The world’s biggest trade show drupa will not be switching to a three year cycle after its leading exhibitors refused to come to the party.

Drupa traditionally ran on a four year cycle, with all other print trade shows around the world basing their cycles on the drupa dates. However when Ipex – which alternated a four year cycle in the middle of the drupa cycle – virtually collapsed during its 2014 event drupa took the opportunity to move to three, leaving little room for Ipex to come back.

Many of the exhibitors were never happy with the move, which would add a quarter to their already significant drupa costs, the investment for the bigger exhibitors already runs into tens of millions of dollars.

Now during this year’s event the exhibitors have made their views plain, telling the organiser that they either could not or would not come to drupa every three years. Consequently the show has now been pushed back to June 23 – July 3 in 2020. The new eleven day format will remain.

Werner Dornscheidt, president & CEO of Messe Düsseldorf says, “drupa is a beacon. Many representatives of the exhibitor community have assured us over the past few days here that they want to be at and with drupa in the future, it is their number one international industry platform. Therefore in the interest of our customers and international markets, drupa will stick to its four-year cycle.”

For the organisers of Australian shows PacPrint and PrintEx the news could not be better, they were already struggling to know how to work in with the drupa three year cycle, with no easy solution in sight. Now their only concern is the usual one of selling space.

For sports lovers the new dates could not be better, with the 2020 European soccer championships in full swing then, the Wimbledon tennis championships taking place at the same time, and there will be a cricket test series in England on at the same time.

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