España 2000

Exhibition Report from Malcolm Groom, Australian Commissioner

The World exhibition España 2000 was held in Madrid from 6 to 14 October, 2000 in conjunction with the FIP 66th Congress.

The venue was the Crystal Palace at Casa de Campo on the outskirts of the city.  The exhibition centre was extensive with plenty of meeting rooms and a large auditorium.  The 4,000 exhibition frames were situated on the lowest of three levels accessed by stairs and escalators with the middle level used for functions, stamp launches and displays.  The dealers and postal administrations were located on the third floor, once again accessed by stairs and escalators.  The separate La Pipa Youth pavilion was a credit to the organisers with a great deal of space and effort devoted to entertaining and educating the 80,000 children transported to the exhibition over the 8 days of the show. They were bussed from all over Spain. The layout was fully carpeted and the dealers stands very impressive. The frames area was colour coordinated for the various classes with good signage.  There was plenty of space which made it rather curious that some frame areas wee stuck away into corners of the building and many had the problem of large concrete pillars splitting the exhibits. Exhibits ‘turning the corner’ or split across aisles were not well managed as were the filling of frames for exhibits that failed to show. The flavour of the exhibition was very much a Spanish one as would be expected.  Entries on Spanish philately were strong, as were those from Spanish speaking countries and former Colonies.

Attendances were low during the first days especially during the afternoon siesta time and dealers did not seem to be making many sales.  The children livened the halls up during their tours and crowds picked up towards the end of the show.

Australia had 16 entries of 100 frames including one Literature entry. They fared well in the awards with a Large Gold, three Golds and two special prizes.

Australian Exhibitor Results

John Sinfield Whiskers Thematics Large Gold [96]
Charles & Stephanie Bromser Pioneer Rocket Mail Astrophilately Gold [94] SP
Arthur Gray The Kangaroo Issues of the Commonwealth of Australia Traditional Gold [93] SP
Bernard Beston Postal Stationery of British Guyana Postal Stationery Gold [90]
Raymond Todd The Postal Stationery of Chile [1871-1910] Postal Stationery Large Vermeil [88]
Hugh Campbell Queensland inter-Colonial Overseas Postal Rates 1850-1919 Postal History Large Vermeil [87]
Betty Van Tenac Christmas Dimensions Thematics Large Vermeil [87]
Paul Fletcher Australian Postage Dues 1890 - 1963 Traditional Large Vermeil [86]
Peter Troy British New Guinea 1885 - 1908 Traditional Large Vermeil [86]
Ernest Meggyesy The Conveyance of Messages in Europe Thematics Vermeil [84]
Julian Cabarrus Pioneer flights of the Philippines 1919 to 1932 Aerophilately Vermeil [81]
John Dibiase The Fiscal Stamps of Western Australia Revenues Vermeil [81]
Edric Druce Pakistan Postal Stationery 1947-1961 Postal Stationery Vermeil [80]
Linda Lee Women in Society Thematics Vermeil [80]
David Collyer Australian Contemporary Philately Literature Silver-Bronze [67]

[ Source:  APF News, February 2001 ]