Ipswich Annual Show 2026

The Ipswich show holiday fell on Friday 15 May 2026 and applies to the City of Ipswich only. Ipswich does not get the Ekka holiday in August, because it has its own show day instead.

Confirmed dates

When it has fallen before

With no appointed future date, the run of past appointments is the best guide available. This is evidence of a pattern, not a forecast, and the pattern has broken before.

Who actually gets the day off

This is a regional public holiday, so it does not cover the whole of Queensland. The gazetted scope is:

City of Ipswich

The Ipswich Show has run since 1873 and is one of the oldest continuously held shows in Queensland. Ipswich sits inside the south-east corner but is appointed its own show holiday, which is why its calendar diverges from the councils around it. Neighbouring Logan City, Somerset, Scenic Rim and the Lockyer Valley have no show day of their own and are appointed the Royal Queensland Show instead, which they take on the Monday in August.

If you are outside that area, your normal Queensland public holiday calendar applies instead, and this day is an ordinary working day for you.

What you are paid

If you do not work the day and it is a day you would ordinarily work, you are paid your base rate for the ordinary hours you would have worked. That obligation sits in the National Employment Standards, not your award, so it applies whether or not an award covers you.

If you do work it, the penalty rate comes from your award or enterprise agreement rather than the NES. Customer-facing awards commonly set public holiday rates between 200% and 250% of the base rate. Work out what a specific day is worth with the public holiday pay calculator, and check your own award on the modern award pay pages.

Casual employees are the common exception. A casual has no ordinary hours, so there is nothing to be paid for on a day not worked. A casual who does work the day gets the public holiday penalty rate in the award, usually on top of casual loading. The casual versus permanent guide sets out how the two interact.

If it falls during your annual leave

You keep the day. A public holiday that falls inside a period of paid annual leave is not deducted from your balance, so a week of leave containing this holiday costs you four days of leave rather than five.

That phrase, "the place where the employee is based for work purposes", is what makes a regional holiday like this one worth checking. It is your work base that decides the entitlement, not your home address. Model the effect on a balance with the annual leave calculator.

Other Queensland show holidays

Queensland appoints 98 district show holidays a year, more than every other state combined, and none of them is statewide. If you work across more than one district, or you are running payroll for sites in several, the Queensland show holidays directory lists every appointed date and district for 2026.

The most commonly confused day is the Royal Queensland Show, the Ekka. It is not Brisbane only: the City of Brisbane takes it on the Wednesday and 15 further districts take it on the Monday. Districts with their own show, including this one, take that instead and get no Ekka day at all.

Related

For the full Queensland calendar including every statewide date, see public holidays in Queensland, or start from the Queensland leave calculator for annual leave, long service leave and final pay under QLD rules. For every state at once, see the public holidays hub and public holidays 2027. If you are planning leave around it, the long weekends page shows which dates fall next to a weekend, and a public holiday inside a booked break does not consume your balance: check it on the annual leave calculator.