So You Want to be a Fairs Organiser?

Some people might think that organising antiques fairs (called antiques shows by our American cousins) is one thing that can be done by somebody with no knowledge of antiques. Although many antiques dealers turned organisers might disagree, however it is true that some fairs organisers have no background at all in the antiques trade.

So where do you start?

Size and Type of Fair
The first thing is to decide what kind of fair you will organise. Is it going to be a one-day fair or will it be a two or three day event? Are you going to set datelines, i.e. only allow antiques made before a certain date? If you decide to do this, you will need a vetting committee to check all antiques at the fair before it opens. These can either be exhibitors with the relevant experience or dealers or auctioneers who are not exhibiting.

At this stage you might also want to think about the size of the fair. Do you want a small fair of perhaps 50 exhibitors or are you thinking of holding a huge showground event? The latter would probably be inadvisable for a beginner. You need to think about this now because the next thing to do is look for a venue for the event. 

The Venue
This is where the trouble starts. All over the country experienced organisers are looking for new venues to hold fairs. They know exactly what is essential for a successful fair but even they have great difficulty in finding a venue because most of the suitable ones have already been taken.

Let's assume you are holding an indoor event so are not dependent on good weather. You need a good-sized hall - antiques dealers hate fairs split up into several rooms. All of them, no matter where their stand is, complain they were in the wrong room. You need easy unloading facilities - an upstairs room with one small lift supplemented by one narrow staircase will cause immense difficulties and unending complaints. There should be easy access for cars and vans so that dealers do not have to trudge long distances to unload and load their stock. There should also be easy and, preferably, free car parking for both dealers and visitors to the fair. Ideally, the venue should also have a café or restaurant, it keeps exhibitors happy and is likely to encourage visitors to stay longer. 

You also have to look at the geographic position of a possible venue. It has to have a good catchment area. If you have a fair of about 50 exhibitors, you will want to draw visitors from a radius of about 20 to 30 miles. With a fair of 100 exhibitors or more, the radius might be up to 50 to 100 miles. Are there good population centres within this area? Without being snobbish, you also have to assess the kind of disposable income of the residents within your catchment area. For example, a fair held in Surrey or Central London is likely to attract a large number of wealthy or at least professional people with good disposable incomes. One held in a poorer area of an inner city may not. They will not live near your venue and they might be nervous of venturing into such an area for fear of mugging or damage to their expensive parked cars.

Planning the Fair
Once you have found the venue, probably after weeks, if not months, of searching, you must then start the real work of organising a fair.

The first thing you have to do is set the date or dates if this is to be the first of regular monthly, quarterly or annual events. This may be taken out of your hands completely or at least constrained by the dates the venue has available. If you do have a choice, you will have to check the fairs calendar. Running a good quality antiques fair in competition with the June fair at Olympia is a doomed enterprise, for example. Trying to organise a large scale showground event at the same time as either the Newark or Swinderby fairs would also be considered foolhardy. Once you have set the date you can proceed to the next stage.

You will need the exact dimensions of your hall and, with that, you can do your stand plan which shows the position and size of each stand. On the plan, you will have to take into account fire exits, which must not be blocked, as well as fire regulations regarding the size of aisles. If this is just a table top fair it shouldn't be too difficult to do the plan because the tables are the same size. If you are building stands (booths in the US), and selling space by the square foot or metre you will probably have to wait for some bookings before the exact size of each stand can be done. However, you can decide on the position and depth of each stand, the width will be unknown at this stage.

Now you will also have to hire tables and chairs, if they are not included in the hall hire contract, or contact a company that builds stands. You will have to decide whether exhibitors get an electric socket and whether it is included in the stand rent or charged extra. If you are having stands rather than tables, you will have to provide spotlights for each one. You will probably provide a basic number of spotlights included in the stand rent but can offer exhibitors extra if they pay for them.

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