A Guide to Interpack for First-Time Exhibitors
Interpack is the leading international fair for processing and packaging machinery, and the 2029 edition runs 10–15 June at Messe Düsseldorf, Sunday to Friday, from 10:00 to 18:00 each day. It is held roughly every three years, is organised by Messe Düsseldorf, and its previous edition ran 7–13 May 2026 — so anyone working from the last show's calendar is working from May dates that no longer apply.
Two things about the 2029 edition change the plan before you draw a line. Interpack moves to early summer for the first time, which makes the outdoor grounds usable and the halls warmer than the old May slot. And it runs a compact six-day week rather than the seven days of recent editions, opening on a Sunday — which pushes build-up across a weekend and shifts the delivery and commissioning schedule. Neither change is cosmetic; both move the deadlines that a stand build is planned against.
Who Exhibits at Interpack and What Visitors Come to Buy
The floor covers packaging and processing machinery, packaging materials, and the related printing, labelling, storage and logistics technology that feeds a production line. Exhibitors range from materials and component suppliers through to the machinery OEMs whose stands are among the largest on the fairground. The visitor is a packaging engineer, a production or operations manager, a procurement specialist or a technical buyer working in confectionery, bakery, beverage, food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics or industrial goods — people evaluating capital equipment, not impulse purchases.
That audience comes to see machines run. They will want to watch a line form, fill and seal at speed, ask about changeover time and throughput, and understand serviceability before they shortlist a supplier. It is worth knowing where Interpack sits among the packaging fairs: it is the machinery-and-processing end of the sector, where FachPack in Nuremberg leans toward packaging materials and consumer packaging. A stand that lets a buyer see the line running, and gives them somewhere to sit and talk numbers afterwards, does the qualifying work here.
Stand Size: Choosing Between 9, 18, 24 and 48 Square Metres
Nine square metres works for materials, consumables and component suppliers whose product is physically small or is essentially a specification. You get a counter, a back wall and standing conversations. What you cannot do at this size is run a line with any circulation around it.
Eighteen square metres suits distributors and specialists who need a display and a proper conversation, and it is the largest size we would attempt without a serviced running-line position.
Twenty-four is the threshold at which a running line becomes practical: enough floor for the plinth, the power and air runs, a guarded demonstration zone, and a route for visitors to walk around the machine rather than past it. If you intend to demonstrate a line at all, treat 24 m² as the working minimum.
At 48 m² you can service two demonstration positions and still hold a private conversation, which matters when a buyer wants to discuss a project rather than a single machine. From 80 m² upward, a double-decker adds meeting and hospitality capacity above the machinery footprint without consuming the ground-floor area the line and its safety zone need — and on this floor that ground-floor area is at a premium.
What an Interpack Stand Costs by Size
Ranges below are all-in for design, fabrication, graphics, domestic freight, install and dismantle. They exclude the floor space rental you pay to Messe Düsseldorf, the electrical, air and water orders placed with the venue, and the machine itself with its freight.
- 9 m² modular: €4,100–€8,700
- 18 m² modular: €4,800–€10,100
- 24 m² custom with one running-line position: €11,500–€15,000
- 30 m² custom with enclosed meeting room: €15,000–€19,000
- 48 m² custom with two demonstration positions: €19,000–€26,000
- 80 m² premium or double-decker: €34,000–€48,000
What the 2029 Date Change Means for Your Plan
This is the part most guidance gets wrong, because most guidance still describes the May schedule. Interpack 2029 opens on Sunday 10 June and closes on Friday 15 June — six days, in early summer. The organiser has framed the move as a response to what exhibitors and industry associations asked for: a tighter, more efficient format, and a slot when the outdoor grounds and plazas are pleasant enough to work as informal meeting space alongside the halls.
For a stand build, three consequences follow. Build-up now runs across a weekend, so your last build day is a Saturday and machine commissioning falls on the Sunday morning before doors — the crew rota and the delivery slots have to be planned to that, not to a mid-week finish. The halls run warmer than they did in May, so a machine under load needs ventilation designed around it rather than an airtight enclosure. And the usable outdoor aspect means a hospitality or outdoor-facing element earns its floor space in June in a way it would not have in the old slot. If you are reusing a brief written for a previous Interpack, check every date in it against the 2029 schedule before you rely on it.
Common Mistakes, in Order of Frequency
The most common is forgetting the compressed-air order, which is separate from power, deadline-bound, and the usual reason a line will not cycle on press morning. The second is underspecifying the floor, because the machine's dynamic load while it runs exceeds the static figure on its plate. The third is building the stand around a machine that arrives last, then finding it will not pass through the opening left for it. The fourth is an aisle-facing demonstration with no guarding, e-stops or barrier line — a crowd-puller that becomes a hazard the moment it draws a crowd. The fifth is planning to the May 2026 layout and calendar, neither of which applies in June 2029. The sixth is boxing a running machine into a sealed enclosure in a warm June hall, so it overheats mid-demonstration. All six are settled at design stage or not at all.
Getting Started
Send your stand size, your hall and stand number if Messe Düsseldorf has issued it, and the machine list — footprint, weight, power draw, compressed-air demand, and whether it runs live on the stand. That last detail changes the design more than anything else you can tell us, because it decides the plinth, the services and the safety zone. You get a 3D design and an itemised all-in quote, at no charge and with no obligation.
For the materials, consumables and component exhibitors who do not run a line, the three-year gap between editions makes a reusable modular system the sensible buy — the structure waits in our Frankfurt warehouse between shows and the next Interpack costs a graphics refresh rather than a rebuild. Our modular exhibition stands are built for exactly that pattern.
