In 2012, the entire Thought Bubble exhibitor space, 300 tables took 6 weeks to sell out around this time.
This last week, the entire Thought Bubble exhibitor space, all 300 tables, sold out in 2 hours.
2 hours.
That’s some change eh? Bloody hell.
It’s indicative of the strength and passion of the emerging UK comics scene that there’s so many people wanting to get in on the show. Thought Bubble has simply become the biggest show in the country, and many think of it as the best. Each year numbers of attendees goes up and they all take to telling the world how good a show it was, which just builds and builds the event for everyone. And it’s just the same for those exhibiting as well, every year we hear tales of how good a show it is, how important and fun it is. It’s really no wonder it’s popular – the real surprise this year was just how fast they went.
The downside of course is that there were plenty of people over Twitter, Facebook and everywhere else talking about not getting table space this year, quickly followed by a lot of dealing over sharing space this year.
There’s little can be done really as the convention stands. They’ve already moved up to 2 halls over 2 days from 1 hall on 1 day, and both halls are full with those 300 tables total. Maybe what a few creators talked about will come to pass and we’ll see something akin to a Thought Bubble fringe. Or maybe future years will see a move to a curated, invitation only festival space, akin to TCAF in Canada.
Or maybe, just maybe, there will be more table space magicked out of the air somehow….. that’s certainly something mentioned on the Thought Bubble blog update – where the TB team moved very quickly to update the disappointed hordes out there.
More details as they happen.
Sun, Mar 3, 2013
Comics and cartoons, Conventions and events