Our story
The Beginning
Fantasy & Magic Con is a project created by pop culture fans from a variety of backgrounds. Since the pandemic, Poland had been missing an event inspired by the large-scale comic cons held abroad. That became the main idea behind creating FMC.
Work on the convention was initiated by Kinga Zgorzelska in autumn 2025. The team worked on the event in secret until January 2026, when Fantasy & Magic Con was officially announced. An unconventional venue was chosen for the convention: Służewiec Racecourse, a location previously associated more with music festivals than fan conventions.
Soon after, FMC announced its first actor guest Matt Ryan, giving fans the opportunity to meet him in Warsaw.
Over the next six months, the team worked on bringing the convention to life and spreading the word. Not only through regular social media content, but also by meeting fellow convention-goers at other events.
In 2026, you could find us with our own booth at Bykon in Bydgoszcz, 3k6 Kolektyw in Lublin, and Magnificon in Kraków. We also travelled beyond Poland to attend Comic Con Baltics in Vilnius, Lithuania.
World-Class Actors and International Recognition
Meanwhile, the line-up for the first edition continued to grow with more well-known names, attracting the attention of pop culture fans not only from Poland, but from abroad as well. Over the following months, the guest list expanded to include actors such as Manu Bennett (Spartacus, Hobbit, Arrow), Crispin Redman (Baldur’s Gate 3), Nick Apostolides (Resident Evil, Warframe: 1999), Katy Townsend (Arcane, Fallout 4), Scott Arthur (Elden Ring), Dave B. Mitchell (Sonic the Hedgehog, League of Legends, Mortal Kombat), Reed Shannon (Arcane), Tim Downie (Baldur’s Gate 3, Outlander) and Stefan Kapičić (Deadpool).
Finally, the excitement surrounding Nick Apostolides’ appearance and the popularity of Resident Evil Requiem led the organizers to invite several actresses from the same title: Angelę Sant’Albano (who was ultimately unable to make it to Warsaw due to professional commitments), Eden Riegel and Emmę Rose Creaner.
With the Resident Evil franchise celebrating its 30th anniversary, actors from other entries in the series also joined the line-up: Nicole Tompkins (Resident Evil 3, Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil Death Island), Lily Gao (Resident Evil 4, Welcome to Raccoon City), Stephanie Panisello (Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil Infinite Darkness, Resident Evil Death Island), Jeff Schine (Resident Evil 3, Resident Evil Village) as well as André Peña and Genevieve Buechner (Resident Evil 4).
Together, they formed the largest Resident Evil cast reunion held anywhere in the world to date.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 received an almost equally strong representation. Cast members Tracy Wiles, Billie Fulford-Brown, Kirsty Rider and Rich Keeble ravelled to Warsaw for the event, joined by the game’s lead producer and writer Jennifer Svedberg-Yen.
A smaller Legends of Tomorrow reunion also came together almost at the last minute. In late June and early July, Nick Zano and Adam Tsekhman joined Matt Ryan, who had been announced back in January.
All of this helped Fantasy & Magic Con gain international recognition even before its first edition, ultimately bringing fans from more than 20 countries to Warsaw.
Polish Guests at FMC
The first edition of Fantasy & Magic Con also featured a strong line-up of Polish creators. Guests included voice actors Jarosław Budnik, Hanna Kinder-Kiss, and Ytna; writers such as Artur Urbanowicz, Jakub Ćwiek, and Agnieszka Kulbat; as well as comic book creators including Rafał Szłapa and Tomasz Grodecki, joined by the current artists working on Ćma. Yelly.Studio and Wydział 7 were also represented at the event.
On Saturday, the Main Stage hosted a panel dedicated to Polish superheroes, which drew considerable interest from the audience. Scheduling it just before Saturday’s headline panel gave many Polish pop culture fans their first introduction to homegrown superheroes from the pages of Polish comic books.
We hope this will help spark greater interest in Poland’s own superheroes, and we plan to continue featuring similar panels at future editions of Fantasy & Magic Con.
On Sunday, the Main Stage welcomed Polish voice actors from the Pokémon series.
The Racecourse and Umamusume
The event’s location and the popularity of Umamusume created the most natural combination possible — a race of “horse girls” on an actual horse racing track. The event proved hugely popular, attracting participants not only from Poland, but also from the Czech Republic, Lithuania, and Estonia.
Participants competed over three distances, with the longest race covering 250 metres. More than 100 participants took part in total, cheered on by a large crowd gathered along the racecourse railings.
Two Debuts. What We Learned from Our First FMC
Fantasy & Magic Con made its debut on July 11–12 at Warsaw’s Służewiec Racecourse, bringing together thousands of pop culture fans. It was also Lily Gao’s very first convention, giving her the opportunity to meet fans in this setting for the first time. The event also marked Jeff Schine’s first convention appearance in Europe, while for most of our guests, it was their first-ever visit to Poland.
The first edition of Fantasy & Magic Con proved to be a success in terms of attendance. However, we are not resting on our laurels. Following the event, we conducted a survey and gathered your feedback, which will help us improve the quality of future editions.
Our main goal remains unchanged: to create a high-quality event that can stand alongside the best conventions in Europe.
Unfortunately, the unpredictable weather put the idea of combining a convention with an outdoor event to the test, confirming that moving to a new venue for the second edition was the right decision.
Fantasy & Magic Con Returns in 2027
Even before the first edition of Fantasy & Magic Con took place, the dates for our second edition were revealed. Fantasy & Magic Con will return on August 6–8, 2027. We’re staying in Warsaw, but moving to a new venue, which we’ll reveal very soon.
2027 marks the 20th anniversary of major gaming franchises such as Mass Effect and Assassin’s Creed, which is why we have invited, among others, actors from both titles to join us in Poland.
Video game and animation voice actors will remain an important part of our DNA, but we also plan to expand our line-up with more anime voice actors, as well as actors from film and television.
You can send us your guest suggestions through our social media channels or by email.