In Germany, Messe München, the organizers of IFAT 2020 originally slated to take place in May, has announced that IFAT 2020 been rescheduled to take place September 7 to 11, 2020.“Under the given circumstances, opening IFAT in May would not be justifiable towards our customers, in particular from a medical and economic perspective. Now, we are looking forward to host a successful IFAT 2020 in September," says Stefan Rummel, Managing Director Messe München and responsible for IFAT.

Due to the increasing spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in Europe and based on the recommendations of the German Ministry of Health and the Bavarian State Government, Messe München has decided to postpone IFAT 2020. Instead, IFAT will take place from September 7 to 11, 2020.
The decision to postpone the event was taken by Messe München in close cooperation with the Executive Board of the Exhibitors’ Advisory Board, the conceptual partners and in consideration of the many exhibitors’ responses. IFAT’s conceptual partners are Federal Association of the German Waste, Water and Raw Materials Management Industry (BDE); German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water (DVGW); German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste (DWA); German Municipal Vehicles and Equipment Industry Association (VAK); German Engineering Federation (VDMA); German Association of Local Utilities (VKU).
The conceptual partners of IFAT support the postponement of IFAT 2020. Based on the current situation, we estimate that the willingness of exhibitors and visitors to take part in the event is increasingly declining. Many companies have massively tightened the travel conditions for their employees, in addition to the personal insecurity of the individual and the unpredictability of further developments, jeopardizing the success of the trade fair in May. At the same time, the importance of IFAT for the entire industry is so great that we do not want to take this risk, said Dr Johannes F. Kirchhoff, Chairman of the Exhibitors’ Advisory Board, its Executive Board and Managing Partner of the Kirchhoff Group.