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This is the third year in a row we’ve gone to the Royal Adelaide Show, which is starting to feel less like a fun idea and more like a family tradition nobody actually agreed to. We’re not really a showbag family or a “let’s look at the prize cattle” family. We’re a rides family, through and through, and every year we tell ourselves we’ll be more organised about it. Every year we’re not, and it still ends up being one of the best days of the school term.
We went again this year, and it was busy. Properly busy, shoulder-to-shoulder-in-the-food-line busy, in a way that felt different from the last couple of visits.
Why It Felt Busier Than Usual
The Royal Adelaide Show runs from 5 to 13 September 2026 at the Adelaide Showground in Wayville, and it lands before South Australia’s official spring school holidays, which don’t start until late September this year (you can check exact SA school holiday dates for 2026 here if you’re trying to plan around it). So it wasn’t the full holiday crowd. But whatever the reason, plenty of kids seemed to be off school the day we went, and the queues for the bigger rides told the story. It didn’t ruin the day, but if you can go on a quieter weekday rather than a weekend, do that instead.
Leave The Car At Home
We drove. We shouldn’t have. Parking right around the Showground is limited and it fills early, and by the time we arrived, mid-morning, there was basically nothing left close by. Showground parking runs $35 for the day or $19.50 if you’re arriving after 6pm, and there’s Park Lands parking nearby for around $18 if the Showground itself is full. Next time we’re taking the train or tram in — the Showground has its own train station right at the gate, and Adelaide Metro puts on extra services for the whole nine days of the Show. It’s genuinely less hassle than trying to find a car spot.
The New Rides Were Worth The Queue
This year brought a few new additions to the ride lineup, including Warrior, which climbs to about 55 metres, and a looping ride called Lunarix. Both had long lines most of the afternoon, but they were worth standing in for. If your family is more about the thrill rides than the farm animals, we’d also put together a roundup of the best theme parks in Australia if you want more of that outside Show season.
Save The Sky Flyer XXL For Sunset
If you only do one ride, make it the Sky Flyer XXL — the giant swing ride that lifts you around 60 metres up. We went on it right around 5:50 to 6pm and it was, hands down, the best photo opportunity of the day. The light was golden, the whole Showground was laid out underneath us, and half the people up there were doing the same thing we were: filming instead of screaming. Nobody stopped us bringing a phone on board, and plenty of other riders had theirs out too, so if you want the shot, clip your phone to a wrist strap or lanyard first rather than trying to hold it loose. As thrill rides go it’s fairly gentle, so it’s a good one to end on if the rest of your day has been full of the more stomach-churning stuff.
The Carnival Pass Still Wasn’t Enough
We bought carnival ride tokens for the whole family, and even with 100 tokens between us (they’re sold at $80 for tokens worth $100 in ride value, or $35 for a $40 bundle if you don’t need as many), we still ran out before the day was done. If your kids want to properly work through the rides rather than pick two or three favourites, budget for more tokens than you think you’ll need, or plan to top up on the day.
Food, Showbags And The Cake Display
The pork ribs and roast chicken were fine — nothing special, but they did the job of feeding four hungry people who’d been on their feet since 10am. The macarons are always ridiculously sweet, as they are every single year, but the mango ones this time were genuinely good, and if you want something less tooth-aching, the fruit flavours are the way to go over the caramel. We also finally tried the liquid-nitrogen ice cream everyone’s been posting about, and it lived up to the hype.
If you’ve got a few minutes, it’s worth walking through the cake decorating displays in the Cookery pavilion — this year marks 100 years since Cookery was added as a Show competition category, so there’s a bit of extra to see. Not something the kids will care about for long, but the detail on some of those cakes is wild.
If your family loves the animal side of the Show as much as the rides, we’ve also got a list of zoos and animal farms worth a visit during the rest of the school holidays.
Go Later, Pay Less, Still Catch The Fireworks
Here’s the tip that actually saved us money this time: after 6pm tickets are $26 for adults and $15 for kids on weekdays (a bit more on weekends, at $29 and $19), against $29 and up if you buy full-price daytime tickets. Parking gets cheaper too. You’ll miss the daytime animal judging and some of the pavilions, but you’ll still get the arena entertainment, the rides, the food, and the fireworks, which start around 7:45pm most nights (a little later, around 8:45pm, on Fridays and Saturdays). Two hours is genuinely enough time to see the farmyard and the market stalls before dark if that’s all you’re after.
We watched the fireworks from right out the front near the main entrance, which also happens to be the best spot to see the Ferris wheel lit up at the same time. It’s a shorter, smaller display than what you’d get for New Year’s Eve in the city, but for a free-with-your-ticket, every-single-night show, it’s a nice way to close out the day. There was also a motorbike stunt display in the same arena earlier in the day, which had us wincing more than the kids did.
Would We Go Again Next Year?
Honestly, yes, and we already know we will. The prize games have gotten stingier — we played several stalls and barely scraped together enough points for anything worth taking home, which felt like bad luck more than anything, but it’s worth going in with low expectations there. Everything else more than made up for it. It’s a long day, it’s not cheap once you add up tickets, ride tokens and food, and the car park situation is genuinely worth avoiding. But between the rides, the sunset photos, the fireworks and the sheer scale of the place, it’s still one of those South Australian traditions that’s easy to see why families keep coming back to, year after year.
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