There will be a new date and venue for this year’s International Dirt Bike Show following a decision by promoter Mortons Media Group Ltd to move the event to earlier in the calendar by over a month and cut ties with Stoneleigh Park.
It’s a radical shake-up for an event that’s traditionally been staged at the end of the season and which has been based near Coventry for over a decade. However, Mortons feels the changes are necessary to give the show a thorough refresh, as well as making it more financially viable for the industry.
“It wasn’t working at Stoneleigh,” said exhibition manager Nick Mowbray, “and we needed to rethink something different and take the event back to its grassroots and how it should be.”
The new two-day date of September 28-29 clashes with the Motocross of Nations at Assen but Mowbray intends to cater for race fans at the show with a live stream from Holland.
“Unfortunately, that was the only date we could get but, going forward, the following year it is a week earlier. I only confirmed the days last week and I physically haven’t got back to the office and started sorting anything but my idea is, yeah, let’s have a big screen and put the Nations on for people who don’t actually go to the event and come to our event instead.”
He also feels that a streamlined two-day show makes more financial sense for exhibitors.
“We found the Thursday was good, the Friday was a bit quiet and the Saturday and Sunday were really busy,” he added. “If we can concentrate all the visitors into those two days it’s going to be financially gaining to the traders as well as ourselves – it’s making it more cost-effective for everyone, also it’s bringing down the price of the stands for people.”
The 2019 International Dirt Bike Show will be held the Stafford County Showground over the weekend of September 28-29.
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