Art fairs are now considered by some dealers to be more important than gallery sales, but they will need to adapt to weather the economic downturn.

Sales of affordable antiques and memorabilia like vintage movie posters should weather the economic downturn

The proliferation of art and antique dealers' fairs has been one of the chief characteristics of the art boom, but will they succumb to the pressures of a recession? Sales were noticeably weaker at the recent leading contemporary art fairs, Frieze and Art Basel Miami Beach, and last month it was announced that the 13-year-old International Asian Art Fair, due to be held in New York in March, had been cancelled. Exhibitors were "in panic mode", said its London-based organiser Anna Haughton, "so we decided to put it on hold".

But the fair phenomenon, which grew out of the need for dealers to compete with the ever-expanding range of the auction rooms, is now deeply entrenched as a concept for convenient one-stop shopping and has become a key source of income for dealers. Some even think that doing fairs is more important than keeping an art gallery or antique shop open.

So, although there may now be too many fairs, and some may fall by the wayside, those that adapt to the new economic reality can survive. The art and antiques fair organiser Caroline Penman, for instance, is showing true British-bulldog spirit in the teeth of recession by re-launching a fair which she abandoned two years ago. Her West London Antiques Fair, held every January at Kensington's town hall since 1979, was last staged in 2006 and ended because the rental rates had become exorbitant.

Last year, however, Penman went back to the council, and successfully negotiated a lower rate. This is the kind of initiative every dealer wants to see, and stands were quickly snapped up for between £700 and £3,000 each – far cheaper than the more prestigious Olympia fair stands, which cost between £6,000 and £10,000 each.

The new fair, to be called the Kensington Antiques and Fine Art Fair, opens on Thursday with a revised list of exhibitors offering a jazzier range of goods than in the past. In addition to the traditional antiques for which the event is known, the fair will include specialists in aboriginal art, 20th-century furniture, art pottery, and film posters.

Terry Pearson and Susan Jeffrey, who run Quadbod, a movie memorabilia outlet in Birmingham, are new to the antique and fine art fair circuit, having previously shown only in specialised "collectibles" fairs, and will be exhibiting a collection of rare American silent movie posters from the 1920s. Pearson has seen no flagging in interest among collectors in this market and is hoping to use the fair to promote the posters for their artistic merit as well as rarity value. Included in the collection are original posters made for Nice People, directed by William C de Mille, the brother of Cecil B de Mille (£500), and The Top of New York, starring May McAvoy, who later went on to act in the 1925 version of Ben-Hur (£650).

"They are in immaculate condition," says Pearson. "Most movie posters up to the 1980s were folded at the printers. But these have never been folded, and are good value compared to popular horror movie or James Bond film posters, which can fetch £5,000 or £6,000 each." Pearson will also display later posters made for the 1965 Dr Who film starring Peter Cushing (£1,000) and A Star is Born (1954), featuring Judy Garland (£650).

Penman, who has organised 10 fairs a year on average at the more affordable end of the market for four decades, has weathered economic downturns before. "They've just washed over, or under us," she says, reciting what is rapidly becoming the mantra for recession economics that "now is a good time to buy". In many areas of the market, prices are coming down and offers are being made and accepted. Antique furniture, which has been losing value for four or five years, has become especially affordable, says Penman. "For people who do have cash to manoeuvre, they can invest in tangible assets that they can enjoy."

Her next two fairs, in Petersfield, Hants and in Chester, both in February, are fully booked. Gay Hutson, who runs the 20/21 International Art Fair at the Royal College of Art, also in February, has been turning down applications to exhibit because there is no more room. And the London Art Fair for modern and contemporary art, which opens next week in Islington, has had only one casualty – Brighton's O Contemporary, which was made bankrupt before Christmas.

In New York, the Outsider Art Fair this month and the Works on Paper fair in February are going ahead as planned, and all 70 stands for the American Art Dealers' Association fair, The Art Show, next month have been booked, with a waiting list in case anyone drops out. For the time being, at least, it looks as if dealers are backing the fairs, and that the cancellation of the International Asian Art Fair is just an isolated case.