- AireCon 2023
- 9th – 12th MARCH 2023
- HARROGATE CONVENTION CENTRE
- TICKETS ON SALE NOW
- https://www.airecon.co.uk
AireCon, one of the UK’s largest analogue gaming festivals, is back and bigger than ever. Returning to Harrogate Convention Centre once again, from Thursday 9th of March until Sunday 12th for the first time the festival will be open for four days of gaming, exhibitions, exclusive product launches, large-scale social games, special guests and much more.
Following the success of last year’s convention, AireCon 2023 will take place across new and bigger halls with more floor space and an increased capacity. This means over 80 exhibitors, space and time for over 40 hours of gaming and innovative new ideas like the online G.A.M.E System to keep you updated and the Gameseekers Area where a dedicated Game Guru will be on hand to help solo attendees find like minded people to game with.
Originally set up by director Mark Cooke as a place for him and his friends to hang out and play games for a weekend, AireCon 0 was held in Mark’s North Leeds flat before he teamed up with accountant Ben Clarkson and moved to a venue in Bradford for its first two public events in 2016. After quickly outgrowing the space and realising they were onto something big, AireCon brought software engineer Rick Meeson and Nabil Homsi, director of the Leeds-based Travelling Man chain of comic and board game shops onto the team to focus on expansion. A long search led Mark and co. to The Harrogate Convention Centre, their home since 2017 and a platform that has allowed AireCon to become one of the largest and most popular events of its kind across the country.
AireCon 2023 will be playing host to some of the biggest and most exciting new names in games from around the world with 80+ exhibitors showing off their games and launching brand new products. Guests this year include the award-winning Parable Games (Shiver), the exciting Kickstarter success story Play For Keeps (Overstocked) as well as custom D&D dice specialists The Dice Dungeon and international gaming distribution powerhouse Asmodee.
Keeping community at its core, AireCon 2023 will offer more table space than ever before so attendees can meet and game as they please outside of the exhibition space. The beloved Bring ‘n’ Buy area is back to help visitors complete their collections alongside a whole host of tournaments, events, RPGs and a carefully curated selection of the finest street food trucks from across Yorkshire on hand to keep everyone fed and watered.
For anyone new to analogue gaming or wanting to experience tabletop gaming for the first time, Leeds-based board game chain Travelling Man will be back with over 700 games for attendees to borrow for free and play over the convention. Elsewhere on site, fans young and old will be more than welcome in the Family Zone for gaming sessions, tabletop introductions and game demonstrations all run by Imagination Gaming and catered to kids of all ages. 2023 will also see the welcome return of the renowned AireCon Inter-School Tournament in which Imagination Gaming invite teams from local schools to compete for gaming glory in an exciting variety of tabletop titles…
An essential, inclusive event for any new gaming fan or longtime tabletop enthusiast, AireCon 2023 is an unmissable opportunity for thousands of gamers, creators, families, independent companies and more to get together, share ideas and have fun playing classic games and exploring new ones; whether they’re attending with friends or coming down to the convention solo.
Mark Cooke, AireCon Show Director and Founder:
We’re so excited to be returning to Harrogate for our biggest event ever in 2023. We’ve increased the physical size of the convention with more exhibitors, more halls and more gaming space! AireCon 2023 is going to be the best yet, with so much for people to do whether they’re attending in groups or coming solo.
Full list of exhibitors:
Aleto, All Rolled Up, Arion Games, Asmodee, Bedsit Games, Beyond Cataclysm, Blood Moon Games, Blue Fox Comics, Born in the Barn, Bright Eye Games, Bubba Dawg Ltd, Cake of Doom, ChaosCurios, Coiledspring Games, Counter Attack, Crab Studios, Critical Kit, Dice Sports Limited, Dissent Games, DMB Games, Emmanuel’s Collective, Eurydice, Fights and Fancy, Firestorm Cards, Floating World Designs, Footprints on Forever, Gameland Manufacturing, Games Crusade, Geeknson, Geeky Meeples 3D Printing, GelatinousCute, Hachette Boardgames UK, Hall or Nothing Productions Ltd, Harps Corporation, Honeybadger Games, Imagination Gaming, Jewellery Star, Kasasagi Jewellery, KOSMOS, MajorWood Studios, Medusa Games, Meeple Design, Meeple World, Misty Moon Illustrations, Oink Games, Paperboat Games, Parable Games, Patriot Games Ltd, Peruke Games, Play for Keeps, Radical 8 Games, Ralph Horsley, Rebellion Unplugged, RuneFable, S C Games, Senior Games, Stephen Yates, Stop, Drop & Roll, Stuff by Bez, Tabletop Crafter, Teleporthole Games, The Detective Society, The Dice Dungeon, The Dice Miners, The Secret Lair, The Thornless Rose, trademark52, Travelling Man, Trayed and Tested, UK Games Expo, Warlord Games, Wayfinder Games, Wotan Games, WWF, YAY Games, Zatu
