Sophie Wood, event director at LAPADA Events.
Art, Antiques & Interiors Expo, scheduled for April 5-7, 2024, is set to host 200 dealers from the UK and Europe. It is headed by LAPADA Events Ltd, a joint venture between LAPADA and Stable Media Group.
The Expo will plug a hole in the market left by Art & Antiques for Everyone, the much-loved event which once ran three times a year. It was called off shortly after its final edition last November.
Stands at the new event are about £195 per square metre depending on location and are open to all dealers. It is pitched to attract collectors as well as interior designers with a mix of fine art, antiques, furniture, jewellery, salvage and more.
Heading the fair is Sophie Wood, previously director of The Chelsea Antiques & Fine Art Fair under 2Covet (that event was also scrapped last autumn), and before that the former LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair. She is now event director at LAPADA Events.
The new venture brings together the antiques trade expertise of LAPADA with the organisational power of Stable Events, which runs The Game Fair, where LAPADA stands, and Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials.
LAPADA Events is also the organiser of the relaunched Berkeley Square fair.
LAPADA has a history at the NEC where it ran a fair for more than 10 years, until 2003.
Desirable location
As for the NEC, it has hosted various antiques events over the years and in the mid-1990s could draw more than 600 exhibitors per event.
By its final staging last year, there were fewer than 120 standing.
However, it is a desirable destination for its location and size. It could be an attractive proposition for dealers free as it is from the overheads of a London fair (stand prices for LAPADA’s Berkeley Square fair are £950 per square metre for non-members).
LAPADA CEO Freya Simms said: “We are proud to be collaborating with the Art, Antiques & Interiors Expo to promote and preserve the history of art, antiques and design as well as provide a valuable marketplace for dealers.”
Previous NEC fairs have featured a two-section structure for dealers selling at various levels.
Further details on how the Expo will be organised, vetting information, timings and ticketing are to follow.
A website for the event is due to launch at the end of the month.
