When my friend Harry in the Netherlands kindly offered to collect me from Amsterdam airport and take me to The Noelanders Trophy on Saturday, who was I to say no 🙂 I jumped on an Easyjet flight (other airlines are available) and made my way with Harry over to Genk for all Saturday had to offer. Every year something seems to get in the way of a visit to Europe’s premier bonsai exhibition, this year I was not to be denied.

I spent my time mostly between the trade stands and the exhibition with an occasional look at the demos. At every point in between I bumped into old friends and new. Very much a social occasion as well as a bonsai event. Great to see you all, albeit only briefly in passing on my way around the venue.

I mostly honoured the no photographs rule within the exhibition, only stopping here and there to take a few general shots of crowds viewing the exhibits. I did manage to take a few random shots around the trade halls to capture the feel of the event, and a few in the demo area. There’s loads of photos of the show already doing the rounds of social media  that you can view, the best being the official shots on Bonsai Empire. See the winners there.

I will of course buy the gallery book of the event when it’s produced to remember the event. However, with the amount of people openly taking close up snaps of trees at the show and exhibitors doing the same and then posting these on social media on Friday and Saturday, I don’t really see why it’s been banned! Just ask for no tripods and request those taking snaps not to publish them until after the event is finished. I really can’t see this impacting on book sales. Just my opinion of course, we all have one 😉

Anyway, here are some random shots from the event.

A big thank you to the Belgium Bonsai Association for putting on this fantastic event. Well done.

A massive thank you to Harry and Anne for their amazing hospitality this weekend.