It can be said that the history of fairs and fair activity, since ancient times to today, is longer and larger than all fairs together, but 85 years of the Belgrade fair is longer and bigger than any even its own history.
There are even today large global fairs whose tradition has roots in the middle, 15th or 16th, century, but there is none who would dare compare its spirit, energy, strength passion, tragedy, pain and joy with that of the 85 years of the Belgrade Fair.
With all that, even the amazing 85 years of the existence of the Belgrade Fair is a lot less than so many years of its real life. Many thinkers have through the course of civilization explained that it doesn’t matter how many years you have lived, but what you gained and done usefully during each second of that life. The Belgrade Fair has for 85 years been proving that to be true.
Since the moment of the first opening of the gates for the domestic but also many other faraway worlds, on the 11th of September 1937, the Belgrade Fair has started to trace not only trading but also interstate relations on all four sides of the world. Already, the first fair event, held on today’s old Fair grounds, presented a phenomenon in the European circles on multiple levels.
From that time to today, breaking through the strait between the hell of history and the fruitful gardens of a successful civilization, the Belgrade Fair has changed its location, expanded the infrastructure, improved services and moved standards, was one of the leaders in the creation and realization of the economic and market ambiance of the country, and was and remains the key link between the Serbian economy and the world.
While, during that time, as many as seven countries and political systems passed around the Belgrade Fair, giving it the aura of a somewhat supernatural guardian of all the powers, virtues and success of this climate, the Fair has, next to its basic, economic activity, proudly contributed to sport, culture, science and education, hosted great people thanks to whom it survived and regular people who it thus connected with the world, becoming a itself a place seen by the whole world.
From the gong which announced the beginning of the first fair event, that 11th of September 1937, the Fair has embraced around 520 thousand exhibitors from as much as 180 countries, from every corner of the planet Earth, welcomed almost 65 million visitors, organized more than 3400 fair events of different profiles and formats, which have on average attracted around twenty thousand people each.
For the ninth decade, the employees, associates, partners and all others who achieved the warmth of business success and friendly relations with the Belgrade Fair, with each new day they readily enter into new and bigger ventures, equipped with knowledge and experience, with the intention of welcoming each next birthday as an accomplished and even more successful company, welcoming old and new exhibitors and visitors.
Happy 85th birthday to the Belgrade Fair!
