ABOUT

ACNorthWest is a friendly and inclusive analog gaming festival held at the Manchester Central Convention Complex. Whether you've come alone or with a massive group you'll find plenty of fun to be had and new friendly faces to meet. On top of that, we've partnered with Travelling Man to bring you a curated library of over 500 games that you can borrow from for free throughout the event. Have a nosy around the site to answer all your burning questions and if you've got a question we haven't yet answered, drop us a line at hello@airecon.uk! 

HISTORY

ACNORTHWEST

For a long time the AireCon team had been looking at starting a new event, and had their sights set on the North West. In 2023 after visiting several venues, the felt that Manchester Central was ideally located and had great spaces for gaming in so set up ACNW, with the first one happening in December 2023.

AIRECON

AireCon started when Mrs C was away on a friend’s hen weekend. Mark decided that he’d have a few friends around to play some games and partake in some other gaming activities. With three tables set up, a schedule of events drawn up and even a sponsor, AireCon (now known as AireCon 0) was born in Mark’s flat.

The name came about from looking at how other conventions got their name. Seeing that GenCon was named after Lake Geneva, Mark looked around for bodies of water nearby, and was immediately drawn to the River Aire, hence AireCon, and that squiggle that runs through the logo? That’s the river!

Around this time, having returned from a brilliant time playing games at UK Games Expo, Mark looked around for other gaming events. Finding none he spoke to Ben about starting AireCon as a proper, public event and Ben had been thinking along similar lines. The first public AireCon (AireCon 1) was held at the place where Ben and Mark work in Bradford in April 2016, quickly followed by AireCon 2 in October 2016 but the constraints of the venue were already starting to show.

Nabil and Rick were brought on board at this point to take the event to the next level. The growth necessitated a move to larger premises and, after an extensive search across Yorkshire, we settled on the Harrogate Convention Centre for AireCon 3 in March 2017. We also changed to running AireCon annually to allow more time to make sure it was an excellent event. AireCon 4, in March 2018, AireCon 5, March 2019 and AireCon 6, March 2020, have continued to see the event grow with more and more space being taken at the convention centre, mostly to allow for huge amounts of open gaming space, probably the largest in Europe! Due to the pandemic in 2021, AireCan’t took place instead of AireCon, where people were encouraged to Play at Home.

AireCon 7 saw a return to an in-person event in 2022, back in the halls of the Harrogate Convention Centre, but despite taking on more space a move was required to new, bigger, halls (still at the Harrogate Convention Centre) for AireCon 8 in 2023.

The AireCon team have always enjoyed bringing people together and seeing the joy that tabletop gaming can bring, and this remains the same today as it did back in Mark’s flat. The emphasis at AireCon is on fun and providing opportunities for people to be able to game and it will always remain that way.