The show has grown from a small niche event at The Donmar Warehouse, to one which now fills London's Royal Horticultural Halls to capacity and is attended by over 2,300 visitors from around Europe. Appropriately enough for its 25th anniversary, this year's event was a sell-out show, with a record number of exhibitors - over 100 - showcasing both products and services for the theatre and live performance industries.
Numerous new product launches took place across the show floor, including the relaunch of ADB's impressive Axis luminaire, first seen at PLASA last year, but rebranded for ABTT to avoid confusion with another manufacturer's registered product name, Trantec's new S6000 radio microphone system (on the Orbital stand), and Stagemate by Bader Maschinenbau (on the Triple E stand). All three products collected ABTT Product of the Year Awards in their respective categories of lighting, sound and stage engineering/rigging, whilst Hall Stage picked up the Widget award for its range of HoldOn clips.
The Lifetime Achievement Award was given to scenic designer Peter Kemp, whilst Fraser Hall was awarded Technician of the Year and long-time ABTT stalwart Roger Fox was given an ABTT Fellowship.
