For the Love of Fantasy

For the Love of Fantasy is an annual, fantasy-themed fan convention held in London. It is one of many pop culture events organized by Monopoly Events, a Manchester-based event organization company.

Monopoly Events was founded in 2015 by its CEO Andy Kleek, who has a passion for all things 1980s, vintage toys, and prop building. Since then, the company has launched multiple fan conventions across the UK under three main brands:

• Comic Con: multi-fandom events featuring celebrity guests, gaming, cosplay, and more.
• For the Love of…: fan events that focus on a specific genre, such as fantasy, sci-fi, or horror.
• Comic Con Mania: one-day, family-friendly events held in cities that may not have an appropriate venue for a “proper” Comic Con with 10,000+ attendees.

The inaugural For the Love of Fantasy event was held in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2019. The event focused on and featured actors from two major fantasy franchises, Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, including Chris Rankin, Stanislav Ianevski, Adrian Rawlins, Spencer Wilding, James Cosmo, Richard Brake, and Miltos Yerolemou.

The convention went on a brief hiatus in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic but returned in 2021 with an expanded program and guests from more franchises, including Graham McTavish (The Hobbit film trilogy, Castlevania, Preacher, Outlander), John Rhys-Davies (The Lord of the Rings film trilogy), and Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley (The Vampire Diaries). Over the next couple of years, For the Love of Fantasy outgrew its Edinburgh venue and moved to ExCeL London, which has 100,000 square meters of total space.

The For the Love of Fantasy program includes everything you would expect from a fan convention: Q&A panels, meet-and-greets, autograph sessions and photo ops with celebrity guests, live stage entertainment, cosplay contests, a gaming area, merchandise stalls, interactive set and prop replicas, and more.

The convention features an all-star lineup of actors from beloved fantasy franchises, both past and present. These include Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Chronicles of Narnia, Game of Thrones, Grimm, Gremlins, Harry Potter, Highlander, The Lord of the Rings, Lucifer, Once Upon a Time, The Originals, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, The Sandman, Stranger Things, Supernatural, Teen Wolf, True Blood, Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, Wednesday, and many others.

For the Love of Fantasy features two major events for cosplayers: the Cosplay Championship and the Cosplay Masquerade. The Championship is for cosplayers who have made at least 75% of their costume, while the Masquerade is open to all cosplayers, whether their costume is handmade, altered, or bought. Cosplayers in handmade costumes can participate in both events but must apply separately for each one.

Like all Monopoly Events conventions, For the Love of Fantasy offers one-day and weekend entry tickets in three age categories: toddler (ages 1–4), concession (ages 5–9), and standard (ages 10 and up). Tickets for photo ops and autograph sessions with celebrity guests are purchased separately.