There are indeed exceptions like that, but they're rare. I remember the Monaco helicopter show in about 1996 and a guy turned up from Burkina Faso (West Africa) and put a deposit on an Enstrom 480.
Taking the approach they have, Reed are starting to make it more of a B2B event by reducing the B2C element they had before. That would also reduce the number of your "Rich guys with money burning holes in their pockets" at the event.