Messe Moosburg cancelled: Pulled the ripcord early – Freising

Bad weather, but a full house and satisfied organizers and exhibitors who were hoping for a repeat in two years. That was the conclusion of the last Moosburg trade fair in 2019. Two years ago, the corona pandemic threw a spanner in the works for everyone involved. Next April, the organizers from the Moosburg Marketing-Genossenschaft (MeG) actually wanted to get going again. But this time it is the difficult economic situation that is slowing down the established regional trade fair, the last of its kind in the Freising district. Because too few exhibitors had registered, the MeG pulled the ripcord on Tuesday and canceled the Moosburg 2023 trade fair.

“That’s a damn shame,” said Thomas David, branch manager and executive director of MeG, on Tuesday of the SZ. Due to the exchange with the organizers of other regional trade fairs, we already knew that it could be difficult, so we are not flabbergasted. Nevertheless, the marketing cooperative very much regrets the renewed cancellation of the memo. According to MeG, the companies primarily cited a lack of staff or delivery problems as the reason for their cancellations.

“The trend was foreseeable,” says David. For this reason, the Niederbayernschau in Landshut was visited in October, says the MeG branch manager. The project manager there reported on her problems in attracting enough exhibitors. And she had already predicted back then that it would be even more difficult and that the Moosburg trade fair could be hit all the harder.

The experience gained from visiting the Niederbayernschau was “openly communicated” to the supervisory board of the marketing cooperative, says David: “The Ukraine war, the energy crisis and the overall economic situation are affecting the companies, everyone is waiting off and be careful.” Mayor Josef Dollinger (FW) as chairman of the supervisory board was also involved from the start and was aware of the difficult situation.

In the end, the situation turned out to be to difficult. Although a 15 percent early bird discount was granted until January 31st, only eleven companies have registered for the inside area, i.e. the exhibition tent on the Viehmarktplatz – there is usually space for 40 stands there. According to the MeG, there were also too few interested parties for the outdoor area. So the ripcord was pulled in good time before the marketing cooperative could suffer any financial damage. “We haven’t had any costs yet because we canceled early,” explains David.

And this despite the fact that the marketing cooperative really left no stone unturned. “We wrote to 400 companies and also called them – not just companies that were previously involved in de Memo,” says the branch manager. “But if companies that used to be banks say no, then you know what the situation is like.” And some companies that were once represented at the Moosburg trade fair no longer exist. Some of the owners gave up their business for reasons of age. But some have also had to pay tribute to the difficult economic situation of the past few years. “Our stand builder from 2019 no longer exists either,” says David.

Going through the memo this year with a smaller solution wasn’t a serious option right away. “A half-full tent at the fair is just as bad as a half-full beer tent at the folk festival,” says the MeG boss. And the possibility of switching to another location was not “thought through to the end”. In two years it might look different. “Then we want to try again when the economic conditions are right,” says David, “perhaps with a different concept on a smaller scale.”