RYA Dinghy Show leaves London for 2021
For 2021, the RYA Dinghy Show will be held at the Farnborough International Exhibition and Conference Centre over the weekend of 27-28 February.
“After 25 fantastic years at Alexandra Palace, it feels like we’ve reached a milestone year for the RYA Dinghy Show and the time is right for a change in venue,” says RYA Director of Sport Development, Alistair Dickson.
“Over the past few years we’ve been listening to both the visitor and exhibitor feedback and have taken on an extensive review of the show’s location and venue, carefully considering everything from travel and distance to sustainability and floor space.
“A large number of potential venues were considered across the UK, with Farnborough eventually coming out top due to its excellent accessibility, modern and sustainable facilities, appropriate size and space, free onsite parking and reasonably priced local accommodation options for visitors and exhibitors.”
The show first opened its doors in 1952 and was known as the ‘Build your Own Dinghy Exhibition and Conference’. By 1965, the show had moved to Crystal Palace and changed its name to ‘The London Dinghy Exhibition’ gaining the active backing of the RYA, before becoming an established RYA event in 1983.
From 1996 to 2004, the show, now held at Alexandra Palace, was known as the ‘Sailboat and Windsurf Show’. In 2004 the show once again changed title to the ‘RYA Dinghy Sailing Show’ in order to reflect the show’s focus on dinghies, before becoming the ‘RYA Dinghy Show’ as it is known today.
Such a shame that the North of England/ Wales and Scotland don’t get a look in , again. These regions are strong dinghy sailing areas and should at least be given the chance of hosting the show. Very disappointing
We’ve asked which areas were considered, and we’ll let you know!
Hi Simon
According to RYA: “After 25 years at Alexandra Palace, moving the RYA Dinghy Show been a very difficult decision. We investigated a large number of venues across the country including the NEC and you can read more about how we came to our decision here.”
The ‘here’ lists the locations looked at, and the criteria (including dates etc).