Photo courtesy of the Vernon Comic-Con / website

By Liam Verster

Vernon Comic-Con 2025

Vernon Comic-Con expanding with more room, tournament, and special guests

Dec 20, 2024 | 4:46 PM

Comic lovers, fantasy and sci-fi enthusiasts, and card game players rejoice, the Vernon Comic-Con is growing even larger next year.

The annual convention is expanding to take up the Vernon Curling Club, along with the other rooms in the Vernon Recreation Centre it used for the event in 2024.

“We’re going to have the Creekside [Conference] Room, which is the main room at the Rec Centre,” Peter Kaz, producer and creator of Vernon Comic-Con, told Vernon Matters.

“Then we’re going to have the Dogwood Gym which is going to host a TCG (trading card game) tournament. We’ll have vendors around the perimeter of that gym that sell trading card games and we’re going to have tournaments throughout the day.

“We’re also looking at maybe going back to the Halina Centre, because that’s where the stage would be for all our showcases.

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“then the Curling Rink now is our next larger room that we’re adding, which will host twice as many vendors, some other activities, photo ops, and cool things that we’re bringing.”

Kaz said the TGC tournament will be new for the convention, adding they are also looking at bringing in a special gust for the first time.

“I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag yet, because it’s way too early, but there’s going to be some people that are in the, let’s say, comic book industry that have worked with some named things that most of us would know by name,” Kaz said.

“So we’re not only expanding into buildings but expanding into more activities, more showcases, and more people that have been slowly hearing about litlle-old Vernon Comic-Con that the vendors have been telling us has surpassed other small towns or other towns within the Interior and the Okanagan. They’ve definitely seen it expand and now they want to participate in it and they want to make a visit to our little town because of the amount of people that we get and the amount of excitement that happens when everyone is there at the event, and they want to participate.”

Kaz went on to tell Vernon Matters that the Vernon Comic-Con in 2024 saw between 6,500 and 7,000 attendees.

The Comic-Con will run on the first Saturday of May, and Kaz said it will go an hour later next year than in years past, adding they don’t plan on making it a full-weekend event yet as many of the vendors have told him they make more sales over that one day than they do at other weekend-long events.

However, Kaz noted the Vernon Comic-Con has been growing steadily since it was launched in 2018, and they will continue to grow so long as the public support holds out.

Among the possible growth opportunities are involving other various businesses by having Comic-Con themed events or products available throughout Vernon.

Details about the Vernon Comic-Con can be found at the group’s website or Facebook page.