Steve Bullman

Hot sun and dry weather welcomed a record 23000 visitors and 300 exhibitors to APF 2022 which took place on the 22-24th September at Ragley Estate, Alcester, Warks. Visitors flocked through the gates full of excitement and anticipation after the four year wait since APF 2018 caused by the pandemic. Exhibitors were delighted with the attendance and reported excellent sales with one saying they took over £3 million of orders over the three days. The new traffic management system worked perfectly and visitors commented on the ease of getting both in and out of the show, despite the record numbers. Over £80 million of machinery was on show during the event and much of it had ‘Sold’ stickers on it when it left. 850 local school children and their teachers, as well as groups of university students, were given guided tours to learn all about a modern working woodlands and forests and the possible exciting career opportunities that exist. Exhibition Secretary Ian Millward commented “We are absolutely delighted at how successful the show was. We have been deluged with emails and comments on social media from both visitors and exhibitors about how good the show was and how much people enjoyed it. It makes it all worthwhile. It is a huge credit to our team of staff and contractors, many of whom were new to the show, that they come together for the first time in 4 years and put on a show of this scale, complexity and quality. People cannot believe that the APF show has no full time employees, just a team passionate about the forest and arb industries. I would like to offer our thanks to all our sponsors who enabled to stage so many events and competitions” New features such as the UK open tree climbing and British Open fencing Championships attracted big crowds. The World Poleclimbing and European Chainsaw Carving Championships continued to be big crowd pleasers with one carving attracting a show record of £5500 at auction. Full competition results can be found in the Competition and Events page of the website Dates and location for APF 2024 are to be announced shortly For more information contact APF Exhibition Email: [email protected]. Tel: 01428 723545 Website www.apfexhibition.co.uk