I have been going to the Game Fair off and on since my first at Shotover just near Oxford in the late 1960s and the differences between then and now are substantial, which is no great surprise. The most marked difference is probably in the perceived target market, until relatively recent times it was a fair for landowners, shooters, stalkers, anglers, dog people and associated activities, but now it seems more pitched at giving those who don't participate a taste of country life and there's nothing fundamentally wrong with that as long as the core market is not overlooked.
Some things are better, the traffic management and parking is much improved and the use of a limited number of venues in rotation helps this. For me the event started to lose its appeal when the smaller traders in Fisherman's Row started to get priced out and it's now a shadow of what it used to be. Even the big traders have trouble in shifting enough stock to make it viable as the value of goods is much less than for gunmakers. The largest group of traders seem to be food outlets now.
I have an interest across all the activities but the last few times I've been I seem to have less to look at and pay more for the privilege. I have left the Fair wondering why I had bothered and concluded that I won't anymore. It seems I'm not the only one and falling attendance will soon force the issue with the organisers. Prices will go up further and with still over 100,000 visitors over three days, it will take some time before the penny drops and they realise that they have a problem with falling numbers of exhibitors and numbers through the gate.
What they do then will determine whether the CLA Game Fair survives as the other change is that there is now much more competition with more specialist and/or cheaper alternatives like the Midland Game Fair, the Kelso Stalking Fair, the British Fly Fair and the Gamekeepers Fair which are all offering a better value and more customer focussed package.
i personally think that the Game Fair is in trouble.