Frankfurt Shows Continue to Merge Closer Together

The recent Prolight and Sound and Musikmesse attracted more than 90,000 visitors from 152 countries according to the organiser and the two shows continue to amalgamate, with the announcement that they will run on the same days next year. 

There’s no official figure on how many specifically attended the Musikmesse event, which is now a much pared down version of what it once was at its height, with many large brands choosing to stay away from the event. Pro-audio is now the dominant element. 

Despite public-transport strikes and around 800 flight cancellations due to a strike by Lufthansa at the beginning of the fair, the organiser said some 20,000 visitors attended performances at Musikmesse Festival concerts at 30 venues throughout Frankfurt. As expected, the reintroduction of days reserved for trade visitors resulted in a decline in the number of private visitors from Germany.  

“The positive echo from the exhibitors of the two fairs and the high visitor standard indicate that we are on the right track. The sector honoured the focus on business during the working days. Moreover, we sent out a positive signal for music and events with our multi-faceted music-education programme for young people and the successful Musikmesse Festival”, said Detlef Braun, Member of the Executive Board of Messe Frankfurt. “We aim to build on the strengths of the trade-fair duo in the future, too. Accordingly, we are setting course for a Musikmesse and Prolight + Sound in 2019, which focus even more on the wishes of our customers for an international meeting place for the music and event-technology sector and exploit synergistic effects between the event to the utmost.”

In line with this, Messe Frankfurt has announced that Musikmesse and Prolight + Sound 2019 will overlap fully on all days and move closer together spatially.

Daniel Knöll, managing director of German trade body, the Society Of Music Merchants – SOMM,  said: “Musikmesse in Frankfurt is the most important European event and vital for the European musical-instrument sector. We are delighted that the fair is putting the focus on one of our main demands, the promotion of music education. Musikmesse is consistently and successfully pursuing a course of renewal and further development. We firmly believe that much that has already been implemented will have its optimal form at next year’s Musikmesse.”

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