News

Interpack, which takes place in Düsseldorf, Germany, from 24-30 April, is 50 years old this year. Packaging News brings you an essential guide to the show and the city of Düsseldorf

50 years of interpack

Interpack is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The show began in 1958 and has been held every three years (with only a couple of exceptions) ever since.

At the first show there were 255 exhibitors, approximately 32,500 visitors and a special show covering ‘seaworthy packaging’. It was held at the old fairground on Fischer Street, a few kilometres from the current site.

In 1973, Interpack moved to its current location, which has been continuously enlarged and modernised since then.

By 1990, the event was attracting more than 2,000 exhibitors from more than 35 countries. It was also the first year that more of the visitors came from abroad than from Germany – with 52% of the 170,000 visitors coming from other countries.

Interpack 2005 hosted 2,654 exhibitors and 176,964 visitors from 106 countries. German visitors comprised 45% of the total – however, only 6% of those came from eastern Germany.

Organisers are predicting that this year’s event will be even bigger.

The newest addition to the building is hall 8b, which was opened in October 2007 and offers 12,850 m2 of exhibition space. There will also be an exhibition about the history of the show at the gallery in hall 6.

---

Düsseldorf by numbers

306,888 Size of the Messe exhibition centre in metres squared

176,964 Visitors to Interpack 2005

567,000 Population of Düsseldorf

19 Number of halls in the Messe

7% 2005 visitors from the UK

106 Countries the 2005 visitors came from

240 Height of the Rhine Tower in metres

260 Bars and restaurants in the Altstadt (old quarter)

1,302 Breweries in Germany

---

Düsseldorf facts

• The Messe exhibition centre is the same size as 40 football fields
• The local beer is Alt beer. It is considered a serious faux pas to order Kölsch beer, which comes from rival Cologne
• The avant-garde electronic music band Kraftwerk is from Düsseldorf
• The local football team, Fortuna Düsseldorf, plays in the third division of the German football league
• Düsseldorf has the largest expatriot Japanese community in Europe
• Every year, in June, Düsseldorf hosts a cartwheeling tournament through the streets of the Altstadt (old town). It dates back to 1288, when the city was granted town rights after the battle of Worringen. The Cartwheel Fountain was erected in 1954, by Alfred Zschorsch and is located in the Burgplatz
• The city of Düsseldorf is twinned with Reading in the UK
• The Altstadt, with around 260 pubs and home breweries, is known as the longest bar in the world.

Weather
Düsseldorf has a very similar climate to London during April, with an average of five hours of sunlight a day and temperatures from 5 to 14°C. It is considerably wetter, however, with an average of 60mm of rain in a month and 17 wet days, compared to London’s 37mm and 12 wet days.