Art & Antiques for Everyone Exhibitor

AAfE at the NEC - A CORNERSTONE OF THE FAIRS CALENDAR GOES INTO COLD STORAGE FOR 2023

MAD Events Ltd acquired the venerable event founded in 1986, from Clarion Ltd in 2019 and faced a perfect storm over the past 3 years with the Covid pandemic, the cost of living crisis and the Ukraine war. 

Dan Leyland, director of Mad Events published the following statement to exhibitors on 12 December 2012.

Thank you for being part of the Art & Antiques for Everyone Winter 2022 event.

We have now gauged the appetite for 2023, following dealers returning their rebooking forms. For those of you who did, thank you again for the continued support.  Unfortunately, we have not had the take up we were hoping for, with many of you waiting out the current uncertainty.  As a result, we have also taken the decision that at the present time it is just too challenging for us to consider running the 2023 editions of Art & Antiques for Everyone.  We certainly hope to return in the future but must be realistic that in the current economic climate that may not be for some time.

We know that this is a disappointing decision for us all – we bought the fairs with such hope in 2019, but we think we all need to accept that COVID, war and inflation have brought us to this point. 

To all those who have supported us and the fair in all its guises for so many years we can only say, thank you!. You will be missed! But there are a host of other shows to enjoy and while we will not be seeing you 3 times a year in Brum for now, we will continue to visit you around the country at other fairs, so this is only farewell for now, and not a final goodbye.

Wishing you all the best for 2023,

Dan, Marisa, Pip, Jo, Felicity and Charlotte

Editors note: We will certainly miss this respected event in the calendar and we wish Dan and the team and all exhibitors good luck for the next steps. We will be looking forward to positive news in the industry for new events appearing in 2023.