D&D General D&D Fan Expo: London Main Show Is Coming This August

On Saturday, August 22nd, the O2 Arena in London will host the D&D Fan Expo. This event features interactive elements, panels, and special guests.

Tickets go live at 10am on Friday, 6th March. A presale on Wednesday, 4th March will be open to subscribers of the AEG Presents newsletter (which you can sign up for on the site).

The event spans two days. On Friday, 21st August, D&D Actual play group The High Rollers will perform live in the Indigo at the O2. And then on the Saturday, the main event takes place in the O2 Arena, as Dungeon Master Jasmine Bhullar puts a group of actors through their paces.

There will also be panels, Q&As, performances, gaming tables, and traders, although information on those has not been released yet.

 

[Bravesteel25]

It’s a contained event. The O2 Arena has a capacity of 20,000. You could be in a country with a billion of your fans, but only 20,000 are going to be there.

Plus, it's not a zero-sum game. It doesn't block the existence of other events.

And, finally, it probably isn't done directly by WotC. It was probably a UK crew who went to them and offered to put on a licensed event at the O2 Arena. What's WotC gonna say? No? We only want events in America?

I don't particularly mean that they shouldn't do events outside America. I'm just surprised that something heralded as a big "D&D Fan Expo" isn't even in the country that hosts PAX, GenCon, and Gary Con. I never meant to make it come across that it was a zero-sum situation, I'm just surprised, 3rd party or not.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

I don't particularly mean that they shouldn't do events outside America. I'm just surprised that something heralded as a big "D&D Fan Expo" isn't even in the country that hosts PAX, GenCon, and Gary Con. I never meant to make it come across that it was a zero-sum situation, I'm just surprised, 3rd party or not.

If they're targeting an international audience, there's a lot of reasons why people would not want to travel to America right now.

 

[doctorhook]

I don't particularly mean that they shouldn't do events outside America. I'm just surprised that something heralded as a big "D&D Fan Expo" isn't even in the country that hosts PAX, GenCon, and Gary Con.

Your comment comes across as extremely naive and even tone-deaf to anyone who isnt American. “There’s a huge D&D convention happening in the UK! Why isn’t it happening in the USA where all the other big conventions are??” I would think that with a moment’s reflection, you’ll realize you’ve answered your own question.

 

[Morrus]

Your comment comes across as extremely naive and even tone-deaf to anyone who isnt American. “There’s a huge D&D convention happening in the UK! Why isn’t it happening in the USA where all the other big conventions are??” I would think that with a moment’s reflection, you’ll realize you’ve answered your own question.

Also UKGE and Essen are both larger tabletop gaming conventions than all but one of the conventions he listed (and Essen is larger than all the conventions he listed combined). So if the criteria really is that you should hold events only where the biggest conventions already are, Gen Con, PAX and Gary Con should move to Europe forthwith. Assuming I'm following the logic correctly.

 

[bedir than]

When people say there's no big D&D stuff in the US I have a lot of questions.

WotC did a live show at GenCon 2024 (71k), MagicCon 2025 (20k) and a different MtG convention (MCM) with the latter two featuring BG3 actors just like the O2 event.

Critical Role is in Seattle for Emerald City Comicon next weekend. ECCC had 90,000 people last year. They have three other large conventions in the US on their schedule in the next six month. It looks like those shows are featuring their D&D elements

Dimension 20 did arena shows.
NADDPod does arena shows.

There's not a lack of D&D being celebrated in the US at large conventions or in arenas