Exhibition Stand Builder for Hillhead
Hillhead is the UK’s largest Construction Equipment Show, covering quarrying, construction and recycling equipment, held every two years on the quarry floor at Hillhead Quarry, near Buxton in Derbyshire, with the next edition in 2028. We design and build exhibition stands for it: stands built to stand up to an open quarry site, on our DUM FLEX™ Outdoor frame or in custom wooden construction. Our work on that ground: a 54 m² DUM FLEX™ Outdoor stand for Hailstone, a branded visitor and hospitality base beside the company’s stone-processing machinery.
Get a quote →Our work at Hillhead
A 54 m² DUM FLEX™ Outdoor stand for Hailstone: a branded visitor and hospitality base set beside the company’s large stone-processing machine, with an open frontage and strong external graphics to keep the brand visible across an open quarry floor. Open the project and look at it.
Hillhead is run on a working quarry floor, not in a hall
Hillhead is staged at Hillhead Quarry itself, a working stone quarry at Harpur Hill, near Buxton. Most of the show is open-air plots across the quarry floor, with one enclosed space, the Registration Area pavilion, built for the event. That changes what a stand has to be built for before it changes what it has to say.
Open-air plots are the format
The organiser's own site and exhibitor information set out the ground: static exhibits and demonstration areas across the quarry floor, uncovered, on compacted stone underfoot, a different starting point to the flat floor of a hall. A stand here sits in the open for three show days, next to heavy plant moving in and out of four working demonstration areas, including the Quarry Face shows and Crusher Alley.
What that changes for a stand
A structure built for an indoor hall assumes a flat floor, a fixed ceiling and no weather. None of that holds at Hillhead. The stand has to be weighted and engineered for an uncovered stone surface, built to stay up and look right through wind and rain, and planned with enough clearance and a frontage that reads from across an open yard rather than a narrow aisle.
A base beside the machine, not a shell around it
Most exhibitors at Hillhead bring a machine. The stand's job is rarely to hide it; it is to give the company a clear branded presence and a working visitor base alongside the thing people came to see.
Hailstone: a sheltered base beside the machinery
Hailstone brought a large stone-processing machine to Hillhead and needed a clear branded presence and a practical visitor base alongside it, on an open quarry plot. We built a 54 m² DUM FLEX™ Outdoor structure: a sheltered branded environment with strong external graphics and an open frontage, set beside the machinery display instead of enclosing it, so the machine stayed the centre of attention and visitors could move freely between the two.
The machine is yours, the stand is ours
We ran the stand side of the project end to end: design, technical planning, production, graphics, logistics, installation, on-site stand operations and dismantling. The exhibited machine itself, Hailstone's own equipment, was supplied and handled by Hailstone throughout, outside our delivery scope. On a site where the exhibit is a piece of heavy plant, that division is usually the right one, and we set it out clearly before anything is drawn up; it is the same split we would plan for a stand built around full-size farm machinery at LAMMA.
When a permanent-feel structure is the better answer
DUM FLEX™ Outdoor suits a frame that needs to go up fast on an open plot and come back for the next edition. Some exhibitors want something closer to a built structure instead, a raised or levelled floor, an enclosed meeting space cut into an otherwise open stand. That is custom wooden construction from our own workshop, engineered for an outdoor site instead of a hall floor. Our bespoke page covers that work; we say which of the two we propose before drawing anything.
Hillhead runs every two years, so timing starts now
The 2026 edition was the organiser's largest yet and sold out. With Hillhead running every two years rather than annually, a stand for the next edition is not a job you can leave until the year before.
The organiser's own figures for the 2026 show, independently audited, record 627 exhibitors, a record for the event, and close to 26,000 visits across the three days, with the busiest opening day in the show's history. The next edition is confirmed for 2028; the organiser has not yet published exact dates, and we work to the confirmed dates once they are out, not a provisional figure circulating online. A show that sells out two years in advance rewards exhibitors who start the stand conversation early, not the ones who wait for the exhibitor manual to land.
Talk to us →Exhibiting at Hillhead: the questions we get asked
When is the next Hillhead show?
The next edition is confirmed for 2028, at Hillhead Quarry near Buxton, Derbyshire. The organiser has not yet published the exact dates; the 2026 edition ran 23–25 June. We design to the organiser's confirmed dates and exhibitor manual once they are published.
Is Hillhead an outdoor exhibition?
Mostly, yes. Static exhibits and the live demonstration areas sit across the open quarry floor; the Registration Area pavilion is the one enclosed space built for the show. A stand here is designed and engineered as an outdoor structure, not a hall stand moved outside.
We are bringing a machine. Can the stand sit alongside it?
Yes. For Hailstone we built a 54 m² DUM FLEX Outdoor base set beside their stone-processing machine instead of around it, so the machine stayed the focus and visitors could move between the two. The machine itself is supplied and handled by the exhibitor; we design, build, install and dismantle the stand around it.
How do you build for a quarry floor rather than a hall?
The structure is engineered for an uncovered stone surface and open-air conditions rather than a flat hall floor and a controlled environment: how it is weighted and anchored, how the graphics and frontage are built to hold up and stay visible outdoors, and how it sits alongside heavy plant moving nearby. We review the specific plot and ground with you before anything is drawn up.
Do you handle the organiser's paperwork for an outdoor plot?
Yes, the stand drawings and the organiser's approvals are ours to manage. A machine or other exhibit you bring onto the stand is booked and handled under your own exhibitor arrangement with the organiser.
Can the same stand structure come back for the next edition?
Yes, if it is built on DUM FLEX. The frame stays in our stock between shows and comes back out with fresh graphics for the 2028 edition, or for another outdoor or indoor show in between.
How much does an exhibition stand at Hillhead cost?
It depends on plot size, the build approach and how much of the stand is built around an exhibited machine. Send us the plot, what you are bringing and the budget you have in mind, and you get a straight answer.