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London Wine Fair moves to June following Prowein clash

27 January 2022 By Patrick Schmitt

Following Prowein’s decision to move its March exhibition to a May-time date that clashed with the London Wine Fair, it has been announced today that the latter event will now be held in June.

The new dates for the UK’s largest wine trade event are Tuesday 7 to Thursday 9 June, just under a month later than the original dates, which were 16-18 May.

The London Wine Fair will take place in the same venue, which is the Olympia exhibition space in the west of the UK capital, with both physical and virtual events being held during these three days.

As previously reported by db, the Düsseldorf-based Prowein trade fair is being postponed from 27-29 March to 15-17 May this year, meaning that the exhibition was set to coincide with the London event.

While the organisers of ProWein expressed their “regret” for the clash, they also said that they had little choice but to go for the mid-May timing, citing their belief that it would be late enough in the year to avoid disruption from Covid-19, to being early enough for winemakers to return to their blooming vineyards in time to manage their growth.

Meanwhile, London Wine Fair director Hannah Tovey told db last week that she was “confused, bemused, and angry” at the clash, describing the move as “an extremely aggressive assault on both the London Wine Fair and the UK drinks market.”

As a result, Tovey had also said to db that she would be looking at alternative dates for the London Wine Fair – even though she was loathe to move the event – t0 solve a new dilemma for “the considerable number of exhibitors who would be at both fairs”.

In a statement sent to db this morning, it was confirmed that the London Wine Fair would in fact be moving, with its new June-time dates directly following the UK’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations which take place between Thursday 2 and Sunday 5 June.

Explaining the reason for this new timing, Tovey said “The eyes of the world will be on London in early June, when celebrations not seen since the 2012 Olympics will take place.”

Continuing, she said, “This is a really exciting opportunity for the fair and the wine industry at large, and we invite visitors and exhibitors to take full advantage of London – one of the World’s greatest cities – at its absolute best.”

She also promised to “unveil a campaign” centred around the London Wine Fair’s 40^th anniversary celebrations “in the coming weeks”.

Speaking further about the decision to move the fair from its usual mid-May slot in the wine trade fair calendar, she said that it followed consultation with the London event’s exhibitors and supporters, who had expressed their desire to see a solution to the clash that would not involve having to choose between London and Düsseldorf.

She said, “Being forced to decide between the two events was proving extremely unpalatable and clearly being in two places at once simply isn’t possible. When we pitched the possibility of moving the fair to June, the response from our exhibitors was a resounding ‘yes’.”

Concluding, she said that she had witnessed “overwhelming support and affection for the London Wine Fair from all over the globe since Prowein’s announcement,” which, she added, “has really highlighted just how significant the fair is in the industry’s hearts, minds and indeed calendars.”

In terms of trade fairs during this period, there will be four major wine-focused events, which are as follows:

Spain’s largest wine fair, Fenavin, will take place from 10-12 May in Madrid’s Ciudad Real
ProWein will run from 15-17 May in Düsseldorf
Austria’s Vie Vinum will be held from 21-23 May in Vienna
The UK’s London Wine Fair will now take place from 7-9 June at Olympia
And, from 16-26 June, Vinexposium will be hosting its first Bordeaux Wine Week.