Armageddon Expo celebrates 20 years in Wellington

The festival takes place at Sky Stadium on Saturday and Sunday. Photo / Supplied

Up to 15,000 pop culture fans will gather in Wellington this weekend for one of the largest pop culture events in the world.

The two-day annual festival Armageddon celebrates the latest in film, gaming technology and the science fiction comic multi-genre.

Organiser Bill Geradts said it was the second event they had managed to do since Covid, but an event of this size was still a rarity across the world.

"There's a couple of little shows happening in America but there's so many restrictions on them that they're very different to what we're imagining here,"

"From an entertainment and activities aspect, the show's bigger than we've ever had."

"Things we've added to this year's show – we've got a massive VR area for Half Life, we've got a huge gaming area, a just dance disco area, OPPO League of legends – that's all new stuff that we've never had in Wellington."

The two-day annual festival Armegeddon celebrates the latest in film, gaming technology and the science fiction comic multi-genre. Photo / Supplied

The event, at Sky Stadium on Saturday and Sunday, celebrates two decades in 2021.

"We're not really celebrating it because it's been such a hectic year, but this will be our 20th year in Wellington," Geradts said.

"We started our first proper Wellington show in 2001 … [it] at the Michael Fowler Centre and it was a fraction of the size.

"We've grown exponentially in size, we've become more intricate and more diverse in what we do and the way we do it."

Geradts said he had also observed a growing popularity for the pop culture scene over time.

"I've been doing this a long time and when we first started it was very much a fringe thing whereas now we're very much in the centre of culture.

"It's very welcoming when you're a geek to see how accepted it is. It does mean that people grow up with nerdom all around them, it's not something they have to go looking for."

Tickets for the weekend event are available at the door.