The Alexandra Palace Antiques (& Collectors) Fair has been running since the early/mid 1980’s and prided itself on being the best & largest largest indoor antiques & collectors event in the UK. In those years, there has been 3 main orginisers, bringing different experiences and skillsets to the event, however, all with the common goal of bringing the best event possible to it’s loyal audience of visitors.
Lockdown hit the event hard, as one of the core groups affected by Covid matched the traditional demographics of the stallholder. This, along with people taking a step back and reviewing thier life, work and hobbies, reduced the number of stall holders and visitors. Combined with the refocus of Alexandra Palace’s events needs and goals, this
put pressure on things meaning that a 4 times a year event dropped to once a year. Sadly, in 2022, the then organisers, IACF, stepped back from running the show.
For 2023, a new business has been set up to focus on the running and development of this great event – APACF Ltd.
Started by Paul Kelly, who was part of the team that ran Ally Pally between 2007 – 2014, APACF’s focus is not only to get the core of the fairs offering back to better days, but to also increase the events audience further, but introducing new specialist themes. In 2011, he introduced the great team from Pop Up Vintage Fairs to Ally Pally and their focus on vintage not only helped bring a new group of visitors to the event, but widened up selection of items to browse and buy considerably, especially to a now vastly younger audience. This widening of the audience increases in 2023 with the arrival of VIP Record fairs, who run the biggest record and music collecting events in the UK.