How a virus makes planning and organizing events an almost impossible task
Imagine you have to organize a trade fair that is due to take place at the end of March or in the first week of April 2020. You read the newspaper every day and are constantly informed about the latest developments in connection with the coronavirus via the Internet. And yet you can't plan or decide. You are a passenger, because whether your trade fair can take place, but other events will also be affected, is not in your hands. It is the authorities and politicians who are at the helm at the moment and they are certainly trying hard to do the right thing.
In Switzerland, for example, events with more than 1000 visitors at the time of publication of this article are banned until March 15, 2020, and in France the limit has now also been set at 1000 (previously 5000) visitors. Germany does not yet have a clear regulation, but regional regulations are being released stating that only visitors who are guaranteed to be healthy may be admitted to an event. Elsewhere, every visitor must be registered and clearly identified (with a copy of their ID or similar). And all this changes every day.
But it not only affects the organizers of major trade fairs such as the Fribourg Classic Car and Parts Market (21 and 22 March 2020) or Techno Classica in Essen (25 to 29 March 2020), but also their customers. For them, an exhibition stand is often a major project that costs a lot of money and even more time and effort. How are these companies supposed to plan if it is unclear less than three weeks before the event whether it can be held?
And will the visitors come if the doors of the classic car fair actually open? At Retro Classics in Stuttgart, which was allowed to take place, as we reported, the drop in visitor numbers was around a third. This is already a considerable drop in numbers, but whether people will still be prepared to travel to major trade fairs in the coming weeks is impossible to predict today.
And as I said, it will probably not only affect the major trade fairs. If the corona wave does not subside by April/May 2020, other classic car and youngtimer public events will also struggle with similar issues, for example the Gaisberg Race with the City Grand Prix or parts markets such as Veterama or Technorama. Perhaps the classic car is now facing a new enemy in the form of this virus, which has nothing to do with driving restrictions, problems with the next generation or environmental protection issues ...
