Two party and fancy dress retailers who made the journey up to Spring Fair 2019 last week say they found the party element of the show to be ‘underwhelming’ and ‘a shame’. Lili Bizarre’s Gary Wakefield and Fun N Frolic’s Dan Parsons share their thoughts on the party trade show.
How was Spring Fair 2019 for you?
Gary: “Overall we were very underwhelmed with the Spring Fair this year. On the fancy dress side, exhibitors are getting less and less every year. Maybe the organisers of Spring Fair need to entice companies away from Nuremberg Toy Fair or independent roadshows?”
Dan: “Spring Fair used to be such an important show for us but it has just declined as the years have gone on. As well as the size of the party sector reducing, exhibitors just didn’t seem to be prepared for it. There were lots of suppliers who didn’t have their catalogues ready or new stock on the stand – I got round the whole thing in less than a day.”
Which exhibitors did you enjoy seeing?
Gary: “It was nice to see Thetru back exhibiting some quality products and Bristol Novelty made a decent show of things with some good new products. On the balloon side there were some good new products, Clearz from Amscan and Ombre Orbz. While Qualatex had some great designs there was perhaps less groundbreaking lines from them as there has been in previous years, such as chrome latex or quick links.”
Dan: “Qualatex deserve being singled out for putting on such a good show. They took us round the stand and really spent time with us, going over product which was new to us. As a team, they were excellent. Absolute Fireworks and Jonathan’s Fireworks were really good as well, they always have everything really well prepared, so it’s a pleasure dealing with them. Amscan had some great new products, but I felt they could have done more to showcase them.”
What did you take away from the show this year?
Gary: “Personally I felt that Rubie’s didn’t have a huge range of new items this year. In general, a serious conversation needs to be had about licensed products in the UK or independent shops will stop stocking them, as we are.”
Dan: “How much things are changing in the industry and not always for the best. I felt that Amscan’s stand was really disappointing – we want to be able to see and touch the new product ourselves. I could see what they were trying to do, think Genius bar at Apple stores, but the new concept just didn’t work at all for me. On the other hand, Rubie’s stand didn’t seem much different at all from the last few years, it was almost the same.”
