Ticket prices to go up €5 for 2026 Ploughing as costs rise

The National Ploughing Association's latest figures show a loss of €150,000 despite event's success

Thu, 11 Dec, 2025 - 12:17

Martin Claffey

Day ticket prices for the 2026 National Ploughing Championships will go up by €5 as the event organisers deal with rising costs.

The National Ploughing Association of Ireland (NPA) is a voluntary body which runs the event every year. In its latest financial statement for the financial year ended on January 31, the NPA made a loss of €150,926, following on from a profit of €300,000 the previous year.

Turnover for 2024 was €5,961,764, down from €6,146,998 a year previous.

Some 225,000 people attended the Ploughing at Screggan in Tullamore, Co Offaly, which was slightly down on 2024 when 244,000 visitors came to Ratheniska, Co Laois.

"Regarding the losses in 2024, it’s just a case of costs versus income from the event to be honest," said NPA assistant managing director Anna Marie McHugh.

"We had excellent weather for the Championships in 2024 but on the back of that, the harvest was still ongoing around the country, so that affected attendance. We had a very wet and costly event in 2023 which would have also had an impact on event – some cost overruns to 2024.

"We are very weather dependent, and this year there was a very bad forecast for the event, though most of that ended up coming at night, and that was a factor in 2025," said Ms McHugh.

The 2026 event will return to Screggan, running from September 15 to September 17, with tickets now on sale. Day ticket prices will be €30, up €5 on 2025. The NPA also have a limited number of tickets now available which can be used on any of the three days at the 2026 event, which is likely to appeal to Christmas gift buyers.

"We had very positive feedback on 2025, the livestock really increased, and we will have all of the major factors back for 2026. We are working on some new features for the 2026 event too."

Ms McHugh pointed out the NPA runs the biggest event in the country at a cost of over €7m annually with no Government financial support. "That’s a pretty significant achievement when you consider that the estimated Economic Impact of any one National Ploughing Championships is over €50m."

The NPA has retained earnings of €11.789m. "The NPA are very fortunate to have accumulated enough reserves to ensure the financial security of the Championships for many years to come, we hope," said Ms McHugh.

"However I would appendix that by saying that the price of everything in the events industry has increased year on year since Covid, and that has to level out for our sector to survive, but already we have been told that there will be price increases again in 2026 from many of our service providers."