Status Active Venue Stampede Park Country Canada | Genre Comic, pop culture Location(s) Calgary, Alberta Inaugurated 2006 | |
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The Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo (also shortened to Calgary Expo) is an annual comic and pop culture convention taking place in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Despite the similarity of name it is not a part of Fan Expo Canada. The show originally began in 2006 as a comic book convention, before moving on in 2009 to include actors from television shows and movies. Starting in 2006, the convention has quickly become the second largest convention in Canada. The convention originally began in the BMO Centre before expanding in 2013 across the whole Stampede Park, and in 2014 additionally creating an extra tent for panels.
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The convention has become famous for having reunited the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation for the shows 25th anniversary in 2012, and two years later, reuniting nearly the entire cast of Aliens. In addition, a cosplay parade, which begins at Eau Claire, and finishes at Olympic Plaza, which began in 2013 with over 400 participants, and continued in 2014 with 690.
In 2012, the convention was successful enough to spawn its own spinoff in Edmonton, titled the Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo referred to as the Edmonton Expo for short. It uses a blue recolor of Calgary Expo's red logo and is held in late-September.
A second spinoff called the Saskatoon Comic and Entertainment Expo was also produced in 2014, also called Saskatoon Expo or Sask Expo for short. It uses a green recolor of Calgary Expo's red logo and is held in Saskatoon in mid-September.
All 3 expos are organized under the name Alberta Entertainment Expo.
Programming
The convention offers an extensive range of panels that take place in locations throughout the park. In addition to the exhibitors' hall taking place in BMO halls A-C, and celebrity autograph sessions taking place in D and E, multiple conference rooms throughout the BMO such as the Palomino room host smaller panels. Bigger names will often also have their panels in the Stampede Corral, and some also taking place in the Boyce Theatre. In addition to the regular panels which last 45 minutes, 2012 and 2014 included special, extended panels often labeled as "EXPOsed", which typically last from an hour to two hours long. These have ranged from concert-type panels to discussion panels.
2012 overselling incident
In 2012, the convention had gotten even bigger, with the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation having been announced, and ticket sales skyrocketing. On Saturday of 2012, the venue had reached past the maximum capacity, with an estimated attendance having been projected as 45,000. The venue had blown past capacity, with the Fire Marshall having been called- at 1 PM, it was deemed safe for 100 people to be let in every 15 minutes. Many people were turned away and not let into the venue. Despite this, Expo staff had issued a statement claiming the convention was not oversold, and they hadn't been charged because no violations took place.
A week later, the organizers issued a refund plan for people who were not let in. In 2013, the organizers announced that to prevent a similar event from taking place, no onsite sales would take place.