Twice a year a town of about 1,900 people takes in up to 30,000 visitors in a single day. The Martinborough Fair closes Memorial Square and the eight roads leading into it, fills them with about 500 stalls of New Zealand-made crafts, food, plants and clothing, and is packed away again by teatime. The next fairs are on Saturday 6 February and Saturday 6 March 2027.
Entry is free and the stalls start trading early. Here is how to get there, where to park, when to arrive, what to bring, and how to make a weekend of it.
When is the Martinborough Fair?
The Martinborough Fair is held on the first Saturday of February and the first Saturday of March every year. In 2027 that is Saturday 6 February and Saturday 6 March, from about 8am to 4pm.
Setting up starts well before dawn: stallholders are allowed to drive in from about 4am until 7.30am, and the streets reopen for packing up from around 4pm. That leaves a trading day of roughly 8am to 4pm. The stalls are busiest from late morning to early afternoon.
The dates never move, which makes them easy to plan around and hard to book around. Both Saturdays fall in the driest, warmest stretch of the Martinborough year. In the dry heat of a Wairarapa February the thermometer can reach the high 20s or low 30s by midday.
What is at the Fair
Stalls sell New Zealand-made crafts, homeware, clothing, jewellery, plants, art, preserves and food, and there are food trucks and hot food stalls throughout. Everything is spread across the Square and the streets around it.
Most stalls are on the road, not the grass. The Fair spreads out along Texas Street, Cambridge Road, Kansas Street, Jellicoe Street, Oxford Street, Ohio Street and the other streets that meet at the Square, and the further you walk from the centre, the easier the crowds get. The best approach is one full lap early, noting what you want, then a second pass to buy.
Take some cash and a card, in case a stall you like does not take cards.
Getting there and parking
Drive in on the highway from Featherston, State Highway 53, or on the back roads from Greytown and Carterton, and park kerbside on the ring of streets around the town centre. Parking is free on those streets, and in a few places independent groups charge a small fee.
The Fair's own advice is worth following to the letter. When you see cars parked along State Highway 53 on the way into town, do not stop. Drive on into Martinborough, turn left or right at Princess Street, and use the rings of streets around the centre. There is plenty of kerbside parking within an easy walk of the Square, and the people parked on the highway are walking a long way for no reason.
Coming from Greytown, you can join either route into town. From north of Carterton, the organisers recommend coming via Ponatahi Road. From any direction, expect to spend some time in a queue on the way in.
On Fair days the South Wairarapa District Council closes the streets around the Square, including Texas Street, Cambridge Road, Kansas Street, Jellicoe Street, Oxford Street and the Ohio Street end of State Highway 53, for the day. Restricted parking on Princess Street, Kitchener Street and Cork Street is watched by marshals. Plan to arrive on foot to the centre, not by car.
Without a car, the train from Wellington to Featherston connects with a bus to Martinborough on Saturdays, and Wellington to Martinborough without a car is set out with timetable times. On a Fair day, allow extra time for the bus.
When to arrive
Arrive before 9am. You will park closer, the stalls are fresh, and you will have done a lap before the heat and the biggest crowds arrive around the middle of the day.
Visitors who have been before say the same thing: go early, especially on a hot day, and do not park at the first sign of other cars. By early afternoon the Square is at its fullest and the queues at the food stalls are longest. Do not leave the thing you want until the end of the day.
A Fair day, hour by hour
If you only have the one day, this is a plan that works with the heat and the crowds rather than against them.
At 7am, get a coffee on the Square while the stallholders finish setting up. By 8am, start your first lap from the Square outwards, noting what you want. At 10am, buy the things you noted, before they sell out. At noon, when the heat and the crowd peak, sit in the shade of the Square with something from a food stall, or step out of the fairground for a quiet lunch. At 2pm, do a last pass of the outer streets, where it is calmer. By 4pm the stalls are packing down, and a glass at a cellar door or on a verandah on the Square is a good way to end the day.
Bringing children
Children enjoy the Fair, but the crowds and the heat mean planning for them.
Agree a meeting point before you start. The playground beside the Waihinga Centre on the Square is easy for children to find, and the café in the Waihinga Centre is next to it. Keep small children in a carrier rather than a pushchair, give everyone a hat and water, and plan a break in the shade around midday.
What to bring
Water, a hat, sunscreen, comfortable shoes and a bag for what you buy. If you are coming with a baby, a carrier works better than a pushchair.
The streets are asphalt and the New Zealand summer sun burns quickly. Refill water where you can and sit in the Square's shade when you need a break. The crowds are thick enough that many parents with small children find a pushchair hard work, and visitors regularly suggest a baby carrier instead.
Leave the dog at home. The organisers ask visitors not to bring dogs: with up to 30,000 people there is little room for a dog among all the legs, and most stalls are on hot road with no water to hand.
Food and drink on the day
There is plenty to eat at the Fair itself, from food trucks to baking stalls. The cafés and restaurants around the Square also open, and they are busy.
Get your first coffee in before the crowds. In The Neighbourhood on the Square opens at 7am and is the natural first stop. By late morning, expect a queue everywhere.
For lunch away from the stalls, book a table at one of the cellar-door restaurants a short drive or ride out of town, or plan an early dinner in the village when the streets reopen. The restaurants around the Square are full on Fair nights, so book dinner when you book your room.
Where to stay on Fair weekend
Book accommodation as soon as you have decided to come. On both Fair weekends nearly every bed in Martinborough is taken, often months ahead.
If the village is full, places to stay in and around the village reach out to vineyard cottages and country retreats a few kilometres away, and the motels and cottages of Greytown, 15.5 kilometres north, are the usual overflow.
Campers can use the TOP 10 Holiday Park on Vintners Lane or the tent sites at Considine Park, both within walking distance of the Square.
Make a weekend of it
Arrive on Friday, do the Fair early on Saturday, and spend Sunday at the cellar doors when the town is quiet again.
Saturday afternoon is also a good time for a vineyard. Most of the Fair crowd leaves by 4pm, and cellar doors on Puruatanga Road and Kitchener Street are a short ride from the Square. On Sunday, the town returns to normal and the rest of Martinborough is yours: a bike loop of the Terrace, a walk up the Rapaki track, or the long drive south to Cape Palliser.
The Fair is one of several big weekends in the Martinborough year, alongside Toast Martinborough in November and the jazz and music festivals in September. Martinborough's other big weekends are listed by month.
A fair with a history
The Fair began in 1977 with 35 stalls, and all of its profits still go back to the South Wairarapa community.
The idea came from Bill Fetch, a local Rotarian who had seen village markets while in Germany for an operation and thought Martinborough's tree-shaded square would suit one. Greytown Rotary, now South Wairarapa Rotary, organised the first fairs, closing the Square and its eight roads with the backing of the mayor of the day. The first Fair made a profit of $509, most of it from Rotary's own stall selling balloons, fleeces and fruit.
It has run on the same first-Saturday pattern ever since. The 2020 fairs raised about $100,000 for community causes, and the money is still given out to charities and groups in the South Wairarapa, with a particular focus on opportunities for young people. Every coffee and every craft bought on the day helps pay for that.
Running a stall
Stall applications open each October for the following year's fairs, and a site covers both days.
Returning stallholders are processed first during October, and new applications are handled in order of receipt from 1 November. Stallholders pay for, and are expected to attend, both fairs. Demand for sites is higher than the number available, so apply as early as the window opens.
Frequently asked questions
Published August 9, 2026
