5 to 8 May 2026 METPACK at Messe Essen – The world’s leading trade fair for metal packaging

Every three years Messe Essen with METPACK becomes the most important global meeting place for the international metal packaging industry. Numerous global players present sustainable and cost-efficient solutions for the production, refinement, painting and recycling of metal packaging at the world’s leading trade fair. METPACK is the hub for innovation and a communication platform at the same time.

METPACK 2026 with optimized duration and adjusted opening hours

The organizer Messe Essen and the METPACK Committee have agreed to adjust the trade fair period to four days – and thus make the event more efficient and attractive. This means that the international metal packaging industry will next meet from 5 to 8 May 2026 in Halls 1, 2 and 3 of Messe Essen to showcase and discuss innovations and trends. From Tuesday to Thursday, METPACK will now open one hour longer from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Friday, the last day of the trade fair, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday of the event will be cancelled.

“The model of also holding the event on a Saturday has proven to be outdated,” explains Oliver P. Kuhrt, CEO of Messe Essen. “Exhibitor and visitor surveys have shown that many of our guests are already leaving on the Friday of the trade fair. An extended version of the event into the weekend is therefore obsolete,” Kuhrt is convinced.

However, there will be no loss of quality as the opening hours on the other days of the fair have been adjusted. Instead of opening until 5 p.m. as usual, Messe Essen will now open its exhibition halls at METPACK until 6 p.m. from Monday to Thursday. “We are responding to the industry’s desire for greater harmonization and more efficiency and are certain that the path we have taken will lead us to a successful event in 2026,” says Christina Kleinpaß, Project Manager of METPACK. “We are very much looking forward to the next edition of the trade fair.”

Long-standing exhibitor BIBRA Biagosch and Brandau Germany GmbH shares this assessment. Stanislav Antonius, Deputy Managing Director: “The last METPACK was an all-round success for BIBRA. With the new duration, we are now even more convinced by the trade fair. The industry now has a platform that matches its pace and business. Participation in METPACK 2026 is therefore a clear choice for us.”

Henkel from Düsseldorf is also in favor of the new date for METPACK. “METPACK is indispensable for the Henkel Adhesive Technologies team as an industry meeting place. We are therefore all the more pleased that the changed opening hours of the trade fair will make it even easier to enter into dialogue with interested parties,” says Tobias Laxa, Head of Marketing at Henkel in Düsseldorf.

Other exhibitors seem to agree: bookings are excellent, and anyone still wishing to exhibit should hurry up.

The registration documents for METPACK 2026 are available on the website www.metpack.de.