Toy Fair New York 2016The Toy Industry Association is launching a new event to take place concurrent with New York Toy Fair. Play Fair will open to 25,000 members of the public at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan this coming February. As Toy Fair runs February 13-16, 2016, I’d assume Play Fair will be the 13th and 14th, though no official announcement has yet been made. Ticket prices will be $30.

The idea behind Play Fair is to provide a venue for toy and game companies to directly engage their consumers, as well as to provide an alternative for the children every year denied entry to the business-to-business exclusive Toy Fair.

No doubt the move was also spurred on by the rise of social media, both in terms of tantalizing the public with behind-the-scenes peeks at Toy Fair and the significant impact kid reviewers and consumer-to-consumer networking can have on building buzz.

[via Fortune]