If you tried to squeeze through the painting cabinets at Salute this year and gave up, you weren't alone. The South London Warlords have confirmed that Salute 53 pulled in over 7,400 visitors on 11 April, the biggest crowd in the show's 53-year history, and they've already locked in Saturday 17 April 2027 for Salute 54 at the same London ExCeL venue.
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See how it worksSalute is the one-day wargaming pilgrimage. Started in 1972 in a back room of the Surrey Tavern by the Oval, it now fills a chunk of the ExCeL with traders, demo games, painting competitions, and seminars across a single Saturday. The Warlords pick a theme each year and commission an exclusive miniature, with this year's Cavalry theme producing a fantastic Saladin figure that gave the event its visual signature.
The painting competition was the usual highlight reel, with Golden Demon winners freshly back from AdeptiCon in Milwaukee dropping their work into the central display cabinets alongside busts, historical figures, and the kind of hyper-realistic tank weathering that ruins your week when you compare it to your own table. Salute is the show where the UK painting community shows off, and the trader presence punches well above the price of an entry ticket.
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Start organising for freeFor UK tabletop organisers, Salute is also the easiest mass exposure event of the year. Wargaming clubs use it to recruit, demo teams use it to season new presenters, and shop owners use it to scope upcoming product before the bigger UKGE rush in May. If you've been thinking about running a wargaming meetup or a painting night, the day-after-Salute hype window is when people actually want to start a new project. Easy time to post a community on Backseat Gamer and pick up the painters and historicals players itching for a new group.
A 7,400-strong gate is a real signal that the UK miniatures hobby is healthy in 2026, despite tariff turbulence and a wave of publisher consolidation across the pond. Mark 17 April 2027 in your diary now if you want a stand at Salute 54, because exhibitor space books out fast.
Sources: Tabletop Sentinel | South London Warlords | Tale of Painters report
