The capital hasn’t had a proper Hifi show for a number of years and so Indulgence is a welcome addition to the audio calendar. Of course there were a few teething problems as there is always going to be when organising an event of this scope and scale, but, on the whole, we reckon it was a success.
The venue is good, well catered and the show organisers had ensured that signposting within the event was clear and plentiful, so there was no members of the audio public wandering around looking lost and perplexed as to where to go next. The show guide was also well laid out and nicely done.
What really impressed was the effort that the vast majority of the exhibitors had gone to in kitting out their rooms and exhibition spaces. They had clearly taken a great deal of time, money and trouble to ensure that rooms were as good sounding as they could be and they were also welcoming to the public. We attend a good few shows and the quality of the rooms at Indulgence was up with the very best!
There was an excellent line up of seminars throughout the weekend and live music too. Time constraints meant we didn’t see much of this live music, but what we did see was pretty amazing, particularly the pop up Marquee Club event on the Friday night – fabulously talented musicians and great classic rock tunes to boot!
The Indulgence Show was billed as a lifestyle event with a whole area given over to “Pure Pleasure”. Here visitors to the show had the opportunity to indulge in a spot of wine tasting, a look at a handful of rather nice vehicles, home cinema experiences, the chance to learn to play the blues in five minutes, excellent photography from Ross Halfin and some great drums and keyboards from Yamaha that you could get hands-on with. Personally I’d like to see this area of the show expanded upon to pull in people specifically for the “lifestyle” factor, but then take in the audio too.
The venue was huge and there were lots of rooms to see so it never seemed crowded, and, from speaking to a good number of exhibitors, the people that were there were keen to be involved and talk about the products on show. Talking to one of the organisers they said they’d pre-sold over 2000 tickets for the weekend and one exhibitor had 400, 600 and 300 people on each of the days respectively.
Next year we’ll make sure we have a full two days at The Indulgence Show as we simply did not have time to see all the exhibitors, specifically in the headroom area…so if you are going next year, book a two or three day pass to ensure you get to see everything!
So, all in all a very worthwhile event that will hopefully grow and flourish in the coming years!
Enjoy the next few pages of photographs from The Indulgence Show 2016. More »
