SMOF News, volume 4, issue 39

A look at the cost of attending a local media convention, and news in brief.

A Look at What Convention Attendance Costs These Days

Every week, SMOF News performs news searches and mostly finds articles from local sources announcing that some local convention is happening, or has just happened, once again. The Kansas City Star recently ran one of these articles with an unusual tack: asking seven groups in attendance what a weekend of Planet Comicon was costing them.

Costs range from $0 (someone attending for free, but working, and unable to even browse the vendor hall) to $1,150 for two people who bought 3-day passes, food, multiple things from vendors, and a photo op.

The cost of tickets, memberships, badges, or passes is sometimes the topic of heated debate, but this article analysis shows that it can be a very small part of the cost. No one who gave an estimate for their costume spent less than $100 on it, some made expensive vendor hall purchases, and celebrity autograph and photo op prices are even higher than the charge to get in the door.

All this is before the costs of long-distance travel (none of the Planet Comicon attendees mentioned staying in a hotel) that many people pay to attend marquee conventions.

In Brief

• Finncon, the Finnish national science fiction convention, will not be held this year as no one stepped forward to run it. Finncon 2026 will be held in Turku, with exact dates to be announced later this year. (From this statement posted at Google Docs, assisted by machine translation)

• Furnavia (Kristiansand, Norway, October 1-4) has announced Victor Nordahl as its Guest of Honor.

• Louise Sorel will not be attending Trek Long Island (Hauppauge, New York, May 30-June 1) due to a herniated disc.

• Mississippi Comic Con (Jackson, Mississippi, June 20-22) has added Saraya, Bill Farmer, and Jason Marsden.

• JAFAX (Grand Rapids, Michigan, June 27-29) has added Stephanie Nadolny and MI Hiryu Daiko.

• London Film & Comic Con (London, July 5-6) has added Mel Gibson.

• Tampa Bay Comic Convention (Tampa, Florida, August 1-3) has added Cary Elwes.

• Terrificon (Uncasville, Connecticut, August 8-10) has added Michael Cudlitz, Alex Garfin, and Elizabeth Tulloch.

• Tucson Comic-Con (Tucson, Arizona, August 29-31) has added Tony Fleecs and Erik Estrada.

• FanX Salt Lake (Salt Lake City, Utah, September 25-27) has added Chevy Chase, Randy Quaid, Brandon McInnis, and J. Michael Tatum.

Event Calendar

Weekend of May 30-June 1

• Fantasticon 2025 (Danish national sf convention), Copenhagen, Denmark

• Swancon 49, Perth, Australia

• Tremendicon, Springfield, Missouri, USA

• ConCarolinas 2025, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

• Scheibenwelt Convention (Discworld), Witzenhausen, Germany

• Das Frühlingsfest der Filksmusik 2025 (music), Hanstedt, Germany

• Mephit Mini Con 26: The Roaring Twenties (anthropomorphic), Freusburg, Germany

• Steampunk Alchemy Fest, Budd Lake, New Jersey, USA

• Chicago Steampunk Exposition, Schaumburg, Illinois, USA

• ChupacabraCon XI (gaming), San Marcos, Texas, USA

• UK Games Expo (gaming), Birmingham, UK

• Mega XP (gaming), Mexico City, Mexico

• Y-Con 2025 (gaming), Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada

• LinCon (gaming), Linköping, Sweden

• CORGSCon (retro video games), Columbus, Ohio, USA

• Bak-Anime, Bakersfield, California, USA

• Anime Riverside 2025, Riverside, California, USA

• FedCon 33 (media), Bonn, Germany

• ColossalCon (media), Sandusky, Ohio, USA

• Hall of Heroes Comic Con, Elkhart, Indiana, USA

• Fantasy Basel (media), Basel, Switzerland

• Great Mills Comicon, Great Mills, Maryland, USA

• Armageddon Expo Auckland Winter (media), Auckland, New Zealand

• Fan Expo Dallas (media), Dallas, Texas, USA

• Etna Comics 2025 (media), Catania, Italy

• Trek Long Island 3 (Star Trek), Hauppauge, New York, USA

• Purgatory 9 (Supernatural), Düsseldorf, Germany

Weekend of June 6-8

• Cymera 2025 (sf writing), Edinburgh, UK and online

• Oz-Stravaganza 2025 (Wizard of Oz), Chittenango, New York, USA

• StratosFur: All-Star League (anthropomorphic), Houston, Texas, USA

• Once Upon a Time (steampunk), Dortmund, Germany

• FlamingoCon #29 (gaming), Delray Beach, Florida, USA

• OttoCon IV (gaming), Pleasant Valley, New York, USA

• Spielfest Wien (gaming), Vienna, Austria

• SaltCON Summer (gaming), Layton, Utah, USA

• MoonCityCon 2025: ...For Meeplekind (gaming), Springfield, Missouri, USA

• CoBo Brettspiel Convention (cooperative games), Halberstadt, Germany

• SoCal Gaming Expo (video games), Ontario, California, USA

• North Texas RPG Con (vintage tabletop RPGs), Irving, Texas, USA

• Sand Wars 2025 (historical miniatures), Chandler, Arizona, USA

• KimoKawaii 4 (anime), Conroe, Texas, USA

• DoKomi (anime), Düsseldorf , Germany

• Anime Blues Con, Memphis, Tennessee, USA

• Oz Comic-Con: Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

• SWFL SpaceCon (media), Cape Coral, Florida, USA

• EM-Con (media), Nottingham, UK

• North Country Comic Con, Watertown, New York, USA

• Argentina Comic Con, Buenos Aires, Argentina

• Phoenix Fan Fusion (media), Phoenix, Arizona, USA

• 3 Rivers Comicon, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

• Los Amigos MOTU Convention VII (He-Man), Neuss, Germany

• Vampire Fan Weekend (Vampire Diaries), Whippany, New Jersey, USA

Weekend of June 13-15

• Norcon 31, Oslo, Norway

• YetiCon, The Blue Mountains, Ontario, Canada

• Pyrkon, Poznań, Poland

• 4th Street Fantasy, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

• StokerCon 2025 (horror), Stamford, Connecticut, USA

• Robert E. Howard Days, Cross Plains, Texas, USA

• Tolkien Tage 2025, Geldern, Germany

• Cosplay World, Richmond, Virginia, USA

• CastleCon 14 (anthropomorphic), Horb, Germany

• Just added: Little Island FurCon: Retro Arcade (anthropomorphic), Singapore

• Game Con Canada, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

• Board Game Fest, Chavdar, Bulgaria

• NordCon (gaming), Hamburg, Germany

• ATG Expo (gaming), Waco, Texas, USA

• Q-Con 2025 (gaming), Belfast, UK

• Bayou Wars 2025 (miniatures gaming), D’Iberville, Mississippi, USA

• AnimeCon 25, Birmingham, UK

• Bold Matsuri (anime), Jacksonville, Florida, USA

• Anime El Paso, El Paso, Texas, USA

• Desucon 2025 (anime), Lahti, Finland

• ExpOtaku Zaragoza 2025 (anime), Zaragoza, Spain

• Geekworld (comics/gaming), Viernheim, Germany

• Space Coast Comic Con, Cocoa, Florida, USA

• Sci-Fi Valley Con (media), Altoona, Pennsylvania, USA

• Metropolis Superman Celebration, Metropolis, Illinois, USA

Weekend of June 20-22

• MisCon 39: Hive of Scum and Villainy, Missoula, Montana, USA

• LibertyCon 37, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA

• Soonercon, Norman, Oklahoma, USA

• GarchingCon 13 (Perry Rhodan), Munich, Germany

• Airikas Traum 19 (music), Erbach, Germany

• Cosplay America, Cary, North Carolina, USA

• Argentina FurFiesta, Buenos Aires, Argentina

• Arcon 41 (gaming), Oslo, Norway

• Diversão Offline (gaming), São Paulo, Brazil

• Wellycon (gaming), Wellington, New Zealand

• Origins Game Fair 2025, Columbus, Ohio, USA

• Finn-Con@MDC (anime), Miami, Florida, USA

• Wie.MAI.KAI (anime), Flörsheim am Main, Germany

• OMG!con 2025 (anime), Owensboro, Kentucky, USA

• Anime Festival Orlando 2025, Orlando, Florida, USA

• SugoiPopCon 2025 (anime), Fishkill, New York, USA

• Heroes Convention (comics), Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

• Mississippi Comic Convention, Jackson, Mississippi, USA

• Metrotham Con (media), Dalton, Georgia, USA

• Sci-Fi-London 25 (film festival), London, UK

• Spooky Empire (horror media), Orlando, Florida, USA

Weekend of June 27-29

• Archipelacon 2, the 2025 European Science Fiction Convention, Mariehamn, Finland

• Festival Fantazie, Chotěboř, Czech Republic

• PortConMaine 2025: Space, Portland, Maine, USA

• Narrativity 2025: It Was a Dark and Stormy Night (storytelling in literary sf), Plymouth, Minnesota, USA

• The Town That Never Was (steampunk), Telford, UK

• KantCon (gaming), Overland Park, Kansas, USA

• DexLite 2025 (gaming), Morristown, New Jersey, USA

• RAGECON 2025 (gaming), Sparks, Nevada, USA

• Too Many Games (video gaming), Oaks, Pennsylvania, USA

• Card Party 3 (Pokémon CCG), Tampa, Florida, USA

• AkaiCon 11th Unit (anime), Lebanon, Tennessee, USA

• Anime ID: Year of the Tarot, Boise, Idaho, USA

• JAFAX (anime), Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA

• Black Hills Con (anime), Rapid City, South Dakota, USA

• SunnyCon Anime Expo, St. James Park, UK

• Comic Con Colombia 25, Bogotá, Colombia

• Nickel City Comic Con, Buffalo, New York, USA

• Tidewater Comicon, Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA

• Kelowna ComiCon, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada

• TrekFest 40 (Star Trek), Riverside, Iowa, USA

Coda

• AI has learned to do blackmail (TechCrunch, hat tip: Money Stuff)

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