Armageddon Expo is a New Zealand owned and operated pop culture convention that holds multiple events around New Zealand in cities including

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

Tauranga Tauranga (, Māori language for "resting place," or "safe anchorage") is a coastal city in the Bay of Plenty Region and the List of cities in New Zealand, fifth-most populous city of New Zealand, with an urban population of or roughly 3% of t ...

and

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

. The event, run by Beyond Reality Media Premier Event Management, has been running continuously since 1995. It has evolved from its roots of comics and trading cards to showcase computer and video gaming, animation, film and television, cosplay, comics, live wrestling, and retailers selling pop-culture merchandise. The convention hosts celebrity guests from the worlds of movies, TV shows, animation, cosplay,

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

, comics and gaming. Event attendees can meet guests, purchase autographs and photo opportunities as well as watch panels featuring the guests. Armageddon Expo is one of the largest public conventions held in New Zealand.

History

Armageddon began in Auckland, New Zealand on the weekend of 2 December 1995, at the Avondale Raceway. In 1997, the expo added a Wellington event, followed in 1999 by an event in Melbourne. Over the next 17 years, Armageddon held events in Australia sporadically. In 2007, the first Christchurch Armageddon event was held; Armageddon has also hosted events in other cities in New Zealand including

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

Manukau Manukau (), or Manukau Central, is a suburb of South Auckland, New Zealand, centred on the Manukau City Centre business district. It is located 23 kilometres south of the Auckland Central Business District, west of the Southern Motorway, ...

, and

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...

. In Australia, two events were held in Adelaide and Sydney in 2011. Starting in 2007, annual events were held in Melbourne until 2014 when Beyond Reality Media handed management of its Australian Armageddon Expo to First Contact Conventions, after which the event was renamed to The Australian Movie & Comic Expo (AMC Expo). After four annual events at Claudelands Arena (now Globox Arena) starting in 2012, Armageddon's Hamilton event was discontinued in 2015 due to high costs in the

Waikato region The Waikato () is a Regions of New Zealand, region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipā District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton City, as well as ...

. A single event was held in March 2016 at the

Vodafone Events Centre Due Drop Events Centre (previously known as the Vodafone Events Centre and TelstraClear Pacific Events Centre) is a multi-purpose event centre located in Manukau, Auckland, New Zealand (suburb of the former Manukau City), with an indoor arena, ...

(now Due Drop Events Centre) in Manukau and did not continue at the venue. In 2019, in the wake of the

Christchurch mosque shootings Two consecutive mass shootings took place in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 15 March 2019. They were committed by a single perpetrator during Friday prayer, first at the Al Noor Mosque in Riccarton, at 1:40p.m. and almost immediately afterwards ...

, Armageddon changed its policy on weaponry and military attire, banning all realistic depictions. The new policy received some public criticism, however it was generally well-accepted. Armageddon was expected to celebrate its 25th birthday in 2020, but event plans had to be altered due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand The COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand was part of COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic of COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first case of the disease in New Zeala ...

. Armageddon Expo purchased the

-based horror amusement attraction

Spookers Kingseat Hospital was a psychiatric hospital that is considered to be one of New Zealand's notorious haunted locations with over one hundred claims of apparitions being reported, . It is located in Kingseat, New Zealand, south of Auckland. Sin ...

in 2020.

Highlights

Current show events include: * Celebrity Guest Panels, autograph and photo sessions. * The Cosplay Contest. * Exclusive Screenings * Trivia Contests * Cosplay Parade * E-Sports * Gaming and Card Tournaments Armageddon hosts a variety of stalls run by companies from around NZ and internationally, with merchandise including comics, gaming, trading cards, anime, steampunk and memorabilia sales. At each event, there are numerous NZ and overseas comic creators and artists also selling their products.

Venues and guest appearances

1995–1999

2000–2009

2010–2019

2020–present

Spinoff ventures

New Zealand Comic Con

From 2015 to 2017, Armageddon also operated the New Zealand Comic con in Wellington. Events included: * A 3-day Scavenger Hunt * Pub Crawls * Quiz nights * Art exhibitions * A house of horrors * Cosplay photoshoots * Opening and closing parties. Despite attracting nearly 25,000 guests, the last New Zealand Comic Con was held in 2017.

NZ Anime Convention

NZ Anime Convention (also known as the Dunedin Anime Experience) was a commercial

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

and

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

convention held in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. It was first held in 2009 in a growing response to include Dunedin into the Armageddon Expo family. The first event was held in the

Dunedin Town Hall The Dunedin Town Hall, also known as the Dunedin Centre, is a municipal building in the city of Dunedin in New Zealand. It is located in the heart of the city extending from The Octagon, Dunedin, The Octagon, the central plaza, to Moray Place, D ...

and from 2010 onwards at Castle Lecture Complex in the

University of Otago The University of Otago () is a public university, public research university, research collegiate university based in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. Founded in 1869, Otago is New Zealand's oldest university and one of the oldest universities in ...

. This event ceased after two years and was replaced by the Armageddon Expo Dunedin Show in 2012.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.armageddonexpo.com
Beyond Reality Media official site
Comics conventions Anime conventions in New Zealand Science fiction conventions in New Zealand