Most construction equipment shows put machines on a convention-centre floor. Hillhead does the opposite: for three days every other year, a working quarry in Buxton, Derbyshire becomes the UK's largest construction equipment exhibition, letting manufacturers demonstrate excavators, crushers, and screening equipment doing the actual work they're built for. The 2026 edition, the show's 44th year, runs June 23 to 25.

A Live Demonstration Format

Organised by QMJ Group, Hillhead draws more than 600 exhibitors and close to 20,000 visitors into a format that indoor convention centres simply cannot replicate — heavy equipment running under real load, in real rock, rather than idling on a display stand. That format has kept the show relevant to a buyer base that cares as much about seeing equipment perform as reading a spec sheet.

The quarry setting also shapes the exhibitor mix toward companies whose products are genuinely suited to live demonstration: crushing and screening equipment, earthmoving machinery, and increasingly the recycling and materials-processing technology that has grown alongside the UK's demolition and aggregates recycling sector.

Product Focus

Coverage spans quarrying and aggregates equipment, construction and earthmoving machinery, and recycling and materials-processing technology, positioned toward operators who work in quarries, aggregates production, and heavy construction across the UK.

Quick Reference

The Attachment and Component Opportunity

For hydraulic breaker and attachment manufacturers, Hillhead's live-demonstration format is arguably more valuable than a standard indoor show: buyers can watch an attachment actually breaking rock in quarry conditions rather than evaluating it on specification alone, which shortens the trust-building process considerably.

The show's UK focus also makes it the most efficient single stop for reaching British quarry operators and demolition contractors, a buyer segment that international suppliers sometimes reach less directly through the larger pan-European shows in Germany or Italy.