Hammerhead Show Cancels – 31st July 2021 Newark Show No Longer Going Ahead

Hammerhead Show is a miniature focussed event, focused on visitor participation, offering a variety of historical and fantasy based wargames run by clubs, societies, companies, and enthusiasts, and run by Kallistra and The Forest Outlaws Wargamers Club with assistance from the GCN.

The event was scheduled to run on Saturday 31st July 2021, at the George Stephenson Exhibition Hall at the Newark Showground, but has now been confirmed as cancelled. They released the following statement: 

“It is with great frustration that we have little choice but to announce that Hammerhead 2021 can no longer go ahead on the 31st July in response to the government’s decision to extend Covid restrictions for another 4 weeks and possibly even longer.

Since Hammerhead 2020, no traders or game presenters have attended a wargame show for what will be 16 months, and therefore need a minimum of 6 weeks to organise transport, accommodation, their trade stand or participation game, manufacture, and order stock etc. For this reason, the decision must be made now and not in 4 weeks’ time. 

Over the last few weeks, the increasing spread of the Covid Delta variant has piled uncertainty upon more uncertainty for event organisers across the country. Unfortunately, working crystal balls are in very short supply at the moment, so nobody really knows what will happen next.  We had a vision of Hammerhead being the last wargame show before the first Covid lock-down and the first show to re-commence after the pandemic – leaving go of this vision is not easy after so much preparation. 

A massive thank you to all the traders, game presenters and everyone who has offered so much encouragement and support for Hammerhead. We will organise a full refund for all the traders and give them the first option for trade space at the next Hammerhead scheduled for 5th March 2022 when hopefully ‘normality’ will have returned to all our lives.”

Hammerhead Show is not alone – Tabletop Gaming also took the difficult decision to cancel the September Tabletop Gaming Live this year, as a result of the uncertainty, and there have been few events over the past 12 months directly as a result of the pandemic. With Airecon having also been cancelled this year, the next event hopefully taking place will be UK Games Expo, over the 30th July to 1st August, should it be safe to do so.

As above, the Hammerhead Show will return next year, at a different time of 5th March 2022.