The Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2023 will be the next gathering at the Marriott Hotel, according to the email received by companies who had planned to be exhibiting their wares at next year's show.

“With a heavy heart, we feel we have no alternative but to cancel the Show for a second year running”, is the rather downbeat opening of the email.

We cannot help but empathise with the show's organisers, Audio T, and the various brands, distributors and retailers who bank on this jumping-off point of the audio show calendar held in central Bristol.

The Bristol Show 2020 managed to slip in before lockdown happening with 2021's event suffering the same will it/ won't it as all the rest of the events planned this year - even with a virtual reprieve almost coming to fruition - before that too was sadly cancelled. The UK Audio Show was extremely fortunate to go ahead this year.

BRISTOL SHOW 2022 BOOKINGS

Planned for Friday 25th - Sunday 27th February 2022, next year's show had a “Go/ No Go” deadline for rubber stamping the agreement for the rooms and staff at the hotel and, as the email goes on to say,

...with the arrival of the Omicron variant and the resulting measures that the Government is taking, it is clear that the Show cannot run without putting our visitors, our exhibitors and our own staff at unacceptable risk.

Tony Revelle has spoken to the Marriott hotel so, those of you who have booked accommodation rooms via their dedicated Show booking link can rest assured that these will be cancelled automatically by the hotel. So please do not phone the hotel as there is nothing more you need to do.

We reiterate our disappointment that the Bristol Show 2022 has been cancelled, but we understand that this is the most sensible course of action right now. We agree that, even if some exhibitors still wanted to go ahead, it would not warrant the associated expense and possible risk.

Now, all eyes are on May's High End Munich 2022 and CES 2022 to see how these shows are affected.