I visited
INTERGEM today, and there are a few interesting things I'd like to share.
First of all, the organizer (ACAM) became aware of the fair's poor reputation and took action to improve the quality of the material on display. Unlike the "free for all" policy of the previous years, from this year on, it was required to display at least 33% minerals and/or fossils, in an effort to reduce jewelry, carvings, halite lamps, fountains and assorted items. Furthermore, anything paranormal was no longer tolerated. This led to a few arguments with sellers of 'healing stones', 'spiritual artifacts' and special gems no one ever heard of that claim to be "proven 100% effective against all sorts of electromagnetic radiation from the instant they're placed in your apartment". The plan is to increase the minimum minerals/fossils to junk ratio to 66% next year. All ACAM members were also issued free exposition space in an attempt to increase the amount of genuine minerals on display.
Despite the good intentions, the fair was generally disappointing in quality. Only a handful of booths was actually worth looking at, the same small group of dedicated people touring all major Belgian fairs. I did not have the impression that action was taken against (obviously) fake material being presented as genuine or natural (for example, perfect dark blue "chalcanthite" crystals, 8 cm long, from "Poland" with chemical formula CuSo [sic]). It appears that the quality of most Flemish fairs is gradually deteriorating, with jewelry and junk spreading from fair to fair like a pandemic. The only unaffected fair seems to be the one organized by Lithos in Harelbeke, where strict quality control is enforced by Luc Verfaillie in person!
