Animecon (Finland)

Animecon is anime convention in Finland, held annually over a weekend in varying Finnish cities.

Animecon
Two girls cosplaying as anime characters during Animecon 2007.
Status	Active
Location(s)	Varies
Country	Finland
Inaugurated	1999
Attendance	approx. 7,000 in 2007, together with Finncon
Organized by	1999-2011 Various organizations 2012-2016 KAMY 2017-present Suomen Con-Tapahtumat Oy
Website	http://www.animecon.fi/ https://www.animecon.eu/

Animecon was organized as a joint project between anime clubs throughout Finland, facilitated by the communications hub Suomen Animeunioni (The Finnish Anime Union).[1] The convention was first established in 1999 as an outgrowth of the science fiction anime fandom of the sci-fi convention Finncon,[2] expanded into a separate event about anime in general. Animecon and Finncon have been held in conjunction, sharing premises but no events; they even often held separate opening ceremonies. In 2012 Animecon was held at the city of Kuopio for a first time and the convention has remained there since then.

The two drew some 5200 visitors in 2004[3] and 5500 in 2006, peaking at 5000 on Saturday during the three-day event.[4] After the 2007 conventions, an organizer cited the number of visitors as an estimated 7000.[5] Animecon II was the first major cosplay event in Finland, [6] and the practice has been noted for its abundance in later ones.[4]

History

Event history

Dates	Location	Atten.	Guests
August 1–3, 2003	University of Turku Turku	4,000	Jonathan Clements.
July 10–11, 2004	University of Jyväskylä Jyväskylä	5,200	yoshitoshi ABe and Jonathan Clements.[7]
August 18–20, 2006	Helsinki Congress Paasitorni Helsinki	9,000	Paul Gravett.[8]
July 14–15, 2007	University of Jyväskylä Jyväskylä[9]	7,000	Jonathan Clements
July 26–27, 2008	Tampere Hall Tampere[10]	9,000	Ms Mandu
July 10–12, 2009	Kaapelitehdas Helsinki		Jari Lehtinen
July 16-17, 2011	Turku[11]		Himeka, Yukihiro Notsu
July 14-15, 2012	Kuopio Music Centre Kuopio		Yoshihiro Takahashi, Team 4 Star, Benzaie
July 13-14, 2013	Kuopio Music Centre Kuopio		DJ Sharpnel, Spoony, Benzaie
July 12-13, 2014	Kuopio Music Centre Kuopio		Kaoru Mori
July 11-12, 2015	Kuopio Music Centre Kuopio		Doug Walker
July 9-10, 2016	Congress Centre Paviljonki Jyväskylä		Animenz, Reika
July 15-16, 2017	Kuopio Music Centre Kuopio		The Anime Man, Akidearest, Riuchi Manga
July 14-15, 2018	Helsinki Fair Centre Helsinki		The Anime Man, Akidearest, Ryukishi07, Kore Yamazaki, Kamui Cosplay

References

1. Eturautti, Kyuu (2005). "Kotimaan katsaus (A domestic look)". Anime magazine. No. 01. p. 42.
2. Joukamaa, Mauno (2006). "Animecon: Kuinka kaikki alkoi (Animecon: How it all began)". Anime magazine. No. 13. p. 08.
3. "Jyväskylän Kesä veti väkeä". Turun Sanomat (in Finnish). 2004-07-14. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-09-03.
4. Eturautti, Kyuu (2006). "Tervetuloa coniin! (Welcome to the con!)". Anime magazine. No. 14. pp. 40–45.
5. Animecon V home page Archived 2007-12-28 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed on 2007-09-03. "Kävijöitä oli erittäin paljon, arvoiden mukaan n. 7000." (We had an abundance of participants, estimates put their number at around seven thousand.)
6. Escapism in Japanese style (2006), Tuomas Tiainen, Free! magazine. Accessed on 2007-09-03.
7. "Finncon / Animecon 2004 Information". AnimeCons.com. Retrieved 2008-06-18.
8. "Animecon 2006 Information". AnimeCons.com. Archived from the original on 25 July 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-18.
9. "Animecon 2007 Information". AnimeCons.com. Retrieved 2008-06-18.
10. "Animecon 2007 Information". AnimeCons.com. Retrieved 2008-02-22.
11. "2011 Finncon-Animecon". 2011.finncon.org. Retrieved 2010-07-28.

External links

• Official site
• Animecon picture archive, incl. cosplay competitions