The unpredictability of the Covid-19 pandemic and how it is handled by various parties continue to take its toll on the hi-fi show scene. The latest casualty is High End Society's Zurich expo, the newly-renamed Finest Audio Show 2021.

Originally known as High End Swiss, Finest Audio Show was slated to take place on January 9th and 10th Stefan Dreischärf, Managing Director of High End Society has just stated:

As the event organiser, we believe it's our responsibility to act in a timely manner to provide our exhibitors with planning reliability at an early stage. After a difficult year without any trade shows, we are, of course, very sad to have to take this step.

We are told that the team has, of course, worked intensively on the planning of the Swiss trade show over the past few months. Additionally, High End Society states that “comprehensive measures were implemented to enable a hotel-based trade show to take place despite the unprecedented circumstances of a pandemic, for example, the development of a workable and flexible hygiene and infection prevention concept”.  However, even with taking all of those extra measures, the organiser believes that the successful running of this popular audio show is at risk given the current situation.

The decision follows the development of the number of infections in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland and neighbouring European countries showing that the coronavirus crisis is still very much at large. Furthermore, as expected, the colder weather is increasing the risk of infection.

Finest Audio Show Zurich - New Dates

The Finest Audio Show Zurich is now scheduled to take place on January 15th and 16th, 2022. The complete rescheduling of the trade show from its original autumn dates to the start of the year was already planned and received an excellent response from exhibitors. The Mövenpick Hotel Zurich Regensdorf will continue to be used as the event venue.

High End Munich 2021

Registrations for the High End Munich show in May 2021 are still open, we are told. Again, there is a workable and flexible hygiene and infection prevention concept that has been developed for High End Munich 2021.

We will, of course, keep you updated with any UK and European hi-fi show cancellations and rescheduling.