Largest ever recorded attendance at the 2024 Atlantic Entertainment Expo in Charlottetown
by Nash Alonto
March 25, 2024
It was two days of colours flowing with creative enthusiasm and excitement.
Every room at the P.E.I. Convention Centre was filled with tables displaying books, stickers, shirts, figurines, stationary, and even swords.
Few by few, people start to flow in. Some in ordinary clothing, but others dressed in costumes.
Serena Wang wore a red wine-coloured wig, dark pince-nez sunglasses, a white dress shirt draped over a burgundy-coloured jacket with a spider-web design on her back, a silver butterfly pin, black high-waisted shorts over nylon tights, and black ankle-length boots.
She was cosplaying as her favourite character, Kafka, one of the Stellaron Hunters from Honkai: Star Rail, a Chinese-created video game and one of the famous franchises of the Hoyoverse brand.
Wang has been into cosplaying since she was in Grade 7. This was her fourth year cosplaying at the event. She likes cosplay because she feels less guilty about dressing up.
“For me, I’m not really like a pretty girl. I always go to school in sweatpants and a hoodie, but for me, cosplaying is one of the only times I could get dressed-up and look pretty, and just do something that’s normally out of my comfort zone,” Wang said.
Wang is one of more than 4,300 people who attended the 2024 Atlantic Entertainment Expo (AEX) on March 23 and 24 at the P.E.I. Convention Centre in Charlottetown.
Aside from cosplay, Wang also pulled double duty as a vendor at the event. Their table, tucked in a corner near the door of the market hall, displayed fan-created merchandise from famous game franchises, particularly from Hoyoverse, such as Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact 3rd, such as stickers, keychains, and posters.
“All I feel is happiness right, because (hitting) two birds with one stone, both of them are my dreams,” she said.
AEX is a two-day convention held in late March and is centered in the Atlantic Canada region.
This is the fourth year overall and the first under a new name. Started on P.E.I., the event is now expanding to other Atlantic provinces.
“Everyone loves pop culture – movies, TV, comic books, music – whatever it is, everyone can come together as a community,” said Alex Maine, CEO of the Maine Group, an events organizing company, and head organizer of the convention.
“As we grew, we knew we were doing something different from other conventions in the region, so we decided (that) we can’t call it the "Island Entertainment Expo" if we’re gonna leave the Island… our plan is, eventually, to open more shows in the Atlantic provinces,” he said.
Maine stated the convention came about due to lack of big events on the Island during the latter half of winter.
“I’ve been living on P.E.I. since 2014. I have two young children here, and there’s not much to do in the winter. It’s very quiet, apart from maybe taking the kids to the movies or bowling. So, I saw an opportunity in the market to kind of not only provide (sic) for my kids, but for the thousands of other kids on the Island, so that was the main momentum behind it,” Maine said.
Despite the annual event always reaping success, it’s not without its challenges, most prominently when it was cancelled twice due to COVID.
“It was sad…but I was also really thankful to the community. A lot of people just held on to their tickets, and they rolled over to the next year, so that was really good of them. But, yeah, it was an unpleasant time for everybody,” Maine said.
Aside from being a place where people showcase their creativity, it is also a gathering spot for hobby-based businesses to sell merchandise. Nearly 120 vendors attended this year. One of the most prominent is Exor Games, which has been with the event since the beginning.
Brandon Massey is the store’s manager for Charlottetown. Aside from selling trading cards and figures at the event, they also hosted mini tournaments designed for attendees to get to know more about the new card games in store, such as Star Wars Unlimited.
For Massey, the best thing about selling their merchandise is the energy it brings.
“Everybody’s always happy to be here. You see such great costumes and cosplays, and everybody’s seems to just be having a great time,” he said.
“I feel that when people enter our store, a lot of the same similar feelings. It’s like ‘Hey, I’m here to have fun, I’m here to play the games that I love, I’m here to build the miniatures that I love,‘ and that’s really what we’re trying to get behind, (which) is people’s passions.”
After the event, Exor Games will be attending similar events this year, such as Hal-Con in Nova Scotia in November.
Besides trading cards, figures, and artwork, there was also a photo booth set-up, courtesy of the Holland College photography program.
This is the second time for the program where students take still photos, said instructor Jean-Sebastien Duchesne. Around 800 people at the event went to their photo booth.
“I talked it over with the (photography) students and we decided to try it last year. I was a little unsure about how well it was gonna go, but it went so well last year that we decided to come again this year and do it for the second year in a row,” Duchesne said.
Duchesne and his students would take photos of people who come to their booth, and the photos would be uploaded to the program’s Facebook page on the same day.
“It’s really meant for something like this, where people come in and do this quickly without too much fuss, and it’s mostly just to record their costumes, get some smiles, and let people have a good time,” he said.
Despite a 4,000-strong attendance, only eight volunteers helped steer the metaphorical ship.
Andrew Layden was one of them, volunteering for the event since the very beginning.
The Kinkora resident is also an experienced cosplayer and has appeared in other conventions in Atlantic Canada.
“I figured since I was close to home, then I (would) give back to the community, instead of actually participating, which actually was more rewarding because I get to participate and help out everybody else who wants to participate in cosplay,” he said.
For Layden, the best part about volunteering about the event is the people coming there.
“I’ve met a lot of people over the last four years at the convention, not to mention every convention in Atlantic Canada. The people are the best, the cosplayers are the best, it’s not just a ‘one thing, one hit’ at all, it’s everything,” he said.
The event continues with its second leg at the Fredericton Convention Centre in Fredericton, N.B., on April 13 and 14. Maine hopes it would be as successful as the Charlottetown leg. They’re also planning to expand to other Atlantic provinces within the next decade.
“The great thing about events like this (is) you can invite so many different people from so many different themes and areas, the list is just endless. We could invite people from Japan over… we’ve had guests from the U.K. before, so I’m always open to bringing creative people to the Island,” he said.
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