Pensacon hitting 10-year milestone and coming back 'bigger and better' than ever
Pensacon is back for its 10-year anniversary and this year is poised to be its biggest yet.
The event started with a Facebook post. Mike Ensley wanted to combine the multiple nerd fandoms of Star Trek, Star Wars, anime and others into one big event.
It was envisioned as a small gathering of a few writers and artists, but within a week the Facebook post had over 1,000 likes. When the event arrived, Ensley thought it was going to be at most 5,000 people but 12,000 comic book, anime, cartoon and video game fans showed up at the gates ready for what was soon to be the Gulf Coast's premier pop culture convention, Pensacon.
“It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years. It's just continued to grow every year and it just seems like it's gone by in a flash,” Ensley, founder of Pensacon, said. "But I mean, we're just excited to be here after 10 years and to be bigger and better than ever. I think this will be the biggest year we've ever had so it's just exciting.”
More:Pensacon sees record 2022 crowds, sets dates for 2023 event
More:Day one of Pensacon 2022 finally arrives! Follow along with our coverage.
The event will take place Feb. 24-26 with events at a half dozen official venues around downtown Pensacola. Pensacon typically has an attendance of 30,000 over its three-day run, and this year has nearly 160 celebrity guests ready to attend.
Pensacon Marketing and Media Director Julio Diaz said he has been a nerd all of his life and the heart of conventions like Pensacon is a “fellowship of fandom” where people connect with others over pop culture shows, characters and games and find community.
“You get to come and be in a place where everybody around you is also that kind of person," Diaz said. "A lot of like-minded people might not all be fans of the same thing. We'll have Star Trek fans and Star Wars fans hanging out and talking to each other and enjoying each other alongside the anime fans, alongside the game fans, alongside the horror fans. You still have that feeling of fandom in that community and that's a big part of it. It's finding new friends, it's geeking out over other people's costumes and having other people geek out over yours.”
Pensacon attendees will have a lot of activities to choose from, no matter what their personal passion is.
The Pensacola Bay Center, located at 201 E. Gregory St., will be the central point of the convention. It will include areas such as a vendor floor, an artist alley, celebrity meet and greets and photos.
Other official venues include:
The Wright Place, 80 E. Wright St.
Rex Theatre,18 N Palafox St
The Clark Family Cultural Center, 400 S. Jefferson St.
Museum of Commerce, 201 Zaragoza St.
Seville Quarter, 130 E. Government St.
Tabletop Gaming will return to Pensacon at the Pensacola Museum of Commerce and then late night gaming will take place at The Barrel located on 121 S. Palafox St. Game designer Steve Jackson, whose creations include the role-playing game GURPS and the card game Munchkin, will be doing gaming demos during the weekend.
There will be a short film festival happening at The Clark Family Cultural Center all weekend long, which will feature blocks of films split up by genres ranging from horror, to superhero movies, to family flicks.
Starting at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25, there will be an adult costume party at Seville Quarter and afterwards will be the 10th anniversary birthday party with a performance by the band Vision Video.
This year is also marked by the reunion of actors and actresses from highly acclaimed shows and movies such as “E.T.” stars Henry Thomas and Dee Wallace, and Jamie Kennedy and Matthew Lilliard of “Scream” fame.
This year being the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who, Pensacon will have one of the largest gatherings of Doctor Who stars in the U.S. with five former Doctors attending.
This year's Pensacon will even include RuPaul's Drag Race season four drag performer and recording artist Sharon Needles.
There will be dozens of other guest ranging from voice actors, to comic book artists, to authors, to professional wrestlers.
Three-day passes are selling for $85, and one-day passes are $35 for Friday, $45 for Saturday and $40 for Sunday. VIP Passess are $165. Children under 10 get in free.
Friday, Feb. 24, the arena will open at 1 p.m. and stay open until 8 p.m. Then on Saturday, Feb. 25, and Sunday, Feb. 26, it will open at 10 a.m. and close at 6 p.m. and 5 p.m. respectively.
Free trolleys for all Pensacon badge holders will be running throughout the three day weekend. For more information on events, times, and other things to do go to pensacon.com
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacon pop culture convention returning to Pensacola Bay Center
