ferias

   Well over a hundred trade fairs take place annually throughout Spain and are hosted by Fair Organizations in some fourteen centres. In Madrid the Fair Institution (IFEMA), comprising the Autonomous Region, the City Hall, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Cajamadrid, operates from Parque Ferial Juan Carlos I, a purpose-built exhibition ground. It hosts twenty or more fairs on contemporary art (ARCO), footwear, musical instruments, optics, antiques, sporting goods, tourism, jewellery, leather, fur, fashions, scientific instruments, education, furniture, gifts, office equipment and the Madrid Book Fair, many of them international in scope.

   Outside the capital an International Samples Fair operates from Valencia and hosts over twenty fairs including modern and contemporary art (Interart), musical instruments (Intermusic), fashions, furniture and so on, as in Madrid, but also international fairs in areas such as ceramics, paper, toys, lighting, agricultural and meat industries, hunting and fishing, and pharmaceuticals. The Fira de Barcelona also hosts over twenty fairs in many of the trades already mentioned and in wines and spirits, packaging, catering, cars, sports and computer science, among others. Bilbao's trade fairs are biennial and concentrate principally on industries such as machine tools, machine systems, foundries, welding, electrical and electronics, new technologies, naval, maritime and fishing, and forestry. Other major trade fair centres include The National Official Fair Institute based in Zaragoza, which hosts over fifteen fairs, among them civil defence, robotics, a gardening and floral art show and a water fair, and FIBES, the Ibero-American Trade Fair in Seville which also hosts fairs in building and public works, stone working and agricultural machinery.

   A special trade exhibition Expo-92 was held in Seville in 1992 in conjunction with the Quinto Centenario.

   EAMONN RODGERS