UK PINFEST 2026

The main national UK pinball show has been held at the same venue since 2010. Back then it was called the Barcelo Daventry Hotel after the Spanish hotel group leased it along with multiple other hotels across the country. Barcelo withdrew from the UK in 2012 and the hotel became the Daventry Court Hotel until it was acquired by Accor Hotels and run under their Mercure brand. It has been the Mercure Daventry Court since the UK Pinfest show began in 2018.

The history is significant because, after 16 years as the host of the largest pinball show in the country, UK Pinfest is leaving Daventry and moving to a new home for 2027 and beyond. There is more about new home and details of how you can reserve a room at a discount rate at the end of this report.

The UK Pinfest show has grown large enough to take over the Mercure Daventry court for the weekend, booking all 155 rooms and occupying the main Danetree Suite, as well as several side rooms, the corridors, the lower level function room and even the hotel’s lobby area.

The show’s ticket and merchandise desk is the first thing you saw as you entered the lobby. It was here guests could purchase daily or show-long entry tickets, buy UK Pinfest T-shirts for this and previous years, and get information about the schedule of events over the show’s three days.

There was also a ballot box for guests to nominate their best-in-show machines in a series of categories. Finally, for those partners dragged along by their pinball-loving other halves, there were details of alternative non-pinball attractions in the immediate vicinity, put together by Moira Ross.

UK Pinfest began at 7pm on Friday 28th August, running until 11pm. This was the first of two VIP evening sessions, each of which cost £10 (US$13.50) when purchased separately, but could alternatively be included in a full show-long VIP pass which cost £65 (US$88).

Normal show entry for Saturday and Sunday cost £30 (US$40) per day and was for the daytime session only, starting at 10am and ending at 6pm (Saturday) or 4:30pm (Sunday). A daytime pass for both days cost £55 (US$75).

We arrived on Friday morning, around nine hours before the first VIP session began, but the majority of machines had already been set up by then. Although the door don’t open until 7pm on Friday, many machine-bringers and helpers turn up on Thursday or even Wednesday for a more relaxed set-up and more socialising time. In fact, for those in the know, the Thursday is fast becoming the unofficial first show day.

This year saw an impressive selection of the latest titles from multiple manufacturers, largely thanks to the significant number of machines brought by Pinball Heaven and Retro Arcade Specialists.

The Danetree Suite has a pair of loading doors at the back right corner which is where all the machines and stands arrived. The lane outside was particularly busy as vans and trucks arrived, unloaded and moved off to the car park.

Meanwhile, up on the stage, the technical crew had made themselves at home, with snacks, drinks, fridges, a key store, board repair facilities as well as lighting controls and a walkie-talkie system for show staff.

We’ll take a closer look at the machines in the main show hall a little later when everything is set up, but one late addition to the Retro Arcade Specialist pinball line-up arrived on Friday afternoon, just in time for the show.

Inside was the latest Bon Jovi machine. After the show, the pinball will make its way to Wembley Stadium and a special ‘superfans’ area at the three Bon Jovi concerts held there the following Friday, Sunday and Wednesday.

Not all the machines were in the Danetree Suite. Out in the lobby there were three more on pay-to-play which were available twenty-four hours a day for true addicts.

These modern machines were joined, at a suitable distance, by a game from pinball’s origins – the flipperless and purely mechanical World’s Fair Jigsaw.

Also in the lobby is the Fuel Bar which is where most of the late night socialising and karaoke took place. We’ll see more of that later.

It’s not the only bar at the show, as there is another, more convenient, bar inside the main hall.

Once again, the main Pinfest Open tournament was held downstairs in a separate lobby area used by several offices.

Qualifying for the Open would begin at 2pm on Friday, so when we arrived the last minute adjustments were being made and the streaming equipment installed.

While the Open tournament wouldn’t start for a couple of hours, the Pinball Classic tournament began at 10am in a side room off the hotel’s lobby. Qualifying was well underway on the eight machines by the time we got to the room.

Outside the Pinball Classic room was another competitive challenge. The Jack Rabbit Slim’s One Ball Twist Contest saw entrants pay £1 and try to get one of the top scores on the Pulp Fiction game using only one ball. Cash prizes were awarded to the top four players.

At the other end of the hotel, two side rooms were used to host more tournaments. The NBA Challenge used two linked NBA Fastbreak machines for a series of head-to-head battles.

In the room opposite, machines were being set up which would be used for a series of events, from the Ladies Social to the Ladies Tournament and the Bounty Strikes Lock In Tournament.

Finally, in the corridors around the main hall, more machines were set up on free play.

With opening time looming, a small crowd of guests with VIP access lined up outside the entrance to the main hall, eager to get their hands on the machines waiting inside.

Let’s see some of the machines inside the hall before it got too crowded.

Within seconds of the doors opening, nearly all the machines were being played.

The team representing Stern Pinball – Lloyd Dortant plus Stéphane and Joana from High Voltage Pinball – helped set up the Insider Connected accounts, add the promotional material and update the software. There was a special UK Pinfest leaderboard display next to the entrance showing the top scores on multiple Stern Pinball titles with prizes from Stern for the top scorers on each.

In total, including the tournament areas, the lobby and the corridors, 158 pinballs were at the show. Here’s the full list with different models noted where possible, thanks to Paul Garner:

So, let’s now take a look at the vendors at this year’s UK Pinfest.

Back in in the main hall, London Pinball has a big stand right by the entrance offering a wide variety of new, reclaimed and custom pinball merchandise.

Jon Melleny returned to his usual spot on the right side of the main hall to offer an eclectic mix of items sold by his 1 Stop Pinball business.

Next door to Jon was first time exhibitor Nick from Maya Pinball.

He was demonstrating his work-in-progress flipper control system which removes the need for end-of-stroke switches. Instead, his design regulates and monitors the current flowing through the coil, looking for the variation which occurs when the plunger hits the end stop in order to cut most of the power. He says the voltage can be reduced far more than non-intelligent systems which helps keep the flipper coil running cooler.

Likewise, when a raised flipper is hit by the ball, a current fluctuation occurs which can also be detected to reapply the higher power to keep the flipper raised. The flip characteristics and power can be varied to match the feel of different pinball manufacturers’ systems and automatically adjusted to compensate for dirt and wear.

At the other end of the right hand wall, regular UK Pinfest supporters, Pinball Amigos, had some new projects to exhibit.

Next to the Pinball Amigos, a gazebo was set to to give a full immersive sound and light experience when playing Spooky Pinball’s Total Nuclear Annihilation.

On the other side of the Pinball Amigos, a very professional-looking Die Hard Trilogy homebrew game from Jason Good gave a real Data East Pinball vibe but with modern sound and video presentations.

Based on a Visual Pinball X digital game, it was brought to life as a physical pinball featuring an unusual split centre ramp and, of course, video clips from the movies on the screen.

On Saturday, along with everything available in the main hall, Clint’s Amusements had their regular assortment of reclaimed and new pinball parts spread out over a set of tables at the side of the hall along with a Spider-Man and a Junk Yard pinball.

You can see UK Pinfest for yourself with our exclusive Twenty Minute Tour walkthrough of the entire show, taking in the main show hall, the tournament areas, the vendors, and everything else. Watch it here, or on YouTube for full 4K UHD quality.

Over the course of the show there were several competitive events, ranging from multi-day IFPA-sanctioned tournaments to casual Stall Ball competitions.

As we saw earlier, the Pinball Classic was the first to kick-off. Organised by Shaun Harvey, this sixth edition of the tournament began with a qualifying round starting at 10am on Friday and ending at 6pm on Saturday. Those competing registered for the tournament at a price of £25 which gave them 5 entry tickets, a lanyard and player badge. Pre-registered players also got a Pinball Classic T-shirt and a few other extra goodies.

Each ticket gave the player one game on any one machine. Additional entry tickets could be bought in strips at a price of £1 per entry.

The machines used were:

When qualifying for The Pinball Classic finished at 6pm on Saturday, the players with the top two scores on each machine progressed to the play-offs on Sunday morning. If a player achieved a top two score on more than one machine, only one counted, with their vacated qualifying position being decided by a play-off by third-placed players.

The sixteen players who qualified were:

These sixteen were split into four groups of four to play three machines using the 4-2-1-0 points system for 1st to 4th place. After all three games had been played, the top two continued to the semi-finals to repeat the format and end up with a final four.

Those four finalists with their qualifying machines were Andrew Foster (Robot) and Steven Smith (Night Rider) from the first semi-final plus Jack Burden (Flash Gordon) and Joshua Iles (Dolly Parton) from the second.

The first game was on The Incredible Hulk with Andrew Foster starting.

Andrew finishes his game on 203K. Joshua gets tantalisingly close on 200K, with Steven ending on 126K, while Jack never gets a chance to play and ends on just 17K.

Game two is Count-Down, which Jack starts.

The play order was reversed but the outcome was the same, with Andrew’s 132K taking first place, Joshua’s 93K enough for second, with Steven third on 50K and Jack fourth on 46K.

So, going into the third and final game on Robot, Andrew had 8 points, Joshua 4 points, Steven 2 and Jack 0 points. The only way Andrew could not win overall was if he came last and Joshua came first on Robot.

It didn’t look likely, when Jack finally got a good game together and ended his game on 3.98M. Steven could only manage 327K which meant Joshua had quite a challenge to hit 4 million to win the game. Despite a valiant effort, his bonus count ended with 3.173M which made Andrew’s score irrelevant as he was guaranteed the overall win.

That made Andrew first, Joshua second, Jack third and Steven fourth. Prizes of cash, engraved flasks and other pinball swag were presented by Pinball Classic organiser, Shaun Harvey.

Another regular feature of UK Pinfest is the Ladies Social which is held in a conference room at the side of the main hall. Hosted on Friday evening by Ailsa Clunie, it is a fun and non-pressured environment exclusively for women.

There was a fun Pinball Olympics tournament as well as plenty of snacks and drinks.

The competition was won by Emily Stokes.

Also held on Friday night was the first of two Stall Ball competitions run by Neil McRae. This year the chosen game was The Shadow where the aim was to lock the ball in one of the ball locks, in the mode start saucer or in The Battlefield upkicker. If a player managed that they continued to play, joining the back of the line for their next turn. If they drained or tilted then they were out and the next player took over.

Despite the initial long line, players usually only took a few seconds to either lock the ball or drain, so it wasn’t long before only a few players remained.

Third and second places won translites, while the winner walked away with a mini Amiga 500 computer kit.

Downstairs, qualifying for the main Pinfest Open tournament began at 2pm.

The Pinfest Open was organised by Wayne Johns and Janice Brock from last year, joined this year by Todd Brock and Simon Love.

The Pinfest Open used a card-based system where the scores on five games are ranked against all other scores and ranking points awarded, with 500 points for the top score, 499 for the second, and so on. The total points across the five games make up that card’s points, so having a run of five good or decent games was essential, as a single bad score could ruin that card’s worth.

Initial registration cost £15 which included one card. Addition cards cost £7.50 each or three for £20. Most players chose to buy three additional cards with their registration to save time later.

The machines used for the Open tournament were:

Qualifying continued right through Saturday, from 10am until 9pm, with a further two hours on Sunday morning from 10am to midday. In total, 126 players competed with live streaming provided by Pinball Live.

When qualifying ended, the top twenty-four players made it through to Sunday afternoon’s play-offs, with the top eight receiving a bye through the first round. Those qualifiers were:

The play-offs were head-to-head, best-of-five matches. The eight winners of the first round met the eight players with a bye in round two to decide the eight who would compete in the quarter-finals. They were: Joshua Iles, Dan Pocklington, Jack Burden, Greg Mott, William Jarvis, Luke Grayson, Owen Lloyd & Martyn Iles.

From these, Joshua and Jack played in one semi-final, while William and Owen competed in the other.

In the first semi-final, Jack beat Joshua 3-0 on The Walking Dead, Strikes and Spares, and Indianapolis 500. In the other semi, William beat Owen on Guardians of the Galaxy, Jaws and Aerosmith.

That put Jack and William into the final. Joshua and Owen played a single game on Guardians of the Galaxy to determine third place, which Owen won.

The final was a fairly straightforward win for Jack, with clear wins on Creature from the Black Lagoon, Led Zeppelin and Indianapolis 500 to take first place 3-0.

Awards were presented by tournament co-organiser, Wayne Johns, whose Wonderful 3D Printed Things business made the illuminated trophies.

Following the Ladies Social on Friday night, the meeting room and the pinballs were turned over to the Brides of Pinbot ladies’ tournament on Saturday, run by Claire Lickman.

Entry cost £15 which gave players up to twenty plays across the ten machines. A player’s top two scores on each machine were ranked alongside everyone else’s scores, with the top score earning 100 points. Streaming of this tournament came from Preston Pinball.

A total of thirty-four women competed during the 10am-2pm qualifying session, with the top sixteen progressing to the play-offs which began at 3pm.

The qualifying results were:

The play-offs were played as three-game four-player group matches using 4-2-1-0 scoring. The top two from each group progressed, taking the sixteen down to eight and then a final four.

The four in the final were Emily Stokes, Alice McKenna, Jane Young and Kate Rothwell-Jackson, and they played the final round on Pokémon, Guardians of the Galaxy and World Cup Soccer.

In the final, Kate got off to a great start, taking first place on both Pokémon and Guardians of the Galaxy for 8 points. Alice took second place on both to stand on 4 points. As with the Pinball Classic earlier, only if Kate was fourth on World Cup Soccer and Alice won could there be a tie for first on 8 points. Emily was third on both the first two games, and Jane fourth.

Unfortunately for Alice, while the scores were all very close, her 502M only gave her fourth place. Emily was first with nearly 700M, while Jane was narrowly ahead of Kate on 540M for second.

So, Kate won overall on 9 points, Emily took second with 6 points, Alice was third on 4 points and Jane fourth on 2 points. Trophies were awarded by organiser Claire Lickman.

Competitive players never have to wait long for another event in which to play, as sure enough, around 9:30pm on Saturday it was time for Neil McRae to run another Stall Ball on The Shadow.

As before, lock a ball in a saucer and you get to rejoin the queue to play again. Lose the ball though and you are out. You’re also not allowed to trap the ball on the flipper to line up -every shot needs to be a reflex one.

It wasn’t long before only a few players remained.

Saturday’s winner was David Dutton who, like John the night before, won a mini Amiga-500 games system.

After the ladies’ tournament, the room was used to host a Bounty Strikes Lock-In tournament. This is a variation on the regular ‘strikes’ style where you play games in groups with the lowest scoring players receiving a strike. Entry cost £10 which gets you two tokens, each worth £5.

As with regular strikes, when you get a certain number of strikes you are out. With the Bounty Strikes, the lowest two scorers in the group take a strike as usual, but they also give up one of their tokens to one of the top two scorers. Players who keep winning can amass tokens and later, when they have received two strikes, can cash in their remaining tokens for £5 each.

The tournament began at 10pm and continued until around 2am.

In the penultimate 9th round, only three players without two strikes remained. They were Ian Walmsley (1 strike), Paul Woollard (1 strike) and Luke Grayson (1 strike). Someone would end up in third place on Wizard! and get a strike, and that ended up being Luke, knocking him out of the tournament.

So, Ian and Paul played the deciding game on Aztec with the loser getting their second strike. In the end, Paul won, ending up with 8 tokens which he could cash in for a total of £40. Ian ended up with 6 tokens worth £30.

You can find the results of this and most of the other tournaments at UK Pinfest on the Match Play website in the UK Pinfest 2026 event page.

Once the show closes for the night, many visitors to UK Pinfest end up in the lobby bar. It is traditional there will be karaoke with varying levels of competence and intoxication.

Saturday night is also pinball-themed fancy dress night, and this year there were some genuinely imaginative costumes on display.

Revelries in the bar usually continue until 3am-4am, resulting in some bleary eyes over the breakfast table.

In the room opposite the ladies tournament, the NBA Challenge run by the Scottish Pinball Association took place.

Four groups of four played on Saturday morning and another four groups played on Saturday afternoon. In each group, everyone played a single head-to-head game against everyone else in the group on the two connected NBA Fastbreak machines. Cheerleading, jeering, advice and insults were all encouraged from the audience.

The player with the most wins in each group progressed to the finals on Sunday afternoon, while any ties were decided by the result of the players’ head-to-head match or by their points differentials.

The play-offs were single head-to-head games, with the eight top players from each group reduced to 4 semi-finalists. They were
Naomi Porter who played Ethan Campbell for a place in the final, and Dai James who battled Don Gauld for the other finals place.

Naomi and Don made it through to the final.

In a typically tight contest, Naomi came out the winner. Don was second, while Ethan finished ahead of Dai to take third place.

Earlier on Sunday there were two competitions for younger players, both played on the NBA Challenge machines – one at 10am and the other at 11am.

In the 11-and -under youth division it was a win for Michael, with Liam second, Aaliyah came third, with Daniel in fourth.

The 12-and-over youth division then followed, and this time it was Rhys who triumphed. Daniel – who had joined to make up the numbers – ended up taking second place, Katie was third and Lucy fourth.

Once the youth divisions had been decided and qualifying in the main Open tournament had ended at midday on Sunday there were three more events to pack into the following hour.

Firstly, the UK Pinfest show this year had been raising money for Dave Sibson, a prominent and much-loved member of the UK’s pinball community who was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer. Alongside his treatment in the UK, his family is raising funds to give him access to additional specialist help in Germany.

A GoFundMe campaign is currently running, and at UK Pinfest there were numerous cash and credit card donations across the show’s three days to help boost the fund, with a very persuasive Vin Jauhal leading the collecting. Dave even made it to the show for a while, before needing to return home.

To help boost the collections bucket, if enough money was raised then UK Pinfest show organiser, Philip Murphy, and show supporter/troublemaker Chris Williams (a.k.a. Poibug) agreed to repeat an Ice Bucket Challenge first undertaken a dozen years earlier by Poibug and then show organiser, Andrew Heighway, at the 2014 UK Pinball Party which was held at this same venue.

Fortunately (for us), the target was easily reached, so the two of them sat on the patio outside the main hall’s entrance and endured the drenching by buckets of iced water. To maximise the pain and humiliation, Poibug – an ardent craft beer fan – also agreed to drink a bottle of Budweiser.

You can watch a video of the event right here:

After the Ice Bucket Challenge, Phil had to quickly dry off so that he could be present at the next event, the latest inductions for the UK Pinball Group Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame began with the first UK Pinball Show in 2005 and was established to recognise those who made outstanding contributions to the promotion and advancement of pinball across the UK.

Nominations are received from the public and considered by the UK Pinball Group Hall of Fame’s nominations and inductions committee. This consists of six prominent members of the UK pinball community covering all forms of the game, from collecting to operating, from organising tournaments to running shows, and from pinball media to engaging with the wider community.

The committee consists of Ailsa Clunie, David Dutton, Martin Ayub, Matt Vince, Philip Murphy and Wayne Johns and they were joined by a good size crowd in the hotel’s lobby for the 2026 inductions. Martin began the presentation, explaining how, while most inductees have been individuals, this year the Hall of Fame was recognising the value of team work.

The first inductees were Dawn and Anne Raison, who not only ran the largest region of the UK Pinball League – London & the South-East – for seventeen years since it was founded, but also designed and ran the tournament scoring and results display system for multiple tournaments at the national UK shows from 2008 until 2015, including the 2009 European Pinball Championship, several European tournaments and the first two years of the Pinball Classic at UK Pinfest.

The next UK Pinball Group Hall of Fame inductees were introduced by committee-member, David Dutton.

The second inductees were Peter Davies and Helen Jay. Between them they have provided the electrical and lighting system for all the UK Pinfest shows as well as many editions of it predecessors, the UK Pinball Party.

Over the years, the amount of equipment and the scale of their operation around the show and on the stage has expanded significantly. While having enough stable power for the show along with having appropriate lighting throughout the hall used to be a regular concerns, thanks to them that aspect, along with electrical safety of machines and cabling, is simply not something anyone needs to worry about any longer.

The value of team work was emphasised further with the third induction which was introduced by committee member, Ailsa Clunie.

Since its founding at the old Pinball Republic on an industrial estate in the London suburb of Croydon, the UK Open tournament had grown in size and stature. It attracts players from around the world and has expanded into seven tournaments this year, including the European Pinball Championship 2026. It features in the Stern Pro Circuit and is the only Circuit event held outside North America.

All this is possible thanks to the team who plan and run it all. They are: Neil McRae, Mandy McRae, Diane and Clive Bush, James Reed, Mike Parkins, Matt and Sarah Vince, Iain Clarricoats, Andy Brock, Graham and Helen Swaffield, Marc Penatude and Sophia, Conrad Chambers, Stewart Judderman and Judith Kirk, Bob Marlow, Mike Palero, Nick Marshall, Jeff Teolis, Andreas Haugstrup and Karl DeAngelo.

Eight members of the team collected the UK Pinball Group Hall of Fame induction award and certificate, with Neil thanking all the team members.

After the Hall of Fame awards, Ailsa Clunie returned to the microphone to introduce this year’s Best-in-Show awards, sponsored by the Scottish Pinball Association.

The Best-in-Show awards recognise the most appreciated pinball machines at the show across a number of categories. Aisla stressed these are not necessarily the best examples of a machine in that category, but more the ones which the players appreciate the most.

Voting forms for each category could be picked up at the front desk, attached to a schedule of show events. There was a also a collection box where competed forms could be deposited.

The awards were given as follows:

As we said at the start, this is the final year for UK Pinfest at the Mercure Daventry Court hotel. For 2027 and 2028 (at least) the show moves twenty miles north to the Leonardo Hinckley Island hotel. The hotel has 362 rooms compared to the 155 rooms in Daventry. The show floor is almost twice the size as is the parking area.

The 2027 dates are Friday 20th August to Sunday 22nd August. They are already listed in the Pinball News Diary.

Rooms can be booked now using the code LHPINF082027 which gives a price of £85 per night including breakfast for single occupancy, plus another £20 per additional person. The code also makes the booking refundable until shortly before the show should your plans change.

By the end of this year’s UK Pinfest, it was estimated 250 rooms had already been booked at the Leonardo Hinckley Island for the show’s Friday and Saturday nights, so it’s advisable not to leave it too late to book.

All that’s for next year, but this brings us to the end of our 2026 UK Pinfest report.

For those wanting to check out the latest pinballs, this year’s show was unrivalled in the UK. Stern, Jersey Jack, Barrels of Fun, Spooky Pinball and Pedretti all had their most recent titles on the show floor for everyone to enjoy. Pinball Heaven and Retro Arcade Specialists brought a great mix, giving UK players the chance to experience releases from the past few years they may not have seen before. It was also good to find Stern’s representatives providing assistance and making sure UK Pinfest gets full Insider Connected support with leaderboards and prizes for the top scorers.

Show organiser, Philip Murphy, has done an impressive job of engaging with the UK’s pinball community and bringing them along with him to run tournaments, hold social events and transport their best machines to Daventry for the public to play.

Yes, some of the more regular collections or machine bringers, such as the display of ’80s and ’90s Gottliebs, didn’t get the space to bring their games this year. Hopefully they will be back next year in the larger venue, but Philip was upfront in saying that, while affording more space, the new venue is more costly than at Daventry, and not having to pay for so many collectors’ van rentals this year helps with the finances for next year.

UK Pinfest certainly has a wide selection of competitive events. There is a big tournament crowd and they are well catered for with Open, Classic, Ladies, Lock-In, NBA Challenge, Jack Rabbit Slim’s One Ball Twist Contest, and two Stall Balls all running over the three days. Even with all those, we do miss the fun of the Team Tournament that used to be run on Friday night that served as a light-hearted curtain raiser for many years.

For those not of a competitive bent, the social side seemed a little diminished this year. The bar and lobby area at night felt like it had fewer people – possibly because some of those were busy playing in a tournament until the early hours, or maybe because everyone is so familiar with the area they can happily head outside for their karaoke-free evening entertainment.

It will be interesting to see if the two major new machine sellers continue to support UK Pinfest as enthusiastically as they did this year. Let’s hope so, as the new larger home for the UK’s major show can accommodate them, as well as a wider selection illustrating pinball’s long and illustrious history.

We’re certainly looking forward to checking in to the new venue next August for an even larger UK Pinfest 2027, and will bring you full details of what we find right here at Pinball News.

Read more at https://www.pinballnews.com