MinamiCon 31
13th - 15th March 2026
@ Novotel Southampton
Thank you for a fabulous 30th MinamiCon. Your generous selves have raised £2,500 for the British Heart Foundation. We will now move on from Evolution into the Mecha world for our 31st year.
Registration opening ~ July/August 2025
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About Us
MinamiCon is the longest-running Anime and Japanese culture convention in the UK, entirely run for fans by fans - we are a non-profit organisation staffed by volunteers. Our convention is a 3-day event, kicking off from Friday afternoon and running through to Sunday evening, with a packed schedule of events, workshops, panels, games and other con staples like the Masquerade. The con was founded to promote the cuter side of anime, opening up to be more family-friendly and embracing the MinamiCon Fairy as our mascot. Each year, we centre the convention around a theme. The theme for MinamiCon 31 is
Membership Ticket
£70 for full 3-days membership
T-shirt
£12 for a themed con T-shirt
Highlights
We hold our MinamiCon Matsuri on Friday - our take on a Japanese festival. Saturday ramps up to more high-energy staples such as the masquerade and karaoke, while Sunday is chilled with the Cosplay Café and Kotatsu Lounge.
Shopping
Our Dealers' Room houses a mix of dealers with commercial companies alongside fan artists, where you can buy merchandise, DVDs, model kits, Japanese snacks and drinks and custom artwork. If you're looking for a bargain or to de-clutter your home from unwanted items, there's the jammed-full Bring & Buy. There's also the charity auction, where you may find some unique items for sale.
Panels/Workshops
We have a variety of panels and workshops such as Gundam Speed Building, cooking lessons, sake tasting, art and cosplay workshops – and we aim to have a mix where everyone will find something to interest them. In fact, the most common problem is having too many things to do!
Games
The Tokonatsu team does an amazing job of running our games room bringing in actual games machines along with quite a few consoles. You'll find the games room next door in the ibis Hotel just opposite the entrance of the Novotel Hotel. All throughout the weekend we also have plenty of quizzes and mysterious puzzles for you to participate in.
Our Charity Initiatives
We have also year on year raised an incredible amount of money for charity through our fund-raising events. Our con charity is the British Heart Foundation, in memory of our treasurer, Ewan Chrystal. We raised a total of £2,500 at MinamiCon 30 thanks to the generosity of our con-goers.
Where
Home to the convention since MinamiCon 3, the Novotel Hotel is within walking distance of Southampton Central train station.
You will find most of the event rooms located on the ground floor and the 5th floor of the hotel. The Games Room, is located at the ibis Hotel, near the entrance of the Novotel Hotel.
There are a limited number of hotel rooms that will be available at convention rates which will be published closer to when we re-open registration in the summer.
Participate
Membership Pick-Up at the Con
Show your proof of identity and collect your membership badge and con pack from the Registration Desk located at the foyer of the Novotel. The Registration Desk will be open from 12pm-5pm Friday. If you arrive on Friday and the Registration Desk is no longer in the foyer, please head down the hallway on the left (past the bar) towards the Minami Matsuri, where you will find the desk has moved. If you arrive after the Registration Desk is closed, head up to Ops on the 5th floor instead.
The following lists the forms of ID that will be accepted:
- A valid passport
- A current full/provisional driving license
- Credit/Debit Card
- Citizen Card
- Official Student or College Card
- ProveIT Age Card
- A Ministry of Defence Form 90 (Defence Identity Card)
- Recent bank statement showing your con registration address
- Recent utility/council bills showing your con registration address
- Rent Book
- NHS Medical Card
- Young Persons Railcard
Masquerade
Want to enter the masquerade on Saturday evening at MinamiCon? Then get your entry in before midnight on the Friday night of the con. We have a number of prizes up for grabs for some really bizzarre made up on the spot categories.
Events
We are always on the look-out for new ideas for events. If you would like to propose an event that you would like to run, please send in your proposal. Events proposed must obviously be relevant to the con. If you have an event that ties in with the con theme, that would be even better. Feel free to use the following list as a guideline for the type of events that we tend to have. We have a variety of events that run at the con. We are just working through finalising the schedule and will be publishing the schedule on the site nearer to the con.
- Cosplay Café
- Cosplay How-Tos
- Demonstrations
- Festival/Party
- Games/Competitions
- Karaoke
- Panels/Talks
- Quizzes
- Workshops
Artists' Alley @ Matsuri
We hold our matsuri festival on Friday evening for a couple of hours. Last year, we introduced an Artists' Alley at the matsuri. There are a limited number of tables available, and we are looking for creative tables, especially ones that would run a game at their stall. If you are interested, contact us and tell us your ideas.
Dealers
We have a dedicated Dealers' Room that is opened on Saturday and Sunday of the con. If you wish to be a dealer, just get contact us and let us know more about you and what you'd like to sell and our dealers' liaison will be in touch.
Bring & Buy
There's a dedicated room at the con for the bring & buy where you can put any of your unwanted merchandise up for sale. We take in submissions at the con from Friday afternoon but if you want to be super-organised, just download the form below and follow the instructions.
The bring & buy room is open for taking in items on Friday and early Saturday morning. The room is then open for sales on Saturday and Sunday.
Gophers / Volunteers
MinamiCon has always relied on our tremendously hard-working and lovely gopher volunteers to keep the con running as well as we can. It is a herculean team effort to ensure everybody has a great time at the con. If you'd like to lend a hand at the con and put your name down for gophering, just sign-up and our gopher liaison will be in touch.
We are also in need of volunteer cosplay waiters and waitresses for the Cosplay Café, where we'll be serving cake and drinks. If you would like to help out at the café, then just sign-up to let us know you're interested to do a shift or two.
Dealers @ MinamiCon 30
Charming Sushi
Officially licensed collectibles from Japan. Expect Nendoroids, Iciban Kuji and plenty of kawaii merchandise.
Genki Gear
Genki Gear produces original t-shirts that stand out amongst the crowd! We have a number of influences from Japanese culture, Dungeons and Dragons, tabletop games, and science fiction and we add to it a dash of unique humour.
Mad Wizard Studios
Artisan blacksmith, metal worker, fabricator and movie/theatre and LARP prop maker
Studio Chai
Independent artist and designer creating merch and art with a cute, kooky and whimsical flavour
