Megaconlive Manchester 2023

This year’s Megaconlive Manchester was home to the 35th Anniversary of Red Dwarf, bringing together Doug Naylor, Craig Charles, Chris Barrie, Robert Llewellyn, Danny John-Jules, Norman Lovett and Hattie Hayridge for a rare, and what will likely be the last, appearance together.

^{Danny John-Jules, Chris Barrie, Hattie Hayridge, Norman Lovett and Doug Naylor. Saturday’s Q&A}

Other guests included
Kelly Baskin – Actor
Laila Berzins – Actor
Kimberly Anne Campbell – Actor
Brittany Cox – Actor
Ted Lewis – Actor
Amber May – Actor
Matt Ryan – Actor

Manchester Central Complex is a fantastic event space for comic cons and Malo events know this and utilise it well.

Bryan Cooney founded MCM Comic con and ran their successful events until they were bought by ReedPop in 2017. ReedPop then essentially pulled all of the provincial events and Manchester was left without an MCM Comic Con. Bryan and Malo Events now run Megaconlive and their knowledge of the venue really shows.

I arrived at Manchester Central and was fully prepared for the usual hard slog to get through the ticketing and security that comes with large scale comic cons. To my pleasant surprise, I was directed to the right place within seconds, had my bag searched by one of MANY security staff doing that job which meant the queues kept moving, once inside I went to the desk to retrieve my press pass and they were there, ready, scanned my ticket and presented my with a nice shiny pass and lanyard. No confused looks, no rude staff snapping “we don’t do press passes” and no being sent right to the other side of the convention centre to ask someone else, only for them to send me back to the place I started from. All of these things I have encountered at other events and all start the day off horribly and make the organisation look amateurish. Note to any organisers reading this, poorly informed staff or volunteers is also a bad thing if you are Neurodiverse as it creates uncertainty and a fair bit of panic.

Press Pass in hand (side note, even the press/creator passes for Megaconlive are collectables) I was in the main event hall.

As soon as you walk in there’s comic con goodies, a Steampunk section, so many varied stalls in the mega market, avoiding the trap of Pop Vinyl seller after pop vinyl seller the stalls actually were offering a lot of great stuff including COMICS!!

^{Timothy Winchester makes adorable / silly webcomics. His current project is Littlest Friends.}

There was a large cosplayers meet up area where throughout the weekend cosplayers and photographers had arranged mass gatherings such as Spider-Man cosplayers, Ghost cosplayers, horror cosplayers etc and this was a really great idea and everyone was loving it. During the Genshin Impact meet up, the voice cast surprised the cosplayers by joining them for the shoot.

Slightly further in the guests had their area where they sat and signed autographs etc.

The popularity of the Red Dwarf cast was insane, the queues were huge and the photo op area was right next to them, meaning that created a bit of a crowded area. It was far enough to the right of the venue so as not to cause too many problems with the main convention area though.

All of the guests were lovely and seemed to be having a great time meeting their fans.

My friends Dan and Kev over at CandoFM interviewed a lot of the guests, so look out for their content.

Going through into another part of the building there is a massive seating area with food and drink suppliers. this leads to the kids zone, with bouncy castles and bumper cars.

Then the main theatre area, which is a great size with fantastic audio and a giant screen so even sat at the back you get a good view of the stage.

a photo from behind two cosplayers who are watching the Genshin Impact stage talk. One of the cosplayers is holding a glowing Primordial Jade Winged-Spear — ^{Cosplayers enjoy the Genshin Impact Q&A}

The whole event was fantastic, really well organised with all staff I came in to contact with being on top of their game and fully clued up on what was where and when events were happening etc, really impressed.

The Manchester Central staff in the theatre were fantastic. Guiding people while being reassuring and professional.

As you can see from the event schedule, Megaconlive is an event for the attendees, it’s all about Cosplay, fun and full of varied traders, comic artists and creatives. The second stage has fantastic talks while the main stage has the celebrity guests with panel discussions, as well as the all important cosplay masquerade.

Looking forward to next years already!