Some 70,000 people converged on Athy, Co Kildare, today, for the 80th National Ploughing Championships, which was formally opened by President Mary McAleese.
Championship organisers have confirmed all hotel and guesthouse accommodation, within a 30km radius of the site at Cardenton, has been booked for the event. More than 200,000 are expected to attend over the next three days.
The special traffic plan drawn up by the Garda, which worked well last year, has been put in place again and traffic is being diverted to special regional car parks at the 700-acre site.
While the core of the championships will be the ploughing competitions, most attention will be focused on more than 1,000 commercial stands where millions of euros worth of goods have gone on display.
More than 300 ploughmen and women will take part in the ploughing competitions with particular focus on the World Championship Ploughing Challenge.
The winner of the senior Irish competition will represent Ireland at various international events over the next year.
Due to the presidential election, the site will become a political cockpit over the next few days as many declared candidates.
Attending the event today, Sinn Féin candidate for the presidency Martin McGuinnnes called for the vote in Irish presidential elections to be extended to Irish citizens north of the Border. Mr McGuinness also found fault with the difficulty some were having in securing a nomination for the election.
One of the candidates, Mary Davis, has her own stand at the event and she brought a strong team of workers to canvass the huge crowds.
Michael D Higgins of the Labour Party, which once again does not have an official stand at the championships, attended today, as did Independent Seán Gallagher and Fine Gael’s Gay Mitchell.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny will attend on Thursday and Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney has pledged to spend at least two days on site.
Special bus and train links to the site from Athy, Portarlington, Co Offaly and Kildare stations have been arranged to the site.