The Show Closes at 4.45pm and the Hall Must Be Empty by 9pm: Why Breakdown Day Needs a Plan

At the BOA Annual Congress 2026 at Olympia, breakdown could not begin until the final break at 16:45 on Thursday 24 September. Vehicles were allowed in from 17:00, and the hall had to be clear of exhibitors, materials and stand fittings by 21:00. That leaves just over four hours to take down everything a stand builder spent days putting up. Plenty of exhibitors plan the build to the day and the strike to the hour, usually the hour before the train home.

The clock starts later than you think

Most manuals stop exhibitors dismantling until the show has formally closed and visitors have left the floor. The BOA manual states that nothing may be dismantled or brought in until the exhibition has officially closed, and that anyone wanting to leave early needs written approval from the organiser in advance. Even then, only items that can be carried by hand may go, and wheeled equipment is banned. An older London Book Fair manual at Olympia added that contractors and trolleys could not enter until the halls were clear of visitors, about 30 minutes after close, and that power to stands was switched off 15 minutes after the show closed each day. So the real working window is shorter than the published one.

The vehicle is the bottleneck

Even when the stand comes down quickly, it still has to leave the building. ExCeL’s lorry ways are closed overnight from 23:00 until 05:00, and load and unload time on them is capped at 15 minutes for cars, 45 for transit-sized vehicles, 60 for vehicles up to 7.5 tonnes and 90 for articulated lorries. London Tech Week 2026 at Olympia required every servicing vehicle, including load-out, to be pre-booked through Voyage Control, and told drivers to stay within their slot. A builder whose van arrives at the wrong time can lose the evening queueing for a gap.

What gets billed afterwards

The manuals are clear about the principle and quiet about the price. At Olympia, anything left after the deadline is disposed of by the venue and charged to the exhibitor. The BOA also warns that breaking the breakdown rules can bring a charge covering the organiser’s estimate of loss and operational disruption. London Tech Week treats all stand waste as chargeable, and says abandoned fittings, carpet, pallets and boxes of literature carry an extra charge. The older London Book Fair manual also passed on the cost of carpet tape left on the floor, and charged exhibitors for hours lost to safety stoppages. None of the manuals we read published a rate for any of this, which means the exhibitor finds out the figure on the invoice.

What this means for a brief

Breakdown belongs in the brief next to the build, not as an afterthought. Ask any contractor how many people they will bring for the strike, which vehicle slot they have booked, who removes waste and carpet tape, and what happens to the stand afterwards. A stand designed to come apart quickly costs less to dismantle in a four-hour window than one built to look good on day one. The same planning covers electrics deadlines and the wider timeline from opening day, and it sits alongside the cost lines in our guide to stand costs. These details come from specific 2020 and 2026 manuals, so check your own before you rely on any of them.

Stand Between introduces exhibitors to contractors who plan the strike as carefully as the build. If your show is on the calendar and nobody has mentioned breakdown, get in touch with Stand Between.