John Andrews is organiser of Classic Antique Fairs.
John Andrews, director of Classic Antique Fairs, has bought two domain names related to Art & Antiques for Everyone.
Last year, Andrews launched the first of his events at Birmingham’s NEC, with two more planned to follow this year plus one in Farnborough. They fill a gap in the calendar left by Art & Antiques for Everyone which once ran three times per year but had its final edition in 2022.
In purchasing the domain names artandantiquesforeveryone.com and artandantiquesforeveryone.co.uk Andrews hopes to avoid having another organiser buying up the names and launching another event.
He told ATG: “I just don’t want somebody else taking over those names. We’re trying to put on a proper fair.” Buying up the names, he added, was a way to “protect” them, so the brand – still so closely associated with the NEC fair of old – “doesn’t dissolve into being a junk fair”.
The fair was redubbed Art and Antiques for Everyone in 2018. Until then it was known as Antiques for Everyone, and the fair retained antiquesforeveryone.co.uk as its domain name until its final event. Andrews says he is also looking into acquiring this domain name.
Rebranding
As for the name of the fair, Andrews confirmed that he would consider rebranding Classic Antique Fairs under the old AAfE title at the end of the year providing he could purchase it. The last owners of AAfE, MaD Events, confirmed that the fair title had been in its ownership before going into administration, but would be available either from the firm or the administrators.
Marisa Beckman of MaD Events added: “We wish John all the best and are pleased that he can keep the fairs going.”
There have been various antiques events at the NEC since the 1980s, and in the early 1990s one of the summer fairs was given the strapline ‘Antiques for Everyone’ which went on to be the official title of the event. It was acquired by Clarion Events and then sold to MaD Events in 2019.
This year’s editions of Classic Antique Fairs run at the NEC from July 12-14 and November 29-December 1 and at Farnborough International Airport ’s Exhibition & Conference Centre from September 20-22. Andrews hopes to have as many as 120 exhibitors for the next staging and has ambitions to grow the brand.
He said: “Six fairs a year would be perfect but we’ll see.”
