Waikoko Gardens.

MICE relevance

For conference and exhibition organisers, the case for Tōmoana rests on three things:

1. Scale and flexibility — large covered floor area plus substantial outdoor space, hireable in parts or in full. 2. Exhibition suitability — a hall designed for trade displays and livestock showing handles vehicle access, heavy stands and floor loading better than a hotel ballroom. 3. Regional positioning — it is one of the larger events sites in Hawke's Bay, in a region with strong food, wine and horticulture sectors, making it a natural fit for primary industry conferences, agricultural and equipment trade shows, regional expos, gala dinners and awards evenings.

There is no accommodation on site, so residential conferences will need to pair the venue with Hastings, Havelock North or Napier hotels, and shuttle transfers should be factored into the budget.

Suitability

Tōmoana Showgrounds suits exhibitions, trade shows, large conferences with a display component, gala dinners, festivals, concerts and outdoor corporate events in Hawke's Bay. Confirm exact hall dimensions, capacities, power, catering arrangements and parking directly with the venue when specifying.