star trek convention huntsville al

Where To Stay

April 12-14, 2024

Von Braun Center - Huntsville, Alabama

Friday 3PM-8PM | Saturday 10AM-6PM | Sunday 11AM-5PM

The Full Story

About the Expo

The Huntsville Comic & Pop Culture Expo is Alabama's largest celebration of all things geek!

Year 9 will take place in downtown Huntsville, Alabama April 12-14, 2024.

Alongside our team of incredible volunteers, we are a local, family run operation.  We live and work in Huntsville and are comic and pop culture fans ourselves!  Since the start of the Expo, it has always been very important to us to give back to our community.  Since 2021, the Expo has featured an on-site community blood drive with LifeSouth . Also, every year since our start, a portion of all Expo proceeds benefit Kids To Love , a North Alabama charity meeting the needs of local foster children.

The 2024 Expo (Year 9) is a family-friendly 3-day event in the heart of beautiful downtown Huntsville celebrating ALL things Comic & Pop Culture!  The show will include 60+ Special Celebrity Guests, 200+ Vendors, Artists/Authors Alley, Cosplay Contests, 3 Gaming Rooms, Discussion Panels  and much more!

The 8th annual Expo took place April 21-23, 2023 with over 18,000 fans in attendance!  The Expo featured nearly 50 special guests who fans were able to meet including William Shatner, several other Star Trek actors, a 10 person Naruto reunion, comic book creators and legends, the official voices of Mickey Mouse and Goofy, wrestlers and many more!

Huntsville Comic & Pop Culture Expo 2024 Location:

Von Braun Center, South Hall

700 Monroe St. SW, Huntsville, AL 35801

*Although the VBC is cashless, we are NOT.   We are a private event and accept cash or card.

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Monday, April 23, 2012

• Star Trek 30: One Weekend On Earth - Sept. 7-8, 1996

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What do ‘Star Trek,’ ‘Saved By The Bell’ and Huntsville have in common?

O n the drive home, Jeremy Long decided to do it. He was coming back to Huntsville from selling comic books at a convention south of Nashville that was poorly attended. For the past six months, after losing his job managing an Italian chain restaurant at a Huntsville mall, Long had been keeping his family afloat selling comic books at cons in Tennessee, Atlanta, Chattanooga and Birmingham.

“On the drive home,” Long recalls,” I’m thinking how they could have done this and this and this. Then I get home, and my wife says, ‘Well, you just need to do your own show.’ And I’m like, “I’ve kind of been planning a show for the last two hours.’ I was like, ‘Why isn’t there a show in Huntsville? We’re the nerdiest town in America.’”

In 2016, Long put on his first Huntsville Comic & Pop Culture Expo, at the Jaycee Building at John Hunt Park, in Huntsville, a north Alabama city famous for aerospace acumen. He didn’t know if anyone would show up. Around 1,500 people showed up for that one-day event.

From those humble origins at the 12,000 square-foot Jaycee building, the HSV Expo built up to the 150,000-square-foot South Hall at the Von Braun Center downtown. Last year, the event, swollen to three days now, drew more than 18,000.

The 2024 Huntsville Comic & Pop Culture Expo , set for April 12-14 at the VBC, is set to be the biggest yet. Scheduled panel conversations will feature specials guests like “Star Trek” icon George Takei, “Saved By The Bell” stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Elizabeth Berkley, Oscar Nunez and Kate Flannery from “The Office,” and Richard Karn and Debbe Dunning from “Home Improvement.”

True believers will want to circle a panel of legendary comic book creatives, featuring Chris Claremont (“The Uncanny X-Men”), Joe Rubenstein (“The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe”) and James O’Barr (“The Crow”).

Complete schedule at hsvexpo.com . Tickets start at $30 for single day Friday tickets to $70 weekend passes and up, via tixr.com.

These days, Long, 43, works by day as a defense contractor. He grew up immersed in “Star Wars,” Nintendo video games, and Spider-Man, Captain America, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and X-Men comic books. His dream booking for HSV Expo? Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill.

To put on HSV Expo this year — which also involves cosplay-ed throngs, geek-gold vendors, Olympic-level folks-gazing — Long works with 15 department leads and 150-ish volunteers.

Last year, HSV Expo got their biggest “get” yet, the great William Shatner . Yes, Capt. Kirk beamed aboard.

For his appearance, Shatner flew in to Nashville, as that’s a direct flight from Los Angeles. Long had his sister Jen Baker drive to Nashville to pick Shatner up in a rented minivan, and, later, return Shatner to Nashville after his expo appearance.

“His agent rode with them,” Long says. “And he told me, ‘Your sister Jen got the real Bill.’ Like, he really opened up to her was asking her about our family and everything.”

At the expo, Long couldn’t resist getting Shatner to autograph a few items, including a Michael Myers mask from the original “Halloween” film. Horror baddie Myers’ creepy mask was a spray painted and repurposed Capt. Kirk Halloween mask.

Shatner and Takei actually have the same agent. “Long says, “And so basically, as Shatner did so well here last year, the agent was like, ‘Well, you have to have George next year.’ I was like, OK, you’ve twisted my arm.”

Booking guests for the HSV Expo keeps getting easier each year, Long says. For this year, the agency repping Lindsay Wagner, classic TV’s “Bionic Woman, and Brandon Routh, Supes in the “Superman Returns” film, emailed Long about getting Wagner and Routh on the expo’s lineup.

“And I wrote back,” Long says. “‘Do I have space for Brandon Routh and Lindsay Wagner? No. Will I make space for Lindsay Wagner and Brandon Routh? Absolutely.’”

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©2024 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit al.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Star Trek fans head to Huntsville

Fans of the original Star Trek TV series can meet the actor who played Captain Kirk this weekend. William Shatner is a guest at the Huntsville Comic and Pop Culture Expo that lasts through Sunday. The event will have many other special guests coming from all facets of pop culture. The founder of the Huntsville Comic and Pop Culture Expo says the event was created to give back to the local community. During the event there will be charity auctions and a blood drive. Jeremy Long is the founder of Huntsville Comic and Pop Culture Expo. He says a portion of the sales will be given to local charities, but that’s not the main attraction…

“Nostalgia, a lot of nostalgia,” said Long. “We have special guests from all sorts of fandoms, Star Wars, Star Trek, comic book, wrestling, anime,other cartoons. We have vendors with all sorts of handmade items. Comics, videogames, vintage toys, artist, panels, cosplay.”

The Expo hosts vendors, authors and artists, cosplay contests, gaming rooms, and discussion panels ideal for the many different fandoms. This includes Star Wars, Star Trek, comic books, wrestling, anime and much more. Long explains how this event is different from other pop culture events,” he said.

“In my opinion is more fun. It is lower cost and a lot of the money that comes into the show is put right back into the community. We do charity auctions, and we give a portion of sales to local charities. We do a blood drive. This show saves lives, literally. It’s just it’s more fun and it has that personal feel to it.”

Tickets prices vary and are available for a single day or weekend pass. The admission ticket gives access to all the panels and shows. Kids twelve and under enter free.

Star Trek convention

• View history

A typical Star Trek convention

Star Trek conventions are organized gatherings of Star Trek fans . The larger ones usually have stars and production staff speak or at least sign autographs. It is also common for there to be booths where vendors will sell Trek -related merchandise or collectors will sell and trade. Most of the formerly Trek -only conventions of the mid '90s have now expanded to include other sci-fi and fantasy series.

• 1.1 The first Star Trek convention
• 1.2 Star Trek 30: One Weekend On Earth
• 1.4 Creation conventions
• 1.5 Destination Star Trek
• 1.6 Vulkon conventions
• 2 Further reading
• 3 External links

Notable conventions [ ]

The first star trek convention [ ].

James Doohan speaks to the crowd at an early Star Trek convention

The convention held in New York from 21-23 January 1972 is often recognized as the first true Star Trek convention, even though Star Trek: The Original Series had already made its presence felt at earlier (as early as its second season , then still being in production, and ultimately leading up to the establishment of Lincoln Enterprises ), more generic science fiction conventions. The earliest known such presence was the 1–5 September 1966 " Tricon World Science Fiction Convention " in Cleveland, Ohio, where Gene Roddenberry promoted the new Star Trek series, slated to start airing the subsequent week, as well as presenting the audiences the first two pilot episodes for the series, " The Cage " (uncut original version) and " Where No Man Has Gone Before " (revised version, as this episode was already slated to air). ( The Star Trek Compendium , 1993, pp. 1-3) To this date, the franchise continues to make its presence felt outside the specialized Star Trek convention circuit as well, such as the hugely popular ComicCons .

The specialized "true" Star Trek conventions were started by a small group of Trekkies , commonly referred to as " The Committee " – not to be confused with the similarly named one, organized by Roddenberry and several science fiction writers in 1967, for the very first "save Star Trek " letter campaign ( not the famed 1968 one) – , who combined their money, and rented a hotel ballroom, in the hope of getting a group of like-minded fans together. Committee member Joan Winston , whose main responsibility was that of the dealer's room, gives a detailed account of the first convention in Star Trek Lives! . Other members included Allan Asherman , Eileen Becker, Elyse Pines, Steve Rosenstein and Al Schuster.

Although the original estimate of attendees was only a few hundred, several thousand had turned up before the end of the convention, which featured a program of events of an art show, costume contest, a display provided by NASA and a dealers room. Episodes were also screened from 16mm prints, including the original pilot " The Cage " and blooper reel. A number of Trek -connected guest speakers also attended including Trek 's creator, Gene Roddenberry, Majel Barrett , D.C. Fontana , as well as science fiction author Isaac Asimov . One of the most surprising guest speakers, had been former Desilu executive Oscar Katz in his one and only public Star Trek appearance, recounting the days when Roddenberry made his Star Trek is... pitch to him and his colleague Herb Solow and the subsequent efforts to sell the series to the networks. ( Marketing the Moon: The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program , 2014, p. 3)

After this gathering, a series of annual events was organized, which soon included regular cast members, of which DeForest Kelley , Nichelle Nichols , Leonard Nimoy , George Takei , and James Doohan give their own account in the film Trekkies .

Star Trek 30: One Weekend On Earth [ ]

Star Trek 30 : One Weekend On Earth was held 7 September 1996 – 8 September 1996 in Huntsville, Alabama at the US Space and Rocket Center and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. The event was attended by each of the casts and crews, including the entire cast of The Original Series – the last time they all appeared on stage together. This convention was also the last such event Star Trek 's licensing arm, then Viacom Consumer Products , directly produced. [1] (X) [2]

Denise Crosby speaks to the crowd at FedCon XI

FedCon, short for Federation Convention, is Europe's largest annual sci-fi convention, held in Bonn, Germany (occasionally it was held in Düsseldorf and Fulda). It started in 1992 as a pure Star Trek convention, but has expanded to include various other film and television series. The film Trekkies 2 visited FedCon XI (2003), and FedCon XV (2006) was also a stop on the international tour of the 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection exhibition. Attendance at FedCon XI averaged 5,000 per day.

Creation conventions [ ]

The Christie's auction exhibit at the 2006 Official Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas

Creation Entertainment was founded in 1971, and has been producing "traveling" Star Trek conventions for many years in cities all over North America and Great Britain. At the height of Star Trek 's popularity in the early to mid '90s, Creation was organizing 110 conventions per year, sometimes three in one weekend. They have a long licensing history with Paramount and Viacom Consumer Products, and have sold nearly US$12 million of official Trek merchandise. Creation started its association with Star Trek in 1991, when it attained a license from Paramount "for the production of film stills", encompassing a landmark agreement for the entire franchise that covered photos as well as a wide range of collectible souvenirs. [3]

The company became hosts of the annual Official Star Trek convention – first with the "Grand Slam" event each spring in Los Angeles and then Pasadena, California, which ran from 1993 to 2008, with a revival in 2013. A segment of Journey's End: The Saga of Star Trek: The Next Generation was filmed at the 1994 Grand Slam.

Beginning in 2002, Creation started a second annual convention at the Las Vegas Hilton (in conjunction with Star Trek: The Experience ) in August. By 2005, 15,000 people bought tickets to the convention. The event, often abbreviated to "VegasCon" or the hashtag #STLV, moved to the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino in 2011, two years after The Experience closed.

The 2006 40th anniversary convention was held in Las Vegas on 17 August through 20 August . It was a stop on the international tour of the 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection exhibition, and featured in the documentary Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier produced by The History Channel . For the 2011 45th anniversary , the 11 through 14 August Las Vegas convention [4] was preceded by two smaller ones in San Francisco (11-13 March [5] ) and Boston (15-17 [6] ). Five years later, the 50th anniversary convention was a complete sellout for the first time ever, and had expanded to five days, from 31 July through 4 August. [7]

The 2013 Vegas convention saw a world record attempt for the largest gathering of people in Star Trek costume. 1085 attendees, including guest Terry Farrell , beat the record established at Destination Star Trek London the previous year. [8]

Destination Star Trek [ ]

Running since 2012 on a biennial basis (with two events in 2014), Destination Star Trek is the official European Star Trek convention. The convention has taken place in London (twice), Birmingham (twice), and Frankfurt.

The 2012 event saw all five (at the time) TV captains appearing on stage together for the first time in Europe, [9] and was attended by 12,000 people. [10]

Vulkon conventions [ ]

Chris Avilla displaying some of his props at a Vulkon convention

Vulkon began running conventions in 1987 in places like Orlando, Cleveland, Houston, and Atlanta. Vulkon featured a banquet with the stars, a live DJ and dance on Saturday evenings, and a costume contest. Normaly two Vulkons were held each year in Orlando, Florida – one in the spring and one in the fall – with an average attendance of between 1,500 and 2,000 people. In late 2008, the company filed for bankruptcy and subsequently dissolved.

Chris Avilla was a Vulkon convention staffer before he became a prop maker for several Star Trek productions.

Further reading [ ]

• "The Conventions as Asimov Sees Them", Isaac Asimov , Starlog , issue 1, August 1976, p. 43
• "The Star Trek Bi-centennial-10 Convention" (Special section), Starlog , issue 3, January 1977, Joan Winston , Jim Burns, et al ., pp. 24-39
• The Making of the Trek Conventions , 1977
• "A Trek Cruise Down Memory Lane", Sue Uram, Cinefantastique , Vol 22 #3, 1991, pp. 19-22

External links [ ]

• Star Trek Conventions in the Seventies at Base of Galactic Science Fiction
• DestinationStarTrek.com - official website
• FedCon web site
• Vulkon Entertainment
• 3 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

HuntsvilleCon returns for star-studded event

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. ( WAFF ) - Huntsville’s very own Comic-Con event, HuntsvilleCon will be back for its second year on June 24 from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.

The Embassy Suites Hotel in downtown Huntsville will be hosting the event that will feature over 100 vendors including, comic books, magazines, toys, games, anime, cosplay and television.

In a press release for the event, featured guests and attractions include:

• Sam Dela Rosa - Comic Book Artist Legend
• Tom McLoughlin Movie Director & Actor - Friday the 13th, Stephen King Movies
• Voice Actor - Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld
• Pokemon, Strawberry Shortcake & Yugioh
• Actor/Artist - Matthew Atchley
• Actor/Artist - Jeremy Palko
• Actor - Megan Chelf Fisher
• A.P Whitfield - CosplayGuest & Judge
• Asuka - CosplayGuest & Judge
• Red Vendetta - CosplayGuest & Judge

There will be a cosplay contest and a Super Smash Bros Tournament for all attendees.

Tickets are on sale now, general admission is $20 and kids 11 and under are free. VIP and Platinum tickets are available at a higher cost.

You can purchase all tickets through the event website or at the door.

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Copyright 2023 WAFF. All rights reserved.

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What do ‘Star Trek,’ ‘Saved By The Bell’ and Huntsville have in common?

On the drive home, Jeremy Long decided to do it. He was coming back to Huntsville from selling comic books at a convention south of Nashville that was poorly attended. For the past six months, after losing his job managing an Italian chain restaurant at a Huntsville mall, Long had been keeping his family afloat selling comic books at cons in Tennessee, Atlanta, Chattanooga and Birmingham.

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Celebrity Sightings at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville

Stars fell on alabama, and visited the rockets.

What do Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Ozzy Osborne, Elon Musk, Joaquin Phoenix, countless NASA astronauts and the Olsen Twins have in common? And, more importantly, what could you easily have in common with them?

They’re among many many celebrities who have walked the exhibits at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center or attended Space Camp. It would be, if not impossible, at least impractical to make a list of them all. When you start trying to include people as diverse as actor Billy Bob Thornton and opera singer Susanna Philips and anchor Hugh Downs and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and country stars Little Big Town and quarterback Josh Dobbs and some guy named Bruce Springsteen, you might as well start trying to list celebrities who have been to Hollywood. But here are a few of the highlights:

Everything is Awesome!

Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett and James Corden visit Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama in January of 2019. James Corden invited the stars of "The LEGO Movie 2" for a battery of tests to determine who is most fit to make a career change to astronaut. Astronaut Robert " Hoot " Gibson helped make sure everything was awesome for these stars.

Ten Flown Astronauts (and Cosmonauts!)

Everyone who’s anyone in the astronaut world has been to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. Neil Armstrong took his fair share of small steps here, and first American in space Alan Shepard was a frequent visitor to the center. But ten spacefarers have a special relationship with the center – they not only visited, they’re Space Camp alumni. Check out the full list here and make your plans to join them! And the space notables aren’t limited to astronauts. NASA’s “Mohawk Guy” Bobak Ferdowsi and SpaceX founder Elon Musk have been to Camp here.

Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger was the first person to attend Space Camp and later fly in space.

Are You Not Entertained (by Space Camp)?

Joaquin Phoenix’s days at Space Camp were long before he was famous for movies like Gladiator and Walk the Line (and the upcoming Joker). In fact, they were well before he was Joaquin Phoenix. Back in 1985, young Leaf Phoenix, as he was known then, came to Huntsville to film SpaceCamp, with a star-studded cast that included Kate Capshaw, Tom Skerritt, Lea Thompson and Kelly Preston. SpaceCamp may have been the first major movie to be filmed at the Center, but there’s been a resurgence in feature-length filming here in the last few years with such titles as “A Smile as Big as the Moon,” “Space Warriors,” “The Mars Generation,” and the upcoming Bollywood film, “Zero.”

Boldly Go to the Rocket City

Star Trek stars are no stranger to the Space & Rocket Center. William Shatner emcee’d the Space Camp 25 th Anniversary Hall of Fame event in 2007, and LeVar Burton featured Space Camp on an episode of Reading Rainbow, to name just a couple of examples. But there’s never been a Star Trek/Space & Rocket Center crossover like the one that occurred in 1996, when Huntsville hosted a 30 th anniversary extravaganza for the show: “Star Trek 30: One Weekend on Earth.” How big was it: for two days, Huntsville was renamed “Star Trek, Alabama,” and speed limits in town were changed to Warp 5 (Unless Otherwise Posted). William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForrest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig and Nichelle Nichols were at the event, along with cast members from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Voyager and Deep Space Nine.

Save the Shuttle with the Trenchcoat Twins

When NASA needs help solving the mysterious ticking sounds coming from the space shuttle, it calls the Olsen Twins, Mary-Kate & Ashley, with assistance from fourth man on the moon Alan Bean. Because of course it does.  The Olsen Mystery Agency came to the Rocket City for 1996’s “The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley: The Case of the U.S. Space Camp Mission,” and spaceflight has likely never been more adorable. In fact, if that’s too much adorable for you, rinse your mind by checking out Ozzy Osbourne’s visit here on the A&E Network travel show “ Ozzy & Jack’s World Detour .” The episode with Space Camp is titled “Lizard of Oz.”

David Hitt is a native of Huntsville who enjoys telling the stories of his hometown. He works as a communications contractor supporting NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. David is a past president of the Huntsville/Madison County Historical Society, and also tells Huntsville history stories at the Huntsville Ghost Walk, and the Maple Hill Cemetery Stroll. He’s the author of two books on space history, “Homesteading Space” and “Bold They Rise."

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Star Trek Conventions

Star Trek Lives! was one of the earliest and most influential Star Trek conventions . It was fan -run, with many members of the committee also active in the Lunarians and working on Lunacon . The convention was also known as the Star Trek Con , the Committee Con and as the International Star Trek Convention .

• 5.1 New York Star Trek '76

1972 [ edit ]

The first convention by this group was held January 21–23, 1972, at the Statler Hilton Hotel in Manhattan and included as guests Gene Roddenberry, Majel Barrett, Isaac Asimov , Hal Clement and D. C. Fontana. The organizers expected 500 people, but 3,000 showed up leaving the committee alive, but overwhelmed.

The committee was:

• Al Schuster , Co-ordinator
• Elyse Pines , Program
• Joan Winston , Dealers Room , NASA Display, Signs
• Eileen Becker , Registration
• Allan Asherman , Art Show
• Deborah Langsam , Costume Call
• Joyce Yasner , Displays
• Devra Langsam , Slide Shows, Program Asst.
• Regina Gottesman , Hospitality
• Steve Rosenstein , Auctioneer , MC
• Stu Hellinger , Program Assistant
• Chris Steinbrunner / Chester Grabowski , Visuals

1973 [ edit ]

In 1973, the convention moved to the Commodore Hotel and attracted approximately 10,000 people to its convention on February 16–19.

Members of the committee for the 1973 convention were: Joan Winston , Elyse Rosenstein , Allen Asherman , Eileen Becker , Steve Rosenstein , Dana Anderson , Thom Anderson , Renee Bodner , Stu Hellinger , Devra Langsam , Deborah Langsam , Eileen Becker , Maureen Wilson , Joyce Yasner and Al Schuster . In later years, Barbara Wenk , Wendy Lindboe , Louise Sachter , Stuart Grossman , Claire Eddy , Diane Duane and David Simmons joined the committee.

1974 [ edit ]

International Star Trek Convention On February 15–18, 1974, the convention attracted between 10,000 and 14,000 people ( Locus reports 8,000-12,000) to the Americana Hotel, and and had to turn people away each day due to Fire Marshall concerns — causing at least one small riot in front of the hotel. There were complaints about the crush and the bad attitude of some committee members (a walk-out from the costume ball was triggered by a committee member cursing at one of the invited guests).

The problems in New York caused Equicon in Los Angeles to impose a membership cap.

The committee fissioned, leaving records in disarray. Shortly after the convention, the committee announced that they no longer had any connection with Al Schuster and "and and all future debts he may incur in the name of the Convention will not be paid or honored, and he no longer has any authority to incur expenses, arrange contracts or conduct business in the name of the convention." They also distinguished themselves as __The__ Star Trek Convention as opposed to Schuster 's __International__ Star Trek Convention . They also reported that they had "misplaced" their list of non-attending members in the 1974 convention and pre-registered members of the 1975 convention.

1975 [ edit ]

The 1975 convention at the Commodore Hotel was held February 14–17 and was chaired by Devra Langsam and was now called the Star Trek Convention . (Former chairman Al Schuster had started a rival convention running a month earlier which kept the name International Star Trek Convention .)

1976 [ edit ]

In 1976, the giant Star Trek conventions seemed to hit a wall: The Chicago Star Trek/Space Spectacular, "The Greatest Show Since Earth" was held in June. The committee did heavy advertising including TV spots, and had rented the Chicago Amphitheater, which seats 13,000. The got 200 people on Friday and 800 on Saturday and then cancelled the convention. They did not pay the stars who came and the convention was reported to have lost multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Other Star Trek conventions that failed in 1976 included the Boston Star Trek convention in April, a Tampa convention in June, and a Toledo Star Trek convention . The Toronto Star Trek convention lost money and the New York Star Trek Roast was cancelled "for lack of interest".

New York Star Trek '76 [ edit ]

New York Star Trek '76 attracted between 20,000 and 50,000 people according to the New York Times with many ticket holders being turned away when the facilities were completely swamped. (Its committee seems to have been entirely unprepared and quite disorganized.) The New York Attorney General investigated and both fan -run conventions ended.

Fanlore entry .

This had a fortunate side-effect in that it probably helped to kill the SF Expo , a convention planned for June of that year at the New York Hilton which was an attempt to create a regular SF convention on the scale of the Star Trek conventions.

If applicable, please include category Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, Ireland, NZ, UK, US, ROW or World.

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• HUNTSVILLECON - POP CULTURE EVENT    SUNDAY JUNE 30, 2024 EMBASSY SUITES HOTEL 10:00AM - 5:00PM   ADMISSION $20 | KIDS FREE - 1 PER ADULT | HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA MAILING LIST  | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM  | TICKETS
• Guests/Attractions

HuntsvilleCon is a collectors’ mecca convention located in the beautiful City of Huntsville, Alabama. Striving to be Alabama’s best and truest comic convention featuring fandoms of multiple genres. As a long-time collector of comics and pop culture items the promoter brings Alabama an event that will satisfy any fandom!

Join our Mailing List - Click Here  |  Sponsorship Opportunities - Click Here

HuntsvilleCon will have exhibitors that cater to a wide-spectrum of interests including: 

• comic books        • magazines         • toys                             • video games 

• movies                 • wrestling           • sci-fi                             • sports cards

•anime manga       • cosplay             • artwork sketches         • apparel   

In addition, a roster of comic industry professionals and fandom-related celebrities are guaranteed in attendance for fans to meet and greet. This will be one show not to miss!

Next Show: Sunday June 30, 2024 at the Embassy Suites Hotel,  Huntsville , AL 

• Anniston/Gadsden

South Star lineup: New Huntsville music festival headliners Gwen Stefani, blink-182

• Updated: Apr. 23, 2024, 4:28 p.m. |
• Published: Apr. 23, 2024, 10:08 a.m.

Gwen Stefani performs with No Doubt at Coachella on April 20, 2024. Stefani is one of the headliners for the debut edition of South Star Music Festival in Huntsville, Alabama. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP) Amy Harris/Invision/AP

• Matt Wake | [email protected]

The lineup for Huntsville’s first multi-day, large-scale, real-deal, music festival in 13 years is here.

Headliners for South Star Music Festival , set for September 28 and 29 at John Hunt Park, are Gwen Stefani on Saturday and blink-182 on Sunday.

Other artists on the lineup for Saturday: Shinedown, Jane’s Addiction, Jimmy Eat World, TLC, Juvenile, Gin Blossoms, Candlebox, Dexter and the Moonrocks, and Winona Fighter.

Sunday’s lineup also boasts: Beck, Sublime, Goo Goo Dolls , Ludacris, Big Boi, Pete Yorn, Vanessa Carlton, Bully, and Billy Allen + The Pollies .

That’s 10 acts each day for a total of 20 performing artists over the weekend across South Star’s two main stages.

People who graduated from high school in the late ‘90s are now in their mid-40s. As South Star Music Festival debut lineup attests, ‘90s and 2000s nostalgia is in full bloom.

Pop-punkers Blink-182′s breakthrough album, 1999′s “Enema of the State,” was released 25 years ago. For context, albums that turned 25 in 1999 included self-titled debuts from Kiss and Bad Company and sophomore LPs by Aerosmith and Lynyrd Skynyrd. By that math, blink-182 hits “What’s My Age Again?” and “All The Small Things” are the new “Strutter” and “Sweet Home Alabama.”

In the ’90s, Gwen Stefani rose to fame fronting ska-rockers No Doubt on hits like “Don’t Speak” before going on to solo stardom with smashes like 2004′s “Hollaback Girl.”

Jane’s Addiction was the tip of the spear of the alternative rock movement, with albums like 1990′s “Ritual de lo Habitual.”

Beck’s arthouse mix of rock and rap produced iconic mid ’90s tracks like “Loser” and “Where It’s At.”

Sublime -- reinvigorated recently with late singer Bradley Nowell’s now-28-year-old son Jakob on the mic -- soundtracked 1996 with reggae-flecked jams like “What I Got” and “Santeria.”

The acclaimed Nashville alt-rock band Bully gives South Star’s lineup a compelling, present-tense component. Soul-rock talents Billy Allen + The Pollies, based in Muscle Shoals, add a splash of current local color.

Tickets go on sale 10:40 a.m. central Thursday. There’s a presale that same day beginning at 10 a.m. Prices increase once the public on-sale begins, according to South Star’s website and social media .

Prices start at $224 for a two-day general admission ticket and $139 for one-day general admission. They go up to $925 for one-day and $1,395 for two-day “platinum” tickets.

Those platinum tix include exclusive front-of-stage viewing at the fest’s two main stages, complimentary full-service bar and all-day dining, a dedicated entrance lane into the festival and other extras.

There are also general admission plus (two-day $339, one-day $259) and VIP ($649, $459) tiers for tickets.

According to the festival’s website, there are “no hidden fees” in the ticket pricing.

South Star is being produced by C3 Presents of Austin, Texas. C3′s many other festival productions have included Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, Atlanta’s Shaky Knees and New Orleans’ Voodoo Music + Arts Experience.

Huntsville has been without a large-scale music festival since the final Big Spring Jam in 2011. The engineering-centric city’s music profile has risen steadily since the opening of Orion Amphitheater in spring 2022.

MORE ON HUNTSVILLE CULTURE:

A great Alabama restaurant’s opening a new location inside an amphitheater

New Huntsville music venue opening soon, first show already sold-out

Why one of Alabama’s best young rock bands changed their name

What’s next for Huntsville’s best young singer/songwriter?

Why this street might be Huntsville’s best for local food

The origins and continuing impact of Huntsville’s signature beer

The future of Huntsville’s guitars might be in this guy’s hands

Meet the family behind Huntsville’s best fried chicken

The Texans who brought killer beef brisket to North Alabama barbecue

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2024 Alabama Comic Cons & Anime Conventions Schedule

Upcoming alabama conventions, alabama comic con (birmingham), past alabama conventions, huntsville comic & pop culture expo (alabama).