IBRA 2021 postponed to 2023
The Bund Deutscher Philatelisten e.V. has today given the following press release:
World Exhibition IBRA 2021 will be postponed – Planning Uncertainties because of Corona Pandemic
(BDPh) The World Stamp Exhibition IBRA will be postponed because of the corona pandemic. This was decided by the Board of Bund Deutscher Philatelisten e.V. (BDPh) during an extraordinary meeting together with members of the IBRA core team. „We sincerely regret this, but the planning uncertainties are too high“, BDPh President Alfred Schmidt said after the phone conference. The IBRA is now scheduled for 2023, talks with the Messe Essen have already started. At the moment BDPh prefers a new date in May 2023.
Alfred Schmidt and BDPh General Commissioner Walter Bernatek pointed out that the Federation did not take the decision lightly: „Unfortunately the current situation left us with no choice when looking at all facts and assessments.“ Before that the general situation of the pandemic, applicable hygiene concepts, general regulations of events as well as developments in worldwide air traffic respectively travel warnings and quarantining rules had been analysed and weighted.
The Federation thanks all sponsors as well as the numerous patrons, who have in the past months contributed considerable sums to IBRA. Here as well talks will be held in order to agree on the further cooperation and possibly change the contracts accordingly.
At the same time Alfred Schmidt and Walter Bernatek pointed to the good cooperation with FIP, the World Federation of Philately. The talks with FIP President Bernard Beston (Australia) and the responsible FIP Consultant Reinaldo Macedo (Brasil) had always been constructive. „We will talk now together with our partners about the further route to IBRA in Germany“, the BDPh Management announced.
In the past months numerous large philatelic events have been cancelled or postponed due to the corona pandemic. For 2021 some exhibitions were already rescheduled or cancelled as well, others are meanwhile planned for 2022. In order to avoid overlaps or too tight sequence of exhibitions in 2022, the decision making was directed to 2023.
