By Paul Bonnette
Ten years ago, Pensacola, Florida, became home to a pop culture extravaganza celebrating all things pop culture. This event included numerous celebrities, vendors, gaming, artists, cosplayers and more. It was an event that would become a convention allowing thousands of fans to let their geek flag fly. Pensacola welcomed Pensacon to the Gulf Coast and this year Pensacon was held on February 24-26.
For many, the month of February is just another month, but for the city of Pensacola, the town transforms for this now annual convention. Trekkies, celebrities, cosplayers, geeks, and families arrive by the thousands. They arrive by car, plane, and spaceship to interact with other fans, try out their lightsaber skills in duels, explore numerous vendors and enjoy exciting, themed parties. According to Julio Diaz, Director of Marketing and Communications, Pensacon is hoping to pull out all the stops to make this year’s event even bigger.
“It’s of course our tenth anniversary this year so we are going big for that. We are expecting our biggest Pensacon yet. We have a lot of big reunion groups this year including the largest gathering of Doctor Who stars that has ever been done in a U.S convention.”
For Diaz, what makes Pensacon so successful is the fandom that journeys to the area every year for this annual event.
“I always say that I’m excited to see the fans and how excited they are, but conventions are about the fellowship and friendships you develop over the years. The people who are part of the community. The fellowship of fandom is what we are all about.”
This three-day comic convention has proved not only to be massively successful for fans but for the city of Pensacola as well, generating over a million dollars for the local economy every year as over thirty thousand fans come to the panhandle for Pensacon. For Diaz, partnering with local businesses for this event is important to help make this event so successful.
“We’re going to see lots of folks coming to Pensacola and getting to see what Pensacola is all about. That’s part of why we do it, that’s why we’re Pensacon. We live in Pensacola; we love Pensacola and we want to be in Pensacola and we want to show people what Pensacola has to offer which we think is a lot. We’re part of the panhandle community and we love showing the world the panhandle community. We’ve had more than a $20 million-dollar economic impact over the past ten years. I think Pensacola has continued to show great support and enthusiasm for Pensacon. Everyone seems to generally want to come back every year and businesses seem to want to get involved every year. Of course, none of that would happen without the fans.”
For many fans, this is a once in a lifetime chance to meet their favorite stars from movies and shows such as Star Wars, Hocus Pocus, Star Trek, Walking Dead, E.T., Clerks, Dr. Who, Scream, Revenge of the Nerds and many more. Stars such as Tom Arnold, Patrick Duffy, Eric Roberts, Matthew Lillard, Jamie Kennedy, Omri Katz, Casper Van Dien, Markey Ramone and many more will be eager to greet fans while signing autographs and posing for photos. The chance to come to Pensacola, meet the fans and experience Pensacon is an opportunity that many of the celebrities didn’t want to miss.
For Henry Winkler, star of Happy Days, Pensacola is more than just a comic convention location. “Pensacola is not just the beach, it’s not just the great restaurants, Pensacola is the people. Pensacola is made up of these wonderful people, and I have met a lot of them over this weekend and I am touched by the warmth I have received.”
It is a sentiment echoed by David Yost from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, “The hospitality that I’ve come across with everybody in Pensacola and all the people on the staff at Pensacon have helped me immensely. I would say every convention is unique, but the best part of every convention is getting to meet the fans and hearing all the amazing stories about how the Power Rangers have influenced their lives and how it has helped them in their careers or got them into martial arts or whatever… It’s always a great moment.”
As Pensacon continues to expand, more fans flock to the city of Pensacola for fun that is out of this world.
For information of purchasing tickets or convention information visit www.Pensacon.com.
