So... what's actually happening to Showmasters these days?

[Faerie Tanith]

We've all noticed it. 

LFCC is two months away and has 11 guests announced. Shows over the last few years have been wildly disappointing and lackluster compared to the fanfare of years past. People have been talking about the decline for a while now- so let's address the elephant in the room, what the hell is going on with Showmasters? 

[fastandloud]

Postponed until next year.

[maegurwen]

6 hours ago, fastandloud said:

Postponed until next year.

Wait, am i missing something? How comes its posponed? Last time i checked on here things were still going ahead. 

[Peter Capaldi Fan]

For a type of business that is literally a licence to print money ShowMasters (with the occasional exception) do seem to be throwing out a lot of duds. When compared to other cons they don't get anywhere near the same calibre of guests nowadays. It's a shame because ShowMasters got me started going to cons. Gone are the days when you didn't know how you were going to fit everything in during the weekend. Hope I'm wrong but if ShowMasters can't get the big names in 2027 then they may be finished. 

[Faerie Tanith]

6 hours ago, fastandloud said:

Postponed until next year.

Came here to say this, can't say I'm surprised at all. People have been speculating that it was going to be cancelled or postponed for a while now.

16 minutes ago, Peter Capaldi Fan said:

For a type of business that is literally a licence to print money ShowMasters (with the occasional exception) do seem to be throwing out a lot of duds. When compared to other cons they don't get anywhere near the same calibre of guests nowadays. It's a shame because ShowMasters got me started going to cons. Gone are the days when you didn't know how you were going to fit everything in during the weekend. Hope I'm wrong but if ShowMasters can't get the big names in 2027 then they may be finished. 

Yep. I think my last "can't cram everything into one weekend" event was 2018 or 2019. 

[Faerie Tanith]

36 minutes ago, maegurwen said:

Wait, am i missing something? How comes its posponed? Last time i checked on here things were still going ahead. 

This is what they've posted to Facebook:


 

Sadly, we have had to take the difficult decision to postpone London Film and Comic Con 2026 to August 2027.

After lengthy discussions with the team and exploring other possibilities, we have come to the unfortunate conclusion that it simply isn’t feasible in this climate to bring you the quality of event that you expect from us for over 30 years.

Many of our headline guests travel from the US. With airline costs rising sharply and ongoing uncertainty around flight availability, it is not currently possible to secure the range and calibre of guests you expect from us.

Unfolding global issues, increasing energy shortages and rising cost of living are going to impact all our lives this year. The massive rising costs on putting on a big comic con this year is just too much to be passed on to the fans when everyone is feeling the pinch and that’s just unfair and we pride ourselves on fair pricing for autographs and photo ops. Unfortunately, the level of uncertainty and scale of additional costs mean this year’s large-scale event is no longer viable.

However, this is just a short-term blip. We are skipping LFCC this year, but we already have our 2027 date booked, which is 14th and 15th August 2027. By this time things will have evolved and adjusted. So, we can once again bring you the massive A-list Guests you expect from us over the years like Mel Gibson, Carrie Fisher, Michael J Fox et cetera, and all the new international guests you want to meet.

This decision only effects our big London Film and Comic Con, as our regional events have UK based Guests, it will not affect the running of all our shows up and down the country. Glasgow, Cardiff and YALC will all not be affected as the guests all come from the UK. The same goes for our other events at Creed Conventions and Brick Festival Events. None of these will be affected.

We will miss you all this year. However tough it may get over the coming months we will be back in August 2027 and can’t wait to see you again at our London Film and Comic Con 2027.

[sirjim]

15 hours ago, Faerie Tanith said:

This is what they've posted to Facebook:


 

Sadly, we have had to take the difficult decision to postpone London Film and Comic Con 2026 to August 2027.

After lengthy discussions with the team and exploring other possibilities, we have come to the unfortunate conclusion that it simply isn’t feasible in this climate to bring you the quality of event that you expect from us for over 30 years.

Many of our headline guests travel from the US. With airline costs rising sharply and ongoing uncertainty around flight availability, it is not currently possible to secure the range and calibre of guests you expect from us.

Unfolding global issues, increasing energy shortages and rising cost of living are going to impact all our lives this year. The massive rising costs on putting on a big comic con this year is just too much to be passed on to the fans when everyone is feeling the pinch and that’s just unfair and we pride ourselves on fair pricing for autographs and photo ops. Unfortunately, the level of uncertainty and scale of additional costs mean this year’s large-scale event is no longer viable.

However, this is just a short-term blip. We are skipping LFCC this year, but we already have our 2027 date booked, which is 14th and 15th August 2027. By this time things will have evolved and adjusted. So, we can once again bring you the massive A-list Guests you expect from us over the years like Mel Gibson, Carrie Fisher, Michael J Fox et cetera, and all the new international guests you want to meet.

This decision only effects our big London Film and Comic Con, as our regional events have UK based Guests, it will not affect the running of all our shows up and down the country. Glasgow, Cardiff and YALC will all not be affected as the guests all come from the UK. The same goes for our other events at Creed Conventions and Brick Festival Events. None of these will be affected.

We will miss you all this year. However tough it may get over the coming months we will be back in August 2027 and can’t wait to see you again at our London Film and Comic Con 2027.

Thanks for posting this.

I don't think the postponement is a surprise to anyone and it's good that they have now put out a statement.

I hadn't really appreciated the flight uncertainty being an issue, but thinking about it, it's on everyone's minds, and some short haul flights are already being cancelled. Surely, long haul flights into Heathrow will continue though as they would be regarded as the "most important", but yes the prices are going to rocket if the Strait remains closed.

I have been keeping an eye on another summer event in August related to fantasy, which does have US guests listed currently and will be watching to see if those guests start to drop out.

And I'm going to a convention in 2 weeks time where literally ALL the guests are coming from North America. I hope!

[Faerie Tanith]

5 hours ago, sirjim said:

I have been keeping an eye on another summer event in August related to fantasy, which does have US guests listed currently and will be watching to see if those guests start to drop out.

The mods aren't around to tell you off, you can say For The Love Of Fantasy. 

[maegurwen]

On 4/24/2026 at 7:43 PM, Faerie Tanith said:

This is what they've posted to Facebook

Ah, thats why i didnt know. I dont use facebook often. But yeah, that explains alot.

 

2 hours ago, Faerie Tanith said:

The mods aren't around to tell you off, you can say For The Love Of Fantasy. 

Has been quite a while since there was mods. To be fair its become a little self contained area here. 

On 4/24/2026 at 7:20 PM, Peter Capaldi Fan said:

For a type of business that is literally a licence to print money ShowMasters (with the occasional exception) do seem to be throwing out a lot of duds. When compared to other cons they don't get anywhere near the same calibre of guests nowadays. It's a shame because ShowMasters got me started going to cons. Gone are the days when you didn't know how you were going to fit everything in during the weekend. Hope I'm wrong but if ShowMasters can't get the big names in 2027 then they may be finished. 

Been a while since i spoke to you Peter Capaldi Fan.

My best freind got me into cons. It was back in the days when showmasters were smaller and use to do forum meet ups. (I think me and my freind went to a couple).

Im not sure when my last crammed schedule was but i know 24/25 i was only getting two or three at a time. So maybe 2023, if not then i think its probably 2019.

These days I tend to go to this show ones too and usually have upto five or more guests when i go to those .

[Peter Capaldi Fan]

On 4/25/2026 at 8:13 PM, maegurwen said:

Ah, thats why i didnt know. I dont use facebook often. But yeah, that explains alot.

 

Has been quite a while since there was mods. To be fair its become a little self contained area here. 

Been a while since i spoke to you Peter Capaldi Fan.

My best freind got me into cons. It was back in the days when showmasters were smaller and use to do forum meet ups. (I think me and my freind went to a couple).

Im not sure when my last crammed schedule was but i know 24/25 i was only getting two or three at a time. So maybe 2023, if not then i think its probably 2019.

These days I tend to go to this show ones too and usually have upto five or more guests when i go to those .

I tend to go to Winter LFCC nowadays. There has been enough guests to make it worthwhile though not exactly crammed. May see you at one. Rarely come on the forum now. Most of the regulars have moved to another chat group. 

[nicky]

My 2 cents:

The gargantuan rise in popularity in cons having entered the mainstream/public-eye means more people have been more willing to spend their money thus allowing agents to get greedy and demand more. As a result, SM have had fierce competition from Monopoly, a big budget mainstream con for a while now (I don't think that Excel show was ever a threat cos it was more anime). SM have always fought to have fair prices in the past but now agents know they can ask for more money given how popular cons have become as well as the competitors willing to meet their demands.

I've not been a customer at a con since circa 2010, that was the beginning in the end for me, shortly after that LFCC started to get stupidly over-crowed (eg. the Stan Lee one) and "normal" people started going, not just the OG geeks they catered to. Back in the day, cons were advertised in magazines like Empire and SFX but now they're all over social media pulling in a much wider range of people, not just geeks. Just think, all those people who used to take the p!$$ out of you for going to cons are now going themselves and shelling out even more than we ever did.

Fifteen years ago, an auto off the average guest at SM was about £15-25, now its £40 at Monopoly and they even charge for fecking selfies now and personalizations and personal items!!! Back in the day we only paid for the auto and if you had a camera you could take a pic at the table no problem. Its just horrible that cons have "sold out" and gone mainstream and commercial now - it reminds me of how indie video rental stores shutdown in the 90s when Blockbuster came along and the indies just couldn't compete. Blockbuster was never for the love of movies, but commercialism (selling pizza and wine?!) - similar to SM cons being for the fans but at Monopoly its for the fans who will pay the price. 

The only good thing about cons going mainstream is that A-listers are now open to appearing at them probably cos it looks good for their public image and studios get to promote a film via a panel. When Aliens had its 30th anniversary in 2016 Sigourney Weaver and Bill Paxton attended LFCC with other cast and even more at SDCC with James Cameron - this is when I first noticed a shift in A-lister's perception of cons. The Breakfast Club had a 40th anniversary reunion last year at a US con and that was huge on social media and even Johnny Depp did a con in Japan. Now if you look up an A-lister on Wikepedia, many of their profile pics show them at a panel at a con. All this is a reflection of how mainstream and popular (and accepted) cons have become and naturally with that, costs go up. You even see cons appearing in 'small' UK towns now like Doncaster or Bristol jumping on the bandwagon.

Edited Thursday at 04:37 PM by nicky