It’s a bird!  It’s a plane!  It’s KFX!  New Vintage Theatre is set to kick off a super new fan experience for Kelowna this March 21- The Kelowna Fan Xpo.  This event is a celebration of live performance, film, animation, gaming, cosplay and fan culture with high profile local, national and international guests slated to attend.  Thrilling events, vendors, artists and celebrities will be found at four downtown locations-Kelowna Community Theatre, The Black Box Theatre, Okanagan Regional Library and The Delta Grand Hotel.

“Last year we produced a small festival called The Kelowna Anime and Comic Festival in conjunction with a superhero musical we were producing.  We expected about 50 people to come to our simple afternoon event and had over 300 people in and out over the course of the day.  The main message we got that day is to do it again-bigger and better”, says Artistic Director Bonnie Gratz who has been working on planning the festival with Producer/ New Vintage Artistic Associate Joe Welton since May.

The exciting line-up includes presentations by Stephan Franck (Despicable Me, How To Train Your Dragon & Silver Comics), John Delaney (The Simpsons) and Ryan Olsen (Disney Interactive); a chance to meet fan favorites like Mike Coleman (Once Upon A Time, Dragonball Z, Edge of Tomorrow) and Mark Meer (Mass Effect), see a hilarious play called Harold of Galactus performed by Meer and Chris Craddock (Tiny Plastic Men) as well as performances by The Geekenders from Vancouver.  Patrons can learn about the animation industry from Yeti Farm, Bardel, Disney Interactive and about gaming advances with Hyper Hippo. In addition there will be Cosplay (Fan Costume Contests) for adults and for children, the chance to draw with professional artists and view their work at Disney Interactive Artist Alley and the chance to try table top games and videogames.  Film will be highlighted with FX make-up demonstrations and Vancouver’s  Lucha Gore who will be speaking and offering a follow up workshop for horror filmmakers.  There will be a host of amazing vendors and contests for great prizes including airfare for two to San Diego, courtesy of Alaska Air which prize winners may use to attend Comic Con 2015.

On site participants can expect Star Wars characters around throughout the day and will be treated to Sci-Fi worthy light saber battles courtesy of Okanagan Combat Guild. For those who are inspired to jump in and get on the Comic Con or Cosplay circuit artists Trevor Frick, Shelby Bach, Brock Gratz and last year’s Cosplay Winner Jenn Pynn will do a question and answer with great advice about how to get into the North American game.

All this and more awaits those who are ticket holders.  Tickets are available from www.selectyourtickets.com .  Regular Advance Tickets are $20, $30 at the door. VIP Passes are also available, for $75, you will get admission to the event, an original poster, designed by The Simpson’s John Delaney, t-shirt and early entry.  These limited edition passes are only available by calling or walking up Prospera Place Box Office.

A full line up of events,  as well as select vendor and volunteer opportunities can be found at www.kelownafx.com or at www.newvintage.ca 

New Vintage Theatre is a not for profit, charitable organization who thanks these event sponsors for their support-The City of Kelowna, Alaska Air, WTFast , Disney Interactive, Okanagan Regional Library, as well as our media sponsors Pulse Communications, The Daily Courier, Q103, Kelowna NOW.