Manchester Central to host spectacular popular culture festival

Manchester Central is one of three hosts for a spectacular ‘MegaCon’ festival, a series of new pop culture shows from the creators of ‘MCM Comic-Con’, ‘Social in the City’ and ‘TokFEST’.

The festival aims to submerge attendees in the world of modern pop culture and bring it to the next level. It will combine all modern media as consumers know it today into an epic celebration of all things pop culture and beyond.

MegaCon will make its Manchester debut on July 30-31, 2022 at Manchester Central, with additional shows held in at Birmingham NEC and Dublin RDS.

The show will make its mark in the pop-culture space, as it collaborates with key venue partners to welcome 20,000-30,000 fans and consumers for its inaugural events. Backed by MCM Comic-con’s original founder, the festival creators have an ambitious growth strategy, with plans to expand the show.

MegaCon intends to evolve modern pop culture shows as we know it, with a series of events aimed at pop culture fans, comic book lovers, streamers, gamers, movie fanatics and the cosplay community at the heart of modern fan events.

Exhibitors at the event will include major movie companies, fashion brands – cosplay, modern street fashion and culture – comics and pop culture retailers covering anime and manga, and big names from the world of gaming and technology.

Each MegaCon event will run across two days, featuring live stages with top talent from film, television, anime, gaming, and social media. The show will be packed with experiential stands and themed photo zones for epic memories, as well as a vast retail zone filled with geeky memorabilia.

Attendees will be treated to appearances from big names from the world of film, tv, game, anime talent and Influencers, who will be available for meet and greet opportunities and signings.

Immersive activities will run throughout each weekend, all designed to engage attendees and enable them to interact more with the show itself.

The show is the brainchild of Bryan Cooney, an expert in the events industry who has been hosting major festivals and conventions for nearly 30 years.

Cooney established Malo Events in 2017 and is headed up by Tom Burns and Aleshia Jones. Their portfolio now includes, Kidtropolis, The Digital Kids Show, Social in The City, Comic Con Ireland and, most recently, the very successful launch of TokFEST, a festival for TikTokCreators.

TokFEST took place in September and brought together more than 5,000 fans and creators for a weekend of live stage content, meet and greets and photo experiences – a major boost for the live events sector and the group’s return to influencer events after two years.

Bryan Cooney said: “We’re so excited to announce the latest addition to our portfolio, MegaCon. The events industry has taken a battering over the course of the pandemic, so it’s great to be bouncing back with the launch of lots of new and exciting shows.

“We’ve had huge success with our recent TokFEST show, which demonstrated that the consumer appetite for events and experiential experiences is returning.

“We plan for Megacon to go beyond what the UK and Irish market have seen before, we’re creating a show which typically attracts a niche audience and making it more mainstream with a stellar line up which will appeal to the masses.”

Shaun Hinds, chief executive at Manchester Central, said: “We are delighted to have been chosen as one of the host venues for MegaCon’s launch next year.

“We’ve seen that there’s a huge appetite for people to get back to live event experiences on this scale and we’re excited to see this show come to life at Manchester Central.”