When is the next Knightmare convention happening?
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Soon? Never?
It takes over a year to organise the convention, and beyond a vague plan, nothing has yet been started. I don't know if the plan is viable, and the current plan would need Tim's permission for the convention to go ahead.
Without the newness of Knightmare Live or Geek Week, the Knightmare community needs to be strong before I'm prepared to invest the necessary time and effort into starting the planning and it has to be strong enough that it can handle some degradation over the course of the year.
We could really do with the community being a bit stronger.
In the meantime, there are a couple of big Knightmare-related projects for 2017, so we'll see how things go.
For anyone wondering what to do to increase the chances of a second convention taking place, do what you can to bolster the community. Attend meetups, come and play games in chat, write some articles for the website, etc.
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There'll be some videos.
Beyond that, the other projects are either secret or too incomplete to say if they'll raise their head in 2017.
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If it does happen again I would certainly be thrilled to attend.
With the 30th anniversary being only a few months away, I would certainly hope that something special is in the works!
Another documentary?
Another convention?
A DVD release?
I certainly second the point of doing what we can to make the KM Community stronger!
The more vocal and activated we are, the more demand we create, the more chance Knightmare has of being shown and/or released!
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Now that would be an awesome thing to see!!
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Realistically, it's unlikely to happen.
About a year ago, we did a full-scale cost analysis on running another convention, and we couldn't find a way to do it. Most places with sufficient video capability had tiny audience seating, and most places with big audience seating didn't have the video capability. Places that had both were in the tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of pounds per day.
EPIC is probably the best bet (and makes sense for historic reasons). But the convention wasn't profitable for EPIC last time, so they'd charge us more money this time around. In addition, we don't think running the same event would pull in as many people. So the costs will increase again to run something bigger. Then it's all starting to look like an expensive gamble.
Something smaller could be possible, but we run the risk of disappointment when compared to the convention. The appetite isn't there. We also aren't sure we can sell something both small and niche.
We could tag on to one of the big conventions, but I don't see what we could offer.
There are a few things happening in the background that might change the situation. But for now, I see no sufficiently optimistic path that makes me want to proceed.
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Hi All,
First of all, really love this site and I'm only ashamed that as such an avid Knightmare fan back in the day that this site entirely passed me by until recently.
So Re: a fairly recent twitter conversation about 35 year anniversary. I've read the thread and totally accept all the points made about cost and getting critical mass to host a full-on convention/reunion. I'm also biased to the idea of an event as I live in Norwich and gutted that I missed the last one when it was right on my door step.
This wont be everyone's idea of a get together but I thought I'd sound it out. The pandemic brought a lot of innovation and acceptance of doing things online. So what about an online convention? Yes, it would never be as good as meeting in person but it has the advantage of being far lower cost, manageable and inclusive. It has the potential for everyone to join in from around the world and most wouldn't even have to leave the sofa to do it. When I'm not moving LEGO figures about my actual job involves running conferences and with online ones you do see the reach that platforms like Zoom can have if run well.
Whatever the outcome, good work keeping the fire burning after all this time!
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I did toy with this a while ago, and it is possible.
But I wasn't able to come with with a programme that I think would be sufficiently enticing that I thought the costs could be met. We could run a Q&A session, and maybe Late Night with Lord Fear. But that's about it. So the cost would still be fairly high, but there wouldn't be much of a draw to get people to join.
Something to ponder on, I think.
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Welcome to the forum, BrickingIt. Thank you for your appreciation of Knightmare.com and for the wonderful work you're doing with your Knightmare (LEGO Edition) videos.
Anybody else enjoying the Lego Knightmare episodes, by the way? I hope they make more of them soon!
The tweets you're referring to, which included a link to this thread, were:
You: 'Would the 35th anniversary [2022] be a nice number for a convention? (The world and all its perils allowing, of course)'
Us: 'It would... but we almost didn't get the crowdfunding we needed for the first convention in 2014, so can't confidently say there will be another.'
An online convention is an interesting idea. We've seen from Paul Flannery's Twitch channel that Knightmare cast members and contestants are up for online interviews. From what I saw, the audiences were appreciative but not huge. Also, I don't know what Paul's costs were and whether his attendees' voluntary donations (Ko-fi) covered those costs.
My concern is always the ratio of fans saying "This should happen" to fans saying "I'm willing to commit time and money to help this happen". To elaborate on the crowdfunding point:
'The Knightmare community' is a vague concept that could mean anything from Knightmare.com forum regulars to anybody who likes, shares or posts about Knightmare online. This vagueness means that what most people are waiting for is somebody else to take an active role.
You may not be aware of the difficulty we had funding the Knightmare convention four years ago. We only needed to raise slightly over £12,000. Despite offering a unique experience and reaching thousands of potential crowdfunding donors on social media, only 280 donated to the campaign. These included some extremely generous four-figure donations, without which the convention could not have gone ahead.
Arguably the nostalgia bubble has burst, or at least shrunk. The Crystal Maze Experience crowdfunding campaign did well but the Fun House Live campaign raised only 9% of its goal last year. Knightmare Live's 2013 crowdfunding campaign beat its goal of £6000; its 2016 campaign, despite three years of good reviews and a lower goal, raised £2807.
The 'slacktive' interest in Knightmare DVDs will continue to exist. The active interest - people willing to put their hand in their pocket rather than their thumb on a Facebook post - is not enough to raise the sum we'd need.
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