This year’s Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) Theatre Show is relocating to the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane on 13 and 14 June after being forced out of the Royal Horticultural Halls (RHH).
 
The change in venue follows the sale of the RHH’s Lawrence Hall to Westminster School and its plans to convert the exhibition space into a sports hall.
 
Exhibition director Roger Fox said his trade show faced the double challenge of finding a new home that was large enough to accommodate its 3,000sqm footprint six months out, and that could offer the same dates. The ABTT Theatre Show is in its 34th edition and has been held at the RHH for the past 20 years.
 
“Moving to a new home and changing dates as well is as good as suicide,” Fox told EN. “We wanted to remain in central London and we liked the quirky nature of the Old Truman. It takes us back to our roots and our first shows, which were staged at theatres across the West End.
 
“The Old Truman is not an exhibition hall, it’s an event space, so we have to provide everything we need to use it, but it’s a quirky venue and our exhibitors have welcomed the choice.”
 
The ABTT Theatre show usually attracts 110 exhibitors and 2,700 visitors. Fox was pleased to report no exhibitors had pulled out of this year’s exhibition, despite the fact that the floorplan has had to be adjusted to suit the new venue. The Old Truman offers up to 10,000sqm across three floors and a chance to expand long-term, he said. 
 
“This is an opportunity to grow the show and promote it in a different way, hopefully to a new audience, and give us a fresh start,” Fox added. “This time, we’ll be happy to have a busy and sold show; then we can look at new features, creating more specialist areas and using other parts of the Brewery in the future.”
 
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