Bloom is expecting around 100,000 visitors over the next five days as the popular gardening, food and sustainability festival returns to Dublin’s Phoenix Park today.
The annual event, sponsored by Bord Bia, officially opened this morning and marks a major milestone this year as Bloom celebrates its 20th anniversary.
Running across a 70-acre site, this year’s festival places a strong focus on biodiversity, climate action, wellness and sustainable living. Organisers say Bloom has grown from a small gardening showcase into one of Ireland’s largest outdoor lifestyle events.
Among the headline attractions are show gardens celebrating Ireland’s EU presidency, 90 years of Met Éireann, and a special sculptural garden marking Bloom’s two decades in operation. Visitors can also explore a number of health-themed gardens focused on mental health care, cancer awareness and organic farming.
Community-designed “postcard gardens” from groups around the country will feature themes including bogland conservation and prison rehabilitation.
New additions for 2026 include an Irish plant showcase and a dedicated wellness village.
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President Catherine Connolly, a patron of Bloom, officially opened the festival with an address this morning.
Tickets purchased online start from €30 plus booking fees, while standard adult tickets at the gate cost €40. When Bloom first launched 20 years ago, tickets were priced at €25.
A spokesperson for the event said organisers had “worked very hard over the past two decades to keep pricing as accessible and reasonable as possible, despite significant increases in event-delivery costs across the sector.”
They added that Bloom has doubled in size since it first launched and noted that “Bloom’s concession ticket pricing this year reflects the same phased pricing structure used across most major live events and festivals, where tickets are more affordable the earlier they are purchased.”
Tickets for this year’s event were available from €20 when they first went on sale last December.
Organisers also pointed to the cost of similar events internationally, saying Bloom “continues to offer strong value compared with similar large-scale events both domestically and internationally, with comparable gardening shows in the UK (e.g., Chelsea) starting from over £120 per ticket”.
The festival runs daily from 9am until 6pm through to Monday, 1 June.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Bord Bia CEO Jim O’Toole said Bloom has evolved dramatically since it first began.
“Twenty years ago, the show gardens were contained in the walled garden here beside the visitor centre... we now have a 70-acre site.”
“It has absolutely transformed the show. It was started as a small collection of show gardens. Now it is an experience, a festival of sustainable living, of gardening, of garden design, of the food industry coming together and showing what they have on offer.”
Mr O’Toole said public interest in gardening and wellness surged during the Covid pandemic.
“Gardening and wellness and living and sustainable living all became so important for people.”
He added: “Bloom has recognition around the country. If you go to any part of Ireland and mention Bloom, people, I think, have an understanding of what it is.”
“Twenty years ago, of course, it was just an idea.”
