Rikon 2025, the largest Croatian convention of fantasy, pop culture, and gaming, will once again open its doors in less than a month for a weekend that promises an unforgettable experience for fans of fantasy, cosplay, video games, and East Asian culture. This year's Rikon, which will take place from September 26 to 28 at the Exportdrva Rijeka venue, is set to be bigger and richer than ever before, bringing international guests, a series of interesting lectures, panels, workshops, quizzes, competitions, games, and tournaments, as well as a record number of exhibitors.
One of this year's honorary guests at Rikon is Shaune Harrison, a legend of film special effects makeup, who will be accompanied by his partner, also an experienced makeup artist, Paula Anne Booker-Harrison. The audience can expect panels and lectures on SFX careers “behind the scenes” and a live SFX makeup demo workshop on Sunday.
Shaune Harrison is behind some of the most recognizable faces of heroes and villains from our favorite films, including work on the "Harry Potter" franchise, notably Lord Voldemort and Mad Eye Moody, work on the film "Captain America: The First Avenger" with Hugo Weaving's Red Skull mask, and he has also worked on many characters and creatures for "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones," on Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow," as well as "Stardust," "The Mummy," "The Fifth Element," "The DaVinci Code," "World War Z," "Marvel Avengers: Age of Ultron," and many others.
This year's scientific honorary guest at Rikon is Ante Radonić, one of the most well-known Croatian popularizers of astronomy and space exploration. For more than four decades, he has been the head of the planetarium at the Technical Museum Nikola Tesla in Zagreb, regularly commenting on NASA and ESA missions, rocket launches, the International Space Station, and planetary probes, and he is particularly known for his popular radio show “Andromeda” on Croatian Radio. He frequently lectures across Croatia and the region, tirelessly bringing the latest achievements in astronomy and astrophysics to a wide audience.
The three-day program of Rikon is traditionally filled with interesting panels, lectures, workshops, and quizzes on various popular, cultural, artistic, and scientific topics. Additionally, there is the favorite program highlight - the international Cosplay competition for dressing up as beloved characters from movies, series, and games, as well as the extremely popular K-pop dance competition.
K-pop Dance Competition on Friday
This year, Rikon brings attractive content about East Asian pop culture and music as the host of the only national K-pop Dance competition featuring original choreography to songs from globally popular Korean pop. With the mega-popular and currently most-watched Netflix film “KPop Demon Hunters,” the popularity of Korean pop is greater than ever, and Rikon is preparing a large number of interesting program points and surprises for all fans!
Most Popular Program Highlight: Cosplay Competition on Saturday
An essential part of the program is the Cosplay competition, which brings together beginner and advanced Cosplay artists who will dominate the convention this year with their impressive costumes. The judging panel and the audience will choose their favorites in the categories of advanced competitors and beginners. The judging panel consists of award-winning Cosplay artists, including the winner of this year's editions of the Expo Gameri and Liburnicon festivals - Iva Mikolić - Obelyn, the award-winning German Cosplay artist Walkiah Cosplay, and the award-winning Austrian artist Sabaku Cosplay.
Airsoft Arena: adrenaline game as team building
The entire southern ground floor of Exportdrva will be occupied by the attractive Airsoft Arena - an adrenaline course where teams of four players can try their hand at exciting tactical combat. Airsoft, a popular simulation of combat with fake weapons used in military and police training, becomes a real attraction at Rikon. Visitors will be able to play, buy equipment, or even win professional airsoft replicas in a large raffle.
Playing and tournaments: on the board, with cards, on powerful computers and consoles
Throughout the Rikon weekend, visitors will be able to play: in the board game zone with social games, in the trading card games zone, as well as in the gaming and esports zone - on computers and consoles. The RiRoll association provides a rich board game zone for all those who want to try classic board games, while River City Games organizes tournaments in the TCG zone for games like Yu-Gi-Oh, One Piece, and Magic the Gathering. In the e-sports gaming zone, players can compete in games like League of Legends, Rocket League, Tekken 8, and even try out and compete in the tournament for the latest release FC26!
Free entry for children under 12 and discounts on family tickets
Tickets for Rikon are available on the website www.RikonRijeka.com or through the Entrio system, and excellent family packages for two, three, or more festival tickets are also available. Tickets will also be available for purchase at the event entrance. Rikon is an event for all ages, with free entry for children under 12. Get your tickets and prepare for a magical weekend! The festival program will be announced soon, and all the latest information is available on social media (Instagram and Facebook @RikonRijeka) and the website www.RikonRijeka.com. Rikon is held under the auspices of the City of Rijeka, the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, and the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia.
