A QUARTER-CENTURY OF E-DAY
A few days ago, I came across a portfolio of smaller graphic design projects from years ago while going through my old things. In it were some cards in the colours of the city of Pilsen that took me back to around the turn of the millennium. At that time, my friend and colleague Jaromír Kohout from the Pilsen club asked me to design tickets for a model-making event that he was co-organising. He was acting as the organiser's right-hand man and director of the event. The event, E-Day, took place at the Dukla sports club shooting range in Pilsen and was supposed to be a major plastic modelling competition organised by Eduard, the largest Czech manufacturer of plastic models.
A few days ago, I came across a portfolio
of smaller graphic design projects from years
ago while going through my old things. In it
were some cards in the colours of the city of
Pilsen that took me back to around the turn
of the millennium. At that time, my friend and
colleague Jaromír Kohout from the Pilsen club
asked me to design tickets for a model-making
event that he was co-organising. He was acting
as the organiser‘s right-hand man and director
of the event. The event, E
-
Day, took place at the
Dukla sports club shooting range in Pilsen and
was supposed to be a major plastic modelling
competition organised by Eduard, the largest
Czech manufacturer of plastic models.
At the time, as an inactive modeler for many
years, I didn‘t know much about the company.
I knew it was a Czech manufacturer that
supposedly produced high-quality plastic kits
and metal accessories, and that was about
it. In the years that followed, I gave a lecture
on the air war of 1944 at Pilsen‘s E
-
Day about
twice. I remember that even back then, E
-
Day
had a supporting programme featuring the
Czech Army, military history clubs, the police
and even auto racing clubs.
While the scale of the event was smaller
than in recent years, E
-
Day still stood out
significantly from other model-making
competitions in the region thanks to Eduard’s
support. With its comprehensive concept,
it gradually became an exceptional event not
only in Central Europe.
After around four years, E
-
Day relocated to
the Exhibition Grounds in Prague’s Holešovice
district due to issues at the original venue
relating to the 2002 floods and other technical
problems. It spent one year there in 2005, and
although this chapter is often overshadowed in
participants’ memories by both the preceding
and subsequent years, it marked two major
milestones for E
-
Day: Firstly, it broke free
from the West Bohemian region and moved to
the centre of the country. The second was the
event’s integration with the Czech Republic
Plastic Modellers (IPMS) Championship for
the first time. Personally, I lost touch with
E
-
Day during this period, and I had no idea that
I would become part of it just a few years later.
Following a one-year interlude in Holešovice,
E
-
Day relocated once more, this time to the
underground car parks of a shopping centre
in Prague’s Nové Butovice district. It remained
there for an impressive 10 years (2006–2016).
The shopping centre‘s underground garage
naturally gave rise to plenty of criticism.
However, if you haven’t experienced the event
in the Butovice shopping centre car park,
it‘s difficult to imagine how a concrete area
marked with parking lines can change when
enclosed with green nylon netting, tables and
vendor stands are set up, brighter overhead
lights are installed to provide the right lighting,
and, most importantly, the space is filled with
thousands of people and plastic models. While
the garages were gradually accepted by most,
the later move away from Butovice sparked
fresh grumbling. A modeller is simply never
satisfied. I believe that it was precisely the
Butovice period — which was linked to the
Czech Republic Championship throughout —
that shaped E
-
Day‘s character and influenced
the event‘s future direction. At the same
time, it was during this period that the event
shifted to a two-day format for several years.
However, the environment in which E
-
Day took
place meant there were relatively limited
possibilities. The urban housing estate and
transport infrastructure in the area made
outdoor events almost impossible. Even the
indoor events were challenging because
everything took place in a single, albeit
large and enclosed, space. Consequently, the
supplementary events remained merely an
addition to the main attraction: the competition
exhibition itself and the offerings from a large
number of vendors. Personally, I became
involved with E
-
Day again roughly halfway
through the Butovice era, in 2008. By that
point, I had been part of Eduard for almost
a year, and we had started to develop our own
independent corporate marketing strategy.
Naturally, the activities surrounding E
-
Day
became part of that.
After ten years in Butovice, news emerged
in 2016 of upcoming construction work on the
department store’s car park. It was clear that
E
-
Day would no longer be able to use those
spaces. We scrambled to find new options. For
the 2017 edition, we moved to the luxurious
Top Hotel in Prague’s Chodov district. However,
this was a year that most E
-
Day veterans
remember least fondly, and it was clear that
we needed to keep looking. It was also the first
year that E
-
Day returned to a one-day format.
We subsequently chose the Exhibition Grounds
in Lysá nad Labem, which primarily focused
on agricultural exhibitions. A few days after
the horses had left the hall, modellers and
vendors moved in and transformed the place
beyond recognition. The venue offered further
possibilities for the event’s development.
At the time, complaints mainly centred on the
move away from Prague, although transport
A QUARTER
-
CENTURY OF E
-
DAY
Text: Jan Zdiarský
INFO Eduard
91
June 2026