THUNDER BAY – From sci-fi and anime to video games and comic books, all things pop culture was celebrated this weekend at the ninth annual ThunderCon.
Heather Dickson, media director of ThunderCon, said they were not expecting to see the CLE grounds so busy.
“It was packed right off the hop (Saturday) morning," Dickson said.
"It was amazing and wonderful. I'm pretty impressed,”
Dickson also said that there was a great lineup of Canadian guests.
“We've got Jed Rees who is a Canadian actor from Vancouver and has been in Galaxy Quest and Deadpool and Pretty Little Liars," Dickson said. “We have Patrick Kwok-Choon from Discovery Star Trek that just wrapped up its five-year mission. He's also in SkyMed.
“We have the voice actors for Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask, Linda Ballantyne and Toby Proctor. Just a really great lineup . . . all Canadians so pretty proud of that."
Dickson said they didn’t expect this much growth for ThunderCon over the years.
“We actually started in 2015 with Geek Fest, which was a one-day event at the marina," Dickson added. "We weren't expecting anything, but it did so well that we were pressured into making it a one-day event, but at the Valhalla, and that's where ThunderCon came from.
“We did ThunderCon that same year and we were thinking maybe 300 or 400 people would come and maybe nobody in Thunder Bay knew about cosplay.
“I think there was 1,800 people at the door, everybody was in cosplay."
Dickson said it’s gotten bigger and bigger every year.
“We outgrew the Valhalla," Dickson added. "We are close to outgrowing the CLE but there's no other option at the moment.
“We will try to get some other buildings and see what we can do with that. It's very validating to just see it grow and grow.
Kevin Taylor, who is volunteer coordinator for ThunderCon, said the pre sales for this year's event were fantastic and that they sold and estimated 3,000 tickets over the weekend.
“That is fabulous," Taylor said. "Last year was just over 2,500 and the previous year coming out of COVID was around 2,200.
“We're creeping up year after year."
He added that ThunderCon might need more space with how much the event has grown.
“We would love to take over some more buildings . . . that really isn't up to us," Taylor said.
“What we can tell you is next year, we plan to be even bigger and better in terms of the types of guests that we go for. Just the budget in general will be bigger because it's our 10th year next year.
“We're looking forward to that and looking forward to the community supporting us with that as well."
Visitors of ThunderCon said the appreciate the inclusivity of the event.
A group dressed as Smiling Friends said they love that people come together with no judgment and just have fun.
