Articles

Hello everyone! We hope you had a fantastic Christmas and a great New Year’s celebration, however you spent it. As we kick off 2026, we wanted to be transparent about the journey BGCP has been on. Last year was one of our biggest learning curves yet. In 2025, we made the bold move to make 90% of our events free entry. Our goal was to keep the community accessible during a tough economic time, and while it was incredible to see attendance numbers surge, it brought its own set of challenges. As many of you noticed, we shifted our focus toward our smaller, more specialised event, The Blackheart Market. This move, combined with the free-entry model for our larger shows, led to a significant decrease in income. Running high-quality events comes with rising costs for venue hire, licensing, and insurance—all of which hit record highs last year. The Strategy for 2026 While our core mission remains being the most budget-friendly and accessible comic con in the UK, we have to make some adjustments to ensure we can keep coming to your towns. The Shift in Fandom We’ve been watching the trends closely. 2025 showed us that while the “MCU Hype” that fuelled the last decade has started to wane, Anime and Horror are surging in popularity. The “geek mainstream” is changing, and we are adapting our traders, guests, and activities to reflect that. Whether you’re a die-hard manga reader or a horror buff from The Blackheart Market, we’re making sure 2026 has something that speaks to your specific fandom. Our goal remains the same: bringing the cool stuff to your doorstep and helping you create those core memories that we love to talk about.