Starcon is a science and pop culture festival which takes place annually in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. It is the oldest and largest festival of its kind in the

CIS Cis or cis- may refer to: Places * Cis, Trentino, in Italy * In Poland: ** Cis, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, south-central ** Cis, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, north Math, science and biology * cis (mathematics) (cis(''θ'')), a trigonome ...

and

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...

region of Eastern Europe and Asia.

Format

The festival consists of three main zones: * Main stage, where people can see show programs and cosplay competitions. * Exhibition area, which includes stands themed around various movies, video games, comics, and other forms of media. Participants in these stands also wear costumes and organise competitions, quests and activities. * Science zone, which includes an exhibition and a conference, where people can attend lectures.

History

Before 2013

The first Starcon was held in Moscow in 1999 as a Star Wars valfesti. This form continued from 1999 to 2010, gathering about 100-300 people. In 2011, Starcon expanded its scope to include all science fiction media. In 2012, the festival was passed off to Igor Pylaev and the team of volunteer organizers. Since then there have been a few changes. * The festival moved to

. * The scope of the event was expanded. Starcon became a festival dedicated to

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

in pop culture. * The scientific section was added.

2013

In 2013, Starcon changed location and took place at the Garden City ExpoCentre, becoming the first event in such a format in Russia. The first release of the

Adventure Time ''Adventure Time'' is an American fantasy animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series follows the adventures of a boy named Finn (Jeremy Shada) and ...

comics in the Russian language, and the premier of the first Russian zombie movie “Meteletsa: Winter of the Dead”, were presented at Starcon.

2014

In 2014, Starcon again changed location to Lenexpo Exhibition Complex. For the first time festival had added a movie section.

2015

In 2015, Starcon again took place in Lenexpo Exhibition Complex, but for the first time It lasted three days and took all 3 pavilions. The total festival area included 20,000 Square metre, and the number of attendees was over 40,000.

Movie section

* Special screenings * The premiere of

Fantastic Four The Fantastic Four is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team debuted in ''The Fantastic Four'' #1 ( cover dated Nov. 1961), helping usher in a new level of realism in the medium. It was the first ...

from

Twentieth Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film studio, film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm o ...

Special guests

Elena Serova Yelena Olegovna Serova (russian: link=no, Елена Олеговна Серова, born 22 April 1976) is a Russian politician and former cosmonaut. She served as a Deputy in the State Duma of Russian Federation between 2016 and 2021. Before ...

- cosmonaut,

Hero of the Russian Federation Hero of the Russian Federation (russian: Герой Российской Федерации, Geroy Rossiyskoy Federatsii), also unofficially Hero of Russia (russian: link=no, Герой России, Geroy Rossii), is the highest honorary title ...

* Mark Serov - cosmonaut * Writers

Dmitry Puchkov Dmitry Yuryevich Puchkov (russian: link=no, Дми́трий Ю́рьевич Пучко́в; born August 2, 1961), also known as Goblin (russian: Гоблин), is a Russian media personality most known for his humorous English-to-Russian film ...

and

Maria Semyonova , caption = , pseudonym = , birth_date = , birth_place = Leningrad, Soviet Union , death_date = , death_place = , occupation = , period = , genre = Fantasy, History, Poetry , subject = , movement = , spouse = , children = , relative ...

Festivals

Starcon 2016

In 2016, Starcon was held on July 8-10 in

EXPOFORUM Expoforum is the newly built large-scale exhibition and business center in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. It is situated between the city's main Pulkovo Airport and inner-city historically significant Pushkin town formerly known as Tsarskoye Selo. It ...

Convention and Exhibition Centre, utilizing .

References

{{Reflist Festivals in Russia Science fiction conventions in Europe