Europe's Largest Show

Rock Around
the Jukebox Show

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In the middle of the Netherlands, midway between Amsterdam, Brussels, and Dusseldorf lies the town Rosmalen. This town features an enormous exhibit center and automobile museum call the Rosmalen Autotron.

Once a year in October, the Jukebox Fan Club hosts Europe's largest and probably the world's largest show featuring Jukebox, 1950s memorabilia, 45 rpm records and gameroom collectibles. There are 279 dealers filling the ground floor and the wide balcony that surrounds the ground floor.

While most exhibitors have one, two or three booths, there are a large number of exhibitors who have mega booths, as large as 40' by 60'. The booths are bigger than many gameroom stores I've visited.

One of the mega booths was designed to look like a turn of the century saloon with wood beams on the ceiling, wood paneling, a 20+ foot long carved wood bar, chandeliers and more.

The show's name, Rock Around the Jukebox, is especially appropriate. There were close to 200 jukeboxes, almost all in beautiful original or restored condition. Authentic and replica 1950s memorabilia was everywhere, even 50s vintage clothing and furniture.

At 9 a.m. hundreds of attendees rushed in. Over 25,000 are expected to visit the show over the 2-day period. A number of attendees were even outfitted in the hottest 1950s fashions, including pink poodle shirts and pale tuxedos and ruffled shirts.

One of the most surprising aspects of the show was the prices. I expected that all the prices would be significantly higher than those in United States. However, many of the items, even jukeboxes, were competitively priced with USA prices.

Those who regularly visit the Chicagoland Show in the USA would feel at home because most of the European dealers who come to America to replenish their inventory are exhibitors at Rosmalen. It was nice to see them as sellers and not just buyers and to see how they display their items.

While jukeboxes were everywhere, there were relatively few slot machines and almost no trade stimulators. Unrestored machines needing work were also limited reflecting the retail nature of the show.

As an added extra, your admission to the show lets you visit a vintage automobile museum that is part of the Autotron. There are some really neat early Mercedes, Volkswagens and other European cars that you don't see at the USA auto museums.

Visiting the Netherlands and the Show is relatively easy for English speaking visitors. Almost everyone understands and speaks English so asking questions or getting directions was a simple affair. The show can be reached by car or by train plus a short taxi ride. The trains run very frequently from early in the morning to late at night.

If you want to stay near the show book your hotel early. You can easily make the round trip in one day from most parts of the Netherlands, Belgium and parts of Germany. Amsterdam, for example, is less than 2 hours away.

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Ken Durham
GameRoomAntiques
Email: durham@GameRoomAntiques.com