Bar Talk!

March 15, 2026

I wanted to do a Sunday Thoughts piece on the bars we often frequent at HiFi shows around the world – that is, the bars actually at the events themselves, rather than some random bar we might have stumbled into on our adventures. They are all different, and they all give you a little insight into the sort of folk who attend the events. The gear might change from room to room and country to country, but the bars. Well, the bars tend to tell you a lot about the character of the show itself.

Let us start with the Bristol HiFi Show, and this really is a game of two halves.

During the day, the keen drinkers, sorry, those looking to enjoy a bite to eat whilst enjoying a tasty beverage, begin flocking to the bar area around noon. Getting a table much after that can be troublesome, but most folk will happily let you sit with them if there is a free spot. I have struck up some great conversations at the show like this. That is one of the lovely things about the Bristol show. People are open to chatting and sharing a table with someone they have never met before.

The actual bar is usually pretty busy as the day goes on, but the bar staff soldier on and are excellent. There is also a good deal of politeness at the bar. Folk will generally tell the bar staff if someone was there before them. I like this. It is one of those small, civilised things that restores your faith in people a bit.

There are usually crisps and sandwiches on offer, though (and we only discovered this at this year’s show) if you pop into the restaurant, there is proper, reasonably priced food, and you can almost certainly get a table without any fuss. How did I miss this for all these years?

The bar area is a noisy affair during the day, but once the doors to the public are closed in the evening, the vibe changes a bit. Whilst I would love to suggest that the professionals of the event (HiFi professionals, not drinking professionals) are a quiet and restrained bunch, the exact opposite is actually true. Some of these professionals could certainly have a good chance of representing their country should ale-swilling ever become an Olympic sport.

The volume goes up another notch. The rowdiness increases. There is a good deal of bants going off. This lasts for an hour or so, and then everyone buggers off to wherever they have booked dinner to further fill up on libations before hitting the bar of the hotel where they are supposed to be getting their heads down for the night.

Next up, Audio Show Deluxe.

Audio Show Deluxe takes place next weekend and, whilst the event is on the whole a calmer and more relaxed affair, the bar is still a pretty lively place to catch up with people.

I have found that people at Deluxe tend to congregate in little clans of folk that they already know, though there is plenty of dialogue between the clans when the opportunity arises. It feels slightly more intimate as a show, and the bar reflects that. There does seem to be a good number of golfists in the bar over the weekend (the hotel has a well-known golf pitch for those that way inclined), and they tend to be fairly quiet and restrained, or not. I’ve also spotted over the years that Kris and I have been organising this event, on Saturday, the bar does play host to groups of “ladies who lunch”.

Food is available in the bar and, on the whole, I have found it to be pretty good, though it can be slow to arrive at busy times – Kris tells me he’s discussed this with the hotel for this year’s event. Rather than making the bar a place to hang out all day, people tend to pop in here to grab a bite to eat and a drink before heading back into the show. It feels more like a pit stop than a destination. And “pit stop” isn’t a throwaway comment here, as the bar is packed with F1 memorabilia.

That said, if you linger long enough, you will inevitably bump into someone you know, and the quick drink you intended to have before heading back into the show suddenly becomes two or three, and before you know it, you have missed the last talk or demonstration you were planning to attend. These things happen.

On Saturday, around noon, the bar is also the place where the “Watch Out” group meets up and compares and chats about their timepieces. If that’s your thing, make a note of the time, and you will be made very welcome.

The Dutch Audio Event has a rather different setup.

The bar there is actually pretty small, though there is an outside seating area. Given its bijou nature, the bar gets very busy, particularly around the actual serving area -the bar. You sometimes find yourself hovering about like a seagull waiting for someone to drop a chip whilst trying to get served.

However, what I do really like about the bar at this show is that much of the seating is benches around large tables. If you manage to get a spot, it is a great place to let Dutch folk show us English folk up completely with their expert grasp of the English language.

If they try to speak to you in Dutch, just apologise for being English and for Brexit, and they will be only too happy to natter to you in your mother tongue.

Last year, I sat at one of these tables and met a really interesting chap who read HiFi PiG and bred corn snakes – it makes me wonder what other leftfield hobbies you guys might have. We spent a fair bit of time discussing this hobby, and he showed me pictures of snakes that had been specifically bred for their colours. Fascinating stuff.

If you are reading this, do get in touch as I lost your name and details.

Much like the Bristol bar, the bar at the Dutch Audio Event is a lively affair on an evening. Most folk will go out to eat, or eat in the hotel, and then make their way back to the very crowded bar. They have a good selection of beers, including a couple of zero percent beers, and spirits, and everything gets very noisy in a good way.

If the weather permits, there are usually a few folk outside enjoying the autumn chill with a drink and a cigar. I do not get involved in that nonsense and stay inside in the warm.

Now, Hong Kong is a bit of an outlier.

It does not really have a bar as such, but there are areas where food, soft drinks, and coffee are available. The food is good and people are extremely polite. The whole atmosphere feels slightly more ordered and civilised than the organised chaos you sometimes encounter at European shows.

You are unlikely to see groups of people loudly debating cables whilst waving a pint around in Hong Kong. It is all rather more restrained.

If you are going to the Hong Kong show, The Wanch in Wanchai is a great venue for live music and is only a hop and a skip from the show’s venue. Don’t expect to be able to have a proper conversation when there are bands playing, as it is pretty noisy.

Then we have AXPONA in the United States.

During the day, most folk head to the bar to grab some food and then get back to the show proper. However, when the bar closes, it fills up rapidly and becomes a bit of a hoot.

I will share one experience, so long as it goes no further.

One year, I was given a go on someone’s THC vape. Lin said it looked like something from Puff the Magic Dragon given my overenthusiastic inhalation and subsequent exhalation of this paranoia-inducing mist. I immediately got the fear and had to go outside to collect my now somewhat haphazard and paranoid thoughts.

I am standing there minding my own business when a very nice Scottish chap came up to chat with me, and I assumed I made absolutely no sense to him whatsoever.

I bumped into the same person the next night whilst out for pizza and apologised. He responded that I made perfect sense, and he would not have suspected a thing had I not said anything.

Anyway, the bar is great fun. People get into competitive buying of bottles of booze, and I am sure it all ends very messily. The bar staff are excellent and incredibly efficient, which is just as well given the number of thirsty audiophiles descending upon them. Tip your bar staff well (this goes for all bars at all shows) as many are working several jobs and rely on tips to make up their standard hourly rate.

Now let us talk about Cranage, home of the North West Audio Show.

In my opinion, this is the bar that all others should be aspiring to.

From opening time to when everyone finally drifts off to bed in the early hours, this bar is the one that stands out as my favourite. It gets very busy, everyone has far too much to drink, and the bar staff are excellent. A shout-out here to Clare and Tony.

It is boisterous during the daytime, but it is at night time when things really liven up. Many a fable has been told after the event about the evening’s shenanigans. Tommy, I am looking at you here.

It is probably the most friendly bar at any show I have been to, and it genuinely feels like a local pub that you have been going to for years. People wander in, join a table, and before long, everyone is chatting away as if they have known each other forever.

Then there is Munich.

Ah, the beer garden at Munich High End. You will be missed.

I have spent many an hour in this one and love the way it is laid out with large tables and benches. If you cannot find a spot, you simply ask folk to hutch up, and they will make space for you.

I have met loads of lovely people like this at the High End show. It is one of those places where conversations start very easily.

The queues for drinks and food are biblical, and I usually send Mrs HiFi PiG off to deal with that side of things whilst I hold the fort at the table.

One Sunday afternoon in the beer garden at Munich, I got uproariously drunk and told Linette I was off to buy a pair of Avantgarde Duo XDs.

I did exactly that, and she chose the colour we would have.

Yes, I am very aware of how lucky I am.

Finally we come to Warsaw.

The Golden Tulip, the first year we were there, was an absolute hoot. One night, we ended up ordering sixteen bottles of red wine, and the girl running the bar refused to let us pay for all of them. She only charged us for half.

She received the difference in an envelope filled with notes the next day.

Now we tend to stay at the Sobieski, and the bar there is a great place to meet people. I recall one Saturday when we found ourselves in there at around eleven in the morning and did not leave until about midnight.

The staff are brilliant and always look after us very well. You will always bump into someone you know and if you do not know someone, introduce yourself, and you will probably make a new friend.

Our Austrian mate Klaus was met in exactly this way.

Conversations and nationalities are wide-ranging at the Sobieski bar, and what starts off as a few friends chatting around a table usually grows to us taking over half the bar area and things getting pretty lively.

So there you have it. Just a few of the bars at shows that we have visited over the years.

I am not suggesting that people should go out and get bladdered at HiFi shows, but if that is what you fancy, then carry on. I do not think I have ever seen any real trouble at a HiFi show bar, and the vast majority of folk seem to get very happy drunk rather than arsey drunk.

And that, I think, says quite a lot about the hobby and the people in it.

So if you do find yourself at a show, do head off to the bar at some point. If you are on your own, or if you see someone else sitting on their own, say hello and invite them to sit with you.