Each year, pinball fans from across the globe come together for the UK Pinball Party - one of the largest pinball shows in the country. With over 90 different pinball machines from big manufacturers like Stern, Bally and Williams at the show last year, who knows how many they’ll have this weekend!
The exhibition last year was hosted at the Daventry Court Hotel in Northampton and was thoroughly enjoyed by pinball fanatics of all ages and nationalities, probably due to the pinball tournaments that took place over the whole weekend. Craig Pullen, one of the top pinball players in the UK who is sponsored by us here at Home Leisure Direct, attended the event last year and proved himself to be a strong competitor in the pinball tournaments, managing to achieve an amazing score on the Star Trek - The Next Generation machine. We hope to see this kind of again from him again this year!
The organiser of the event for the past few years has been Andrew Heighway, the owner of Heighway Pinball himself. The company has just released their first ever pinball machine called Full Throttle, which was unveiled at the event last year to a very excited audience. With news of their new Alien pinball machine being released in the near future, we’re very excited to see if a prototype for this machine will be shown at the UK Pinball Party 2015 this weekend.
After five years of the event being hosted at the Daventry Court Hotel, the organiser thought it was time for a change of venue so the 2015 UK Pinball Party will be hosted at the Heighway factory in Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales - which is great news for the HLD team as it makes the event closer to us! Some people on the other hand are very disappointed in the change of venue as it makes the journey more difficult for them.
We actually visited the Heighway Pinball factory in March this year and we must say that it is very spacious and is the perfect venue for a big event like this one. We went there for a personal tour and an inside look into the creation of Full Throttle (which is now in our showroom) and we were amazed by the detail of all the work that goes into making a great pinball like this one. The fast paced game reflects the fantastic innovation and new technology that the creators have used to try and bring pinball back into the mainstream games market. Guests at the UK Pinball Party this year will also be able to go on tours around the factory during their time there.
Some of our team at Home Leisure Direct will be attending the UK Pinball Party this weekend and are very excited to go especially as we couldn’t attend last year’s event. We can’t wait to have a look at all of the pinball machines that are there this year and watch the tournaments, which include The UK Pinball Open, The UK Pinball Classic Tournament, The UK Pinball Team Tournament and The UK Pinball Kids Tournament.
The event is taking place from the 21st to the 23rd of August, there a single day tickets with options for dinner and accommodation or you can stay for the whole three days! We hope to see all of you pinball fans there!