Europe’s Premier Bonsai Exhibition with be held this weekend, The Noelanders Trophy has become the standard for Europe’s bonsai.

Click on the image below for the Full Brochure.

I have yet to make it over for this sadly but plans are afoot for next year 🙂 I have, in years past made it to the old Ginkgo Award which was truly magnificent.

This year’s Noelanders in slightly different, NO PHOTOGRAPHY. Funnily enough, so was Ginkgo, indeed the camera police there were evident, making you check in your camera at the door!

I do appreciate the issues around this, and we all know that people take liberties, before you know it there is 6 tripods set up in the middle of the crowd blocking access! There is also a beautiful book produced each year showcasing the exhibits.

Xavier, over on Petit-arbre.com posted about this very subject recently in this article linked here. He even received a reply from the organisers that can be read below:

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Why?
Due to the increasing number of visitors and because we want visitors to enjoy the beauty of our bonsai exhibition in the quiet, we decided not to allow photographs. 
Watching a bonsai takes longer the click clack of a camera. All trees will be photographed by a professional photographs that will be available in a colour book for less than a memory card prices. We are sure that every visitor appreciate the new atmosphere.

Exception
Professional photographers acting on behalf of magazines or newspapers can get a map at the entrance of Press Noelanders Trophy.

Where?
prohibition relates only to the exhibition hall. Everyone is free to take pictures at demos in the professional market and during the gala dinner.

Why not on the web?
Professionals and bonsai enthusiasts spend a lot of time creating their works of art. We should all respect their vision and taste in bonsai.

Thank you in advance for your understanding and we wish you a wonderful weekend Noelanders Trophy.

Bonsai Association Belgium 
committee.

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For the last few years a friend has attended the show and kindly shared his photos with me to place here on the blog. I will really miss the excitement this year of seeing the images pop into my email account and the rush to get them up. I know from the hits that I got on that day [45,000 last year] that I’m not the only one. We can’t all get there and many from around the world crave to see what the standard was like this year. The world gets to see the trees showcased adding even more kudos to the event.

Will web snaps affect book sales? I guess that’s hard to ascertain. I personally like to buy the book anyway, hard to bet a quality gallery book to flick through. I’m sure there are some out there who will go the other way though.

It will be interesting to see how things work out this year. I’m pretty sure that folk attending will have a better viewing experience, but banning tripods would probably help in that regard as well. Will book sales go up? Again we will have to wait and see , but we probably won’t be privileged to that information anyway.

As far as the web images go, I personally think most artists are happy to see their trees showcased to a mass audience, probably 10 times more than will ever visit the show or buy the book.

What I am sure about is that this will yet again be an amazing event, not just because of the quality of bonsai exhibited, but because of the dedication, enthusiasm and professionalism of the event organisers, Bonsai Association Belgium

Hey maybe next year they’ll let an avid bonsai blogger get a press pass 🙂

For those attending, have a great weekend and I look forward to hearing the stories about the ‘Goings On’ emerge 🙂