Instructions:

• Please see the maps below before booking
  
• To attend as an exhibitor, you must be a member. Log in and update your membership to book your table.
• Payments are taken online via this website only.
• When making your booking, you will be asked to fill out a form so that we can include you in the brochure. Even if this information is the same as previous years, we will need you to fill it out again as you wish, to avoid errors and keep our administration process manageable.

Maker’s Day is a unique event in the British musical calendar. The event showcases the living craft of violin making and promotes it to a wider audience of musicians and general public.

Whether visitors are actively seeking to purchase an instrument, or interested in broadening their interest in the violin, it provides the opportunity to see, hear and play instruments from a wide selection of contemporary makers from Britain and overseas, as well as meet the people who make them.

Makers' day is one of the founding traditions of the British Violin Making Association and takes place each year with about 40 stands for makers who are members of the association. Exhibitors are not only from Britain, and we typically are joined by makers from all over the world. 

Exhibitors must show instruments that they have made themselves in order to be eligible for the exhibition. The sale of instruments by other makers, whether living or dead is prohibited in order to maintain the unique and very special nature of the event.

An exception is made for a limited number of ‘trade stands’ that sell parts of instruments, such as tonewood, varnish pigments or fittings as the day is a useful time for makers to connect with their suppliers. We also extend an invitation to any violin making school and allow them to exhibit whatever work they feel necessary to promote their educational goals.

Although Makers' Day is primarily an opportunity for musicians to meet makers, it has also become a very important event for violin makers to compare each other’s work, drawing many other violin makers to the event, and making a significant contribution to the goal of raising of standards in contemporary British making.

Dealers, auction houses and other musical organisations are welcome to show their support for the day by advertising in the accompanying brochure, which is distributed free to visitors and exhibitors.