THE UNFESTIVE GIFT FAIR (Festive Gift Fair (Birmingham))

Member Name: pornstarx2

Product:	Festive Gift Fair (Birmingham)
Date:	29/11/06 (1766 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: There were a good selection of stalls

Disadvantages: The prices charged by NEC were too high & there was no atmosphere

INTRODUCING THE FESTIVE GIFT FAIR
The gift fair runs in November and this year it ran from the 16th November till the 19th November.
I am sure quite a few of you have never heard of this event as I certainly hadn't until last year, when a relative told me about it and had a stall there this year.
The Festive Gift fair has in fact been running for 10 years at the Birmingham NEC would you believe! This is one of the largest and most busiest exhibition centres in Europe and they host well over 150 events a year. The Festive Gift Fair is situated in hall 12 and has to be the least advertised exhibition there is.
After finding out about the show I thought I would notice it on the TV and in the newsletters like The Clothes show etc but I never did.

THE AUDIENCE THE GIFT FAIR RECIEVES
The Festive Gift Fair boasts over 26,000 visitors over the four day period.
After reading a lot of the letters that were passed on from the organisers to my relative with the stall I soon realised why they didn't advertise a lot because they rely mainly on coach trips to the show. I later found out that this is not a good thing as the trips bought mainly older people who were there just to have a wander round and a cup of tea which becomes very annoying when you are trying to get a look in at the stalls.
Once 11 o clock comes you may as well forget getting near any stalls until around 3pm when the crowds start to die down.

THE ATMOSPHERE OF THE FAIR
To be honest there is hardly a Christmas feel to this show at all. There were no carols and absolutely no ambience. There was a pianist who played the Celine Dion track from Titanic a lot and a man playing a harp to the tune of a tape recording. Not much in the way of entertainment at all. I found this very disappointing, there were 4 large Christmas trees in the centre of the hall but they all had about 3 baubles on and that is no exaggeration. There was also a red carpet surrounding the stalls with large white stars in the middle of the aisles but they had come up and everyone was tripping over the corners. I thought I would go and be put in the Christmas shopping mood but sadly not. Some of the stalls had made an effort but clearly the NEC hadn't.

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT TO SEE?
When you enter the fair you will notice that there are quite a lot of stalls aprox 400 to me exact. Some stalls are selling similar things but a lot of different. There is a good selection considering the amount of stalls. There are quite a lot of demonstration stalls selling cheese graters, irons, teeth whitening kits, all different types of food dips, cleaning mechanisms and manicures. Which are all good fun as you get tasters, testers etc and you get someone there to show you how to use the product. I know all the things are probably useless when you get home but it is all for entertainment value.
In the end I purchased a teeth-whitening kit and a curry dip that comes in a powder that you mix with mayo and it makes 2kg talk about sucked in!
There are some large stalls and some small stalls all stocking some fabulous gifts for people or just as a treat for you.
You can buy Christmas decorations, jewellery, novelty items, cakes, household ornaments, handbags, knitwear and garden wear.
. There are lots of opportunities to buy some real bargains because although there seems to be a lot of people I don't think they are all buying as there is a chance to buy a large Christmas shopping bag for £2.50 but most people hadn't even filled them and yet there were loads of gorgeous things to buy. There were lots of special offers from the second day onwards. I would also say from experience that a lot of the stalls were selling at wholesale price, which of course is amazing value, but people didn't seem to understand that.

FOOD AND REFRESHMENTS
Personally I would take my own because the food at the NEC is very expensive. You have a cafeteria, which is a dark Smokey hole with overpriced school dinners being served. For instance you could purchase what they called a Christmas dinner, which consisted of two hard potatoes, frozen carrots, peas, Brussels and some turkey. You then got a prawn cocktail in a plastic bowl and some cake with custard on for £9.95 not bad I hear you cry but believe me the portions were sparse and not in the slightest appealing. You could also purchase some large sandwiches for around £3.50 and a cup of tea for about £1.90.
There were a few stalls in the fair that sold things like pork and stuffing cobs extra for about £4, which I suppose, isn't bad but on top of all the other charges can be quite expensive.
I opted to leave the show and get my hand stamped so I could enter again and ate at the Subway, which was in the lobby.
Lots of people were sitting around eating so they must have been before.

ADMISSION PRICES
If you pay in advance the price for the Thursday and Friday is £6.95 for adults, £5.95 for senior citizens and £2.95 children 5 to 16 under 5 are free.
If you pay on the day it is £8.50 adults £7.50 senior citizen and £3.50 for children.

The price for Saturday and Sunday in advance is £7.95 for adults, £6.95 for senior citizens and £2.95 for children.
If you pay on the day it is £9.50 for adults, £8.50 for senior citizens and £3.50 for children.

The prices sound good for a normal exhibition but for a glorified village fair, which this is, I find the prices quite expensive. To pre book you can get tickets over the telephone or on the net but you are subject to a £1 booking and postage fee so you aren't really any better financially pre booking.

OPENING TIMES
The show is advertised as opening from 9.30am Thursday to Sunday but unofficially they open from 9am Friday to Sunday

GETTING TO THE NEC
Travelling to the NEC is quite straightforward you will probably get stuck in bad traffic but you should find the NEC quite easily as it is well sign posted. You can use the M6,M1,M40 and M42 once you get to the NEC you will also be charged a fee of £7 to park. However I would advise using the train as it will save you lots of time and the train takes you directly into the Birmingham NEC (providing the train actually comes on time!)

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Personally I would never go to the Festive Gift Fair again. The main reason is that there are just far too many people dithering around so you just cannot get a look in. On the other hand there are so many bargains to be had and the show is indoors which is great at this time of year. I do think the car parking, food and entrance fee is too expensive and the NEC are making far too much money out of events like this because lets face it the stall holders pay huge fees for tiny stalls so why do all the prices have to be so high.
I do feel bad for the low rating but unfortunatly the aisles were not at all pushchair or wheelchair friendly & although the stalls were lovely & had well priced items the premises let the whole thing down. I thought that the NEC hadnt bothered with the whole thing & just left the show to its own devices.

Summary: Not a fun day out