Olaf Schmidt, vice-president of textiles and textile technologies at show organiser Messe Frankfurt, said he is optimistic about the possibility of holding a physical fair.

“Although we are still far removed from having complete planning certainty, we are tackling the projects for Heimtextil, Techtextil and Texprocess 2021 with confidence – in the hope that the current, second lockdown and the no-less challenging winter months ahead of us will be followed next spring by an improvement in the corona situation,” he said. 

“Looking towards Asia also gives us ground for optimism. There, in mid-October, Messe Frankfurt began holding fairs with up to 150,000 participants. Despite the fact that the way China has handled the virus is not comparable with the European approach, we nevertheless see the situation there as encouraging. All the more so because we firmly believe that social distancing and an efficient supply of fresh air is much easier to regulate in exhibition halls than, for example, in a shopping centre. Moreover, we have prepared our hygiene and safety concept very thoroughly over the past months. 

“Naturally, we remain in close contact with the appropriate authorities and our exhibitors, the vast majority of whom want to see the sector getting together in the near future. Accordingly, we are working flat out on holding our fairs safely in 2021.”

Techtextil and Texprocess have 85 and 65 percent respectively of the exhibition space reserved.