Upcoming
Please note, all show information is correct at time of publication. Any changes will be updated on this page as soon as possible.
Further information can be found on the UK Pen Shows website. Click this link to check for the latest information: https://ukpenshows.co.uk/uk-pen-show-events/
2024 UK Pen Show Calendar
- London Spring Pen Show – Hammersmith – 3rd March 2024
- Northern Pen Show – Chester – 28th April 2024
- Birmingham International Pen Show – Birmingham – 25th June 2024
- Newcastle Pen Show – Newcastle – 1st September 2024
- London Autumn Pen Show – Hammersmith – 13th October 2024
- Yorkshire Pen Show – Leeds – 1st December 2024
Historical
2023 UK Pen Show Calendar
- London Spring Pen Show – Hammersmith – 5th March 2023
- Northern Pen Show – Chester – 30th April 2023
- Birmingham International Pen Show – Birmingham – 25th June 2023
- Newcastle Pen Show – Newcastle – 3rd September 2023
- London Autumn Pen Show – Hammersmith – 8th October 2023
- Yorkshire Pen Show – Leeds – 3rd December 2023
2022 UK Pen Show Calendar
- South West Pen Show – Bristol – CANCELLED
- London Spring Pen Show – Hammersmith – 6th March 2022
- Northern Pen Show – Chester – 24th April 2022
- Birmingham International Pen Show – Birmingham – 26th June 2022
- Newcastle Pen Show – Newcastle – 4th September 2022
- London Autumn Pen Show – Hammersmith – 9th October 2022
2021 UK Pen Show Calendar
- South West Pen Show – Bristol – CANCELLED
- Northern Pen Show – Chester – CANCELLED
- London Spring Pen Show – Hammersmith – 25th July 2021
- Newcastle Pen Show – Newcastle – 5th September 2021
- London Autumn Pen Show – Hammersmith – 10th October
- Birmingham International Pen Show – Birmingham – 28th November 2021
London Spring Pen Show – Sunday 8th March 2020
South West (Bristol) – Sunday 2nd February 2020
Yorkshire (Sheffield) – Sunday 1st Dec 2019
This show is considered one of the more popular regional pen shows and it certainly lived up to this reputation.
This was of course the final show to be organised by those stalwarts of UK Pen Shows, Ian Williamson and Jeremy Collingridge OBE. This was marked by a “handover” photo opportunity with all the vendors and the incoming organisers for 2020 and beyond, John Twiss and Vince Coates of TwiCo.
The show itself proved to be a busy affair with little time to breathe, but that’s exactly how we like it!
It was fantastic to see so many people of all ages enjoying themselves on the day. Many people did the time-honoured tradition of a scouting lap as they took the time to view what each vendor had on sale before parting with their hard-earned cash! Once they had pin-pointed who was selling the items they wanted, and at what price, they would then commence a second lap to begin buying. It was not uncommon for us to spot individuals who were on their third, fourth or even fifth circuit of the show!
We also had the opportunity to meet many people who’s names were familiar to us from either online groups, such as the FPUK Facebook group, or our online customer base. We had a particularly wonderful moment when one of our online customers approached us to introduce herself and then introduced her daughter, who then became one of our best customers on the day!
On the whole, it was a fabulous day!
London – Sunday 6th Oct 2019
The London show was without doubt the biggest pen show I’ve ever experienced, whether as a customer or a trader!
It was a brilliant day with a huge number of visitors through the door. Most people seemed to have the same idea; do a trip around the show to see who had what on offer, make a note of what they liked and then come back a second or even third time to make a purchase. Our table, with our stunning BENU pens & Krishna inks and a BENU promo video on continuous loop on the laptop, drew a significant amount of interest. As with Newcastle a lot of people mentioned seeing the BENU pens online and had wanted to see them in the flesh! It became a regular occurrence to see people walk past our table only to do a double-take at the BENU pens, and in several cases literally stop dead in their tracks, point and exclaim “It’s the BENUs!”.
I can’t fully explain just what a joy it was for me to see these reactions, several of which lead to sales. The sales were fantastic but it was equally fantastic to be able to bring these stunning writing instruments to the UK pen community, and to be the first UK stockist of BENU fountain pens.
It was lovely to meet several people who follow our socials, and one or two customers who had placed orders with us in the very early days! We also had several people agree to sign up to our newsletter at the same time as entering the prize draw, so we now have a goal of getting the first newsletter issued by the end of October.
The only thing we’ll change about the London show next year is to make it an overnight stay as the journey from Bristol took over two and a half hours and the journey home was even longer. With all the carrying back and forth of crates to set up/pack away that made for an extremely long and tiring day.
It was a great experience though, and one we look forward to next year!
Newcastle – Sunday 15th Sept 2019
The Newcastle Pen Show was our first show as a trader, and was a very enjoyable experience. The journey up from Bristol necessitated an overnight stay, and the Village Hotel (the venue for the show) was offering preferential prices for traders!
On the day I didn’t really know what to expect but got set up as quickly as I could and started selling almost immediately!
The goal for the day was really just to get the company name out there and seen by the community at large, and raise awareness of the products that we stock, particularly the gorgeous BENU fountain pens. A lot of people who saw them mentioned that they had seen them online and were hoping that a UK seller would have them at a show at some point so they could view them in. the flesh, so to speak. The fact that we made some sales on the day was a really nice bonus!
I enjoyed the show so much I’ve actually written an article about it which I will be submitting to the WES Journal for publication (hopefully!) in a future issue.
