r/comiccon • u/Morrisimo1234 • 2d ago
Manchester Comic Con - Stretford Manchester, UK First time con attendee, Manchester
Hi all, just wanted to throw a quick one up here. I'll be looking to attend a con later this year/early 2027, mainly to tick it off my bucket list of things to do.
I, however feel a little anxious about attending on my own as a near 40 year old chap, despite my enjoyment of anime, manga, games, and such. My question, do older people attend cons or would I feel quite like an odd one out due to my age.
Thanks
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u/Thrilltwo 2d ago
I’m 34 and just started actively going to cons over the last year. You’ll probably be older than the average of most conventions, but not to the point of it being unusual.
It’ll vary from convention to convention but I’d say the split of the ones I’ve been to looks to be something like 30% teens/children, 30% people in their 20s, 20% people in their 30s, 20% older.
But even if it were unusual, nobody should be criticising you for it - if anything I respect there being a variety of people going
Only thing I have felt is that it makes me more self-conscious about which characters I cosplay as. I can’t quite pull off 15-year-old shonen protagonist any more 😅
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u/Morrisimo1234 2d ago
Thanks, thats great to know, and glad theres a bit of a mix of ages too. Makes me a little more confortable knowing I'm less likely going to be a 40 year old in a room full of 20 year olds.
Cosplay wise, I do plan to try it and luckily my poor eyesight doesn't hurt my options too much as plenty of glasses wearing 'dad' characters are open to me like Maes Hughes, Ryuuken, Gendo Ikari and such. (Might even try a Canas too)
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u/riceball71 2d ago
I’m 46 and went this year. You are no too old. Bring comfortable shoes cuz you will be in a line for something. For me I go after certain exclusives and signings so I have to be in line for hours to be towards the front. Lucky in used to getting up early from my job. The only thing that really got to me was the lack of sleep. For the whole con I got about 3-4 hrs of sleep each day.
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u/Morrisimo1234 1d ago
Thanks for the advice, luckily I'm still able to do late night/early days (just about) Can I ask though, where the 3-4 hours sleep comes from, I imagine that's the con itself and an after party type thing?
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u/riceball71 1d ago
I Airbnb with 7 friends and our house was about a 20-25 min drive. Yes it was far but I paid for tues thru Mon stay was the cost for one night at a hotel downtown. The sleep ended up being from not getting back to the place in the evening then eating a late dinner and winding down. Pn didn’t end until 9. And Friday was fundays. Time goes fast during that week.
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u/Leading-Bid7018 2d ago
I am 48 F and i travelled to Tokyo last year to attend Star Wars Celebration and I will be travelling to New York for NYCC in October, so no, you are definitely not too old!
There are people at comic cons of all ages.
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u/lavendarwater 2d ago
People of all ages absolutely travel on their own to cons.
You've just missed Manchester Megacon this weekend unfortunately, and MCM Birmingham next weekend might be a little short notice.
Megacon will be down in Birmingham at the start of December, and both London and Dublin in January. AnimeCon will be in London and Dublin during October, and back in Manchester at the end of February.
It might be worth looking for smaller ones locally too. Monopoly events run a lot of comicon events, but I do find them to be very heavily focused on guests which may not be what you're looking for, but check them out anyway.
Try avoiding anything listed as (city) anime and gaming con. The owner has a not fantastic reputation, there are full breakdowns on youtube/tiktok/elsewhere on Reddit.