No pictures this time as I was too busy to take photos.
The event was well attended but I did hear from traders that foot-fall was about half that of record years. Some of the traders were also missing but this did mean greater space to move about and – to be frank – I was not averse to a little more social distancing. It did no harm, given the circumstances.
Salute had a Battle of Britain theme with two aircraft – a Spitfire and a Hurricane – dominating the central display area. These were so good that I was unable to tell if they were genuine or merely replicas. The games which I looked-in upon were excellent but as I was assisting on a friend's stall I was fully occupied.
Wings of Glory was being played and I noted an excellent ancient battle organised by the Society of Ancients.
One issue was access as the venue – ExCel London – were demanding positive proof of Covid status and I was one of several who knew nothing about this in advance. I had an 'interesting' 10 minutes gaining access. Oddly, when I left in the evening, this element appeared to disappeared with people coming and going at the doors without any apparent checks.
Salute was sharing the venue with a huge Star Trek convention and we started seeing some Trekkers in uniform, including full-on Klingons, drifting into the show during the late afternoon. I was NOT prepared for the reality of walking into the atrium to see about 1,000 of them including many in full costume.
I turned to one of the security people and said: "What with the wargamers in one section and the Trekkers in the other you must think this is 'nerd central' this afternoon…" She smiled.
Barry
builds a pond for his campaign.
