The major event of the bar industry, held recently at Earls Court, has bucked the overall trend of falling exhibition visitor numbers.

The seventh Bar Show served up an increase in attendance of more than 6% on 2005, with over 9,000 visitors pouring into the event.

Kara Bowen, exhibition sales manager at EC&O Venues, which owns Earls Court, put the success down to the show’s new owners CMP. “Bar 06 looked stunning, which is testament to the creativity of the CMP team,” she said.

Commenting on the event’s success, the Bar Show’s director, Andy Bishop, commented: “It was the first year of running the Bar Show with our new owners CMP. The industry has faced many challenges over the past year such as the smoking ban and the new licensing act, so we are particularly pleased that visitor numbers were up by nearly 600 on last year.”