"Always an ace up our sleeve"

CCXP COLOGNE provided around 40,000 participants with an unforgettable time at its first edition from 27 to 30 June 2019. In addition to thousands of visitors, international stars, artists, authors, film studios, fan groups, cosplayers, traders and many other actors were inspired by the special atmosphere. "We are very happy to see how our concept has been brought to life here with the help of the experience of Koelnmesse as organiser and the support of five global content producers and the local fan communities", says Pierre Mantovani, the founder of Omelete, which has organised the CCXP in Sao Paulo since 2014.

He provided one of the many surprises at CCXP COLOGNE. "Woah, not so fast, Germany" echoed suddenly through the Thunder Theater powered by Cinedom at CCXP COLOGNE on Friday evening. Enthusiastic Fast & Furious-Fans had just experienced the world premiere of the final trailer of "Fast & Furious: Hobbs and Shaw", presented by the two international stars Jason Statham and Idris Elba: in a great mood, they spoke live on the stage about the new blockbuster from Universal Pictures. And now Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson suddenly appeared on the big LED wall of the Thunder Theater powered by Cinedom and asked the audience to remain seated for a little surprise in a video message. Because: "At Fast & Furious, we always have an ace up our sleeve." This was followed by a not finally edited excerpt from the film, which starts in cinemas on 1 August – an absolute highlight for the first edition of CCXP COLOGNE.

This was followed by many more exciting moments this weekend, including the exclusive advance screening of ANNABELLE 3 and Tim Burton's "Batman" from 1989, presented by Warner Bros. or the "The Walking Dead" experience from FOX. Many fans fulfilled long-held dreams and could finally meet the stars from iconic productions like "Game of Thrones" (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), "Riverdale" (Ashleigh Murray), "Supernatural" (Mark Pellegrino), "Avengers" (Benedict Wong), "SHAZAM!" (Zachary Levi), "Westworld" (Ben Barnes) or "Once Upon a Time" (Rebecca Mader) personally. Star Wars fans had gleaming eyes from a look at the X-Wing fighter, the imperial All Terrain Walker or Han Solo in carbonite, while Harry Potter fans stood astonished in front of Buckbeak and the hearts of fans of the Batman films opened up for photos with three original vehicles. Collectors of exclusive merchandise left the fair grounds happy and heavily loaded.

Every visitor connects unique experiences and memories with the convention, which is conceived of as a festival. Many photos and videos were taken this weekend in front of scenery and in photo boxes, in the corridors, with stars, cosplayers, walking acts, fan groups and props. CCXP COLOGNE reached more than a million people during the four days via social media and the live stream of the glass studio. The editors of moviepilot and filmstarts, media partners of CCXP COLOGNE, carried out exclusive interviews with star guests and provided interesting insights into the event for five hours each day. Another opportunity for the fans to experience the stars right up close.

Fan groups and cosplayers have surpassed themselves once again with their love of detail. Attractions like the Ghostbusters, the big Fallout area or the 2,000 m2 playground, where visitors could play to their hearts' desire, attracted many visitors. The walking acts already formed a guard of honour in the morning to welcome visitors at the entrance – another goosebump moment. A lot of fun was had at the Ultra Stage with Let’s Play from Orkenspalter TV and LARPzeit. "It's fantastic to see 'my' Role Play Convention in such a new dimension without it losing its heart and soul", says André Kuschel, founder of the Role Play Convention, which was also decisively involved in the conception of CCXP COLOGNE.

Kes from Kes Costumes & Cosplay also sees it precisely this way.

Already with the first edition, the Cosplay Championship is one of the largest cosplay competitions in Europe and is well on its way to developing into a must for cosplayers in the coming years. 1,500 enthusiastic spectators celebrated the performance of the 25 finalists in the Thunder Theater powered by Cinedom on Saturday evening and cheered the three winners: victory went to Anonchi with the cosplay T10 shaman from World of Warcraft, and second place to Suiren Scarva with the cosplay Tigrex Hunter from Monster Hunter World, while Lana Read was pleased to receive third place with the cosplay original design - pirate from Davy Jones' crew (Pirates of the Caribbean).

The comic artists and companies in the Artists‘ Alley also met with an enthusiastic audience in Cologne.

The great interest of visitors in comics and their origins was also evident in the extremely well-attended panels of the international comic artists on the Ultra Stage powered by E.M.P.

Given the great deal of positive feedback with regard to the concept and the quality of the event, it no longer seems quite so important that the ambitious attendance goal of 50,000 - 70,000 visitors was not reached.

The next CCXP COLOGNE takes place from 26-28 June 2020.

Brian Azzarello, Ben Barnes, Esther Barvar, Helmut Barz, C.A. Saltoris aka Ariane de Melo, Robert Corvus, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Audrey DeLane, Mike Deodato, Kathrin Dodenhoeft, Lisa Dröttboom, Laura Dümpelfeld, Thomer Elkrief, Miguel Fernandez, David Finch, Meredith Finch, Jörg Fuchs Alameda, Lara Greystone, Hagen Haas, Lukas Hainer, Jill H. Heinrichs, Bernhard Hennen, Paul M. Hermann, Janika Hoffmann, Wolfgang Hohlbein, Kristen Hughey, Jasmin Jülicher, Lea Kaib, Tanja Karmann, Agga Kastell, Laura Kier, Kinpatsu Cosplay, Tommy Krappweis, Philipp Krasemann, Ana Kreter, Mike Krzywik-Groß, Marie Lenz, Zachary Levi, David Lloyd, Christina Löw, Julia Maar, Rebecca Mader, Maul Cosplay, Kai Meyer, Carolina Möbis, Ashleigh Murray, Eric Nowack, Chuck Palahniuk, Rasmus Pechuel, Mark Pellegrino, Jeannette Peters, Renan Pizii, Christina Pollok, Joe Prado, Yavanna Pütz, Ute Raasch, Ivan Reis, Alessandra Reß, Riki 'Riddle' Lecotey, Michael Schlinge, Fabienne Siegmund, Benjamin Spang, Carsten Steenbergen, Mhaire Stritter, Leonel Sudatti, Talira Tal, Breno Tamura, Matthias Teut, Felix Uhlig, Michael Uslan, Marlene von Hagen, Chris Weidner, Mario Weißkopf, Benedict Wong.