Although Northern Ireland had fan conventions prior to Comic Con Northern Ireland, such as the Enniskillen Comic Fest and Q-Con Belfast, it lacked a major pop culture convention held at a large venue. Recognizing this need, Monopoly Events organized the first Comic Con Northern Ireland in 2022.
Monopoly Events secured the Eikon Exhibition Centre in Lisburn, which boasts 114,000 sq ft of flexible indoor exhibit space, as the venue for its new Comic Con. The inaugural Comic Con Northern Ireland took place on September 17–18, 2022, and featured an impressive lineup of celebrity guests, including several cast members from The Vampire Diaries, James Marsters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Michael Cudlitz from The Walking Dead, and Ed Westwick from Gossip Girl, among others.
The second edition of Comic Con Northern Ireland, held in September 2023, was impacted by the SAG-AFTRA strike, as union rules prohibited actors from promoting any of their current, past, or future work on projects affected by the strike. However, the actors were permitted to answer questions about projects unaffected by the strike, such as television animation and video games. They could also sign autographs and participate in photo ops. Despite the strike, the event was a success, attracting more than 18,000 attendees.
While celebrity guests are one of the main attractions at Comic Con Northern Ireland, as with most fan conventions, they are not the only attraction. The convention offers a variety of pop culture-related activities for fans of movies, TV shows, video games, anime, horror, and sports entertainment.
Like all Monopoly Events conventions, Comic Con Northern Ireland features set replicas and props, retro and modern gaming areas, and artist and trader areas. Of course, there are also cosplay events. Cosplayers can participate in the Cosplay Championship or the more casual Cosplay Masquerade. The Championship is for cosplayers who have made at least three-quarters of their costumes, while the Masquerade is open to anyone who wants to dress up as a character, even if their costume is store-bought and unaltered. Cosplayers in handmade costumes can participate in both events but must apply separately for each.
Comic Con Northern Ireland offers daily and weekend tickets for three age groups: standard (ages 10 and up), concession (ages 5 to 9), and toddlers (ages 1 to 4). Although toddler tickets are free, adults must still “purchase” a ticket for their infants for capacity records. Tickets for autographs and photo ops with celebrity guests must be purchased separately from entry tickets.
As we’ve mentioned above, Comic Con Northern Ireland is one of many Comic Cons organized by Monopoly Events. Its sister conventions include Comic Con Liverpool, Comic Con Scotland (Edinburgh), Comic Con Scotland Aberdeen, Comic Con Manchester, Comic Con Wales (Newport), Comic Con Northeast (Newcastle), and Comic Con Midlands (Birmingham).
