Starcon

The first Starcon was held in Moscow in 1999. At first, the festival was intended to unite Star Wars fans. In this form, the festival existed from 1999 to 2010, gathering about 100-300 people.

In 2011, Starcon expanded its scope to include all science fiction media, and was attended by over 350 people.

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 Saint Petersburg.
• The scope of the event was expanded. Starcon became a festival dedicated to science fiction in pop culture: thematic TV series, films and animation, literature, games, and comics.
• The scientific section was added. There, people can attend lectures about modern robotic science and technologies, genetics, bioinformatics and spacecraft.

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 comics[2] in the Russian language, and the premier of the first Russian zombie movie “Meteletsa: Winter of the Dead”[3], were presented at Starcon.

In 2013, over 5,000 people attended Starcon, demonstrating exponential growth.

In 2014, Starcon again changed location to Lenexpo Exhibition Complex.

For the first time festival had added a movie section:

• Special screenings of The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Iron Man 3, The Hunger Games, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier in RealD;
• An exclusive show from The Walt Disney Company: 9 minutes of the film "Guardians of the Galaxy" and a special video message from the film's Director James Gunn;
• The premiere of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes from the studio Twentieth Century Fox.

Special guests:

• Andrei Borisenko - cosmonaut of the Russian Federation, Hero of the Russian Federation
• Dmitry Gromov and Oleg Ladydgenskiy - Ukraine fantasy writers behind the pen name Henry Lion Oldy
• Maria Semenova - author of the novel upon which the 2006 film Wolfhound was based
• Stas Davydov - host of the web series This is Horosho

In 2014, over 15,000 people attended Starcon.

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 sq.m., and the number of attendees was over 40,000.[4]

• special screenings of Interstellar, The Guardians of the Galaxy, Mad Max: Fury Road, Ant-Man,Kingsman: The Secret Service, The Avengers: Age of Ultron and Terminator: Genesis
• the premiere of Fantastic Four from Twentieth Century Fox

• Elena Serova - cosmonaut, Hero of the Russian Federation
• Mark Serov - cosmonaut
• writers Dmitry Puchkov, Dmitry Rus, and Maria Semyonova
• bloggers Stepan Pinzhin Tatorio, Mark Voronin Vendy, Alexander Sokolov Sokol[off], Vic Kisimyaka.

In 2016, Starcon was held on July 8-10 in EXPOFORUM Convention and Exhibition Centre, utilizing 40,000 m² (430,000 sq ft).[5]