Fancy Food Show 2021 In-Person Event Canceled
Amid rising concerns about the highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus, the Specialty Food Association’s (SFA) Fancy Food Show 2021, the in-person component of the planned dual Fancy Food Show 2021 + Fancy Food 24/7, has been canceled. The only in-person trade show scheduled by the trade association this year would have taken place Sept. 27-29 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in SFA’s home city of New York. Fancy Food 24/7, the digital component of the show, will run as planned Sept. 27-Oct. 8.
“The Specialty Food Association has been steadfast in creatively supporting our members and our $170.4 billion industry during this incredibly challenging time, and we remain committed to providing opportunities in the safest way possible,” said SFA President Bill Lynch. “While we will miss that special feeling of in-person connections with our industry colleagues, safety remains our No. 1 priority.”
Exhibitors will be able to opt for a full refund or a credit for the Winter Fancy Food Show 2022 or Summer Fancy Food Show 2022. All pre-registered attendees will get a full refund and retain access to Fancy Food 24/7, which will feature domestic and international specialty food and beverage exhibitors and educational programming.
Plans for the Winter Fancy Food Show, which is scheduled for Jan. 16-18 at Moscone Center in San Francisco, remain in place.
The SFA represents importers, retailers, distributors, brokers and others in the $170.4 billion specialty food industry. The association is known for its Fancy Food Shows and the sofi Awards, the latter of which honor excellence in specialty food and beverage.
In other September industry show news, Natural Products Expo East, which is still scheduled to take place in person in Philadelphia, Sept. 23-25, issued new policies for attendees: “Based on [attendee] feedback, we have decided to enhance our safety measures and will implement a mask mandate and require proof of vaccination [or a] negative COVID-19 test for all participants of Natural Products Expo East 2021,” show organizers wrote in an email.
The email continued: “Product sampling will be allowed at the event and broken into two categories, with open sampling requiring gloves, a sneeze guard and hand-washing kits in addition to face masks required for all. Since February, Informa Markets has safely hosted numerous trade shows within the United States and around the world and is helping design the implementation of the updated Expo East health and safety protocols.”
