The Official Red Dwarf Convention 2025

[barbucha]

The Official Red Dwarf Convention

The Level

18th – 19th July 2026

reddwarfofficial.com

Topic

[barbucha]

Confirmed Guests, so far

[barbucha]

of course it’s supposed to be 2026! is there a way to edit the thread title?

[barbucha]

Who’s coming, who will I meet at the event? :)

[Rushy]

I would come, but I live in Estonia. I’ll have to cherish the wine instead

[Stephen Abootman]

In perhaps a tad premature statement given the announced guests so far, The What’s On page says that you can “Get your favorite Red Dwarf merchandise signed by Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (The Cat), and Robert Llewellyn (Kryten)”

[RunawayTrain]

Ah, if it were Northampton (I kept getting the two mixed up for several years) I might have been able to go for half a day.  Alas.

[barbucha]

I’ll be traveling from the Czech Republic, and I can’t wait :)

[Cardinal_Hordriss]

I’m tempted. It’s not a million miles away… but I’ve no one to come with me.

[Jonsmad]

In perhaps a tad premature statement given the announced guests so far, The What’s On page says that you can “Get your favorite Red Dwarf merchandise signed by Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Craig Charles (Lister), Danny John-Jules (The Cat), and Robert Llewellyn (Kryten)”

That whole page is placeholder text from the website design stage.   There is 1 guest described as Headliner elsewhere so I think that’s likely Craig yeah, but wait and see. 

[paulf]

In my humble opinion any red dwarf convention is great thing. A bit disappointed that it is not being held in a hotel. For those who attended DJ, is it just me or was one of the best things about those conventions the fact that many attendees and guests all stayed at the hotel. I’ve met so many good people through DJ’s at Nottingham and Birmingham. Late nights at the bar and bleary eyed breakfasts each morning really added to the overall atmosphere. Anyone planning to stay at the crown plaza or is there a better option which will attract more attendees?

[si]

I’d like to stay at the Crowne Plaza, but it’s too expensive, especially with what I’ve forked out for the convention itself – a lot more than I’d’ve liked, or than I’d normally pay for anything, but FOMO got in the way and put my credit card into action this evening, getting a Bronze pass. Got a room at St James’ Hotel instead, 15-20 mins walk away from the convention.
Being able to stay up late in the hotel bar having a drink or three, without having to worry about making a late journey somewhere else is always a plus.

[MANI506]

Thinking about it for old time’s sake. My previous DJs are 1997, 1998 and 2009.

[Stephen R. Fletcher]

It’s way too expensive for me. After being at the last few DJs, I do have FOMO, but there’s just no way realistically that I can afford those prices! 

I really don’t know how to feel about all this, to be honest.

[Podey]

Not including all “regular” guests or even the evening party in the ‘bronze’ ticket is scandalous. 

I’ve attended around 5 Starfury events who do these kind of conventions and those things are always included in their base ticket level, which is just £10 more. 

[Podey]

I also just noticed ‘headline guests’ as separate to ‘regular guests’ (which Starfury don’t do), so you wouldn’t even get the core cast’s autos included if you buy the £290 ticket?! 

[Dave]

I also just noticed ‘headline guests’ as separate to ‘regular guests’ (which Starfury don’t do), so you wouldn’t even get the core cast’s autos included if you buy the £290 ticket?! 

[barbucha]

Yes, you could buy the Auto and Photo separately. The party entrance is also possible to buy separately.
But you always need the main ticket, for sure.

But I won’t hide the fact that the ticket prices surprised me, to put it mildly.

[Jonsmad]

See you in Nottingham Si. I went for Bronze also.  

I am pretty happy as a fan who has already met & got the signatures of the main cast previously. My hope is for a signature of someone I’ve not met from the show before, and enjoying all the Q&A’s. That £120 will get me that at not much more than the last DJ I attended. I am getting old so I’m a bit less interested in the noisy drinking party night too, so will decide if that’s worth it, when announced later.  If it ends up being them selling Craig as a funk & soul night drawing some separate crowd. Again I’ve seen that a few times. So party on everyone. 

I applaud Doug for his involvement in this, I hope he gets some £ , five years on from his last TV contract. It does sound as if now uk tv are going to scrap the storage cost of some of the Dave era stuff they kept. He may be using this auction and event to keep that stuff out of skips and liquidate, create revenue, push  it into the hands of the kind of fans who can afford to treasure it so it’s preserved. I feel it’s time for that moment. It may even help something in the future. Those who can’t afford to buy will get to see some of this stuff as a  bow at this event and a bit more. 

I’m thankful there is an event, and a range of entry prices. Five years on from any DJ activity. 

That said, this appearing two streets away from

The last Dimension Jump venue and loudly proclaiming its “first” or “official ness” has definitely drawn the attention of a lot of old school fan crowd , the culture shock of Em-corp-con-ifacatiom. Both organisers and fans have been proclaiming at length “It’s not DJ” . This culture shock is palatable still.  It’s possibly one last tribute to everyone who made dimension jump so affordable and special & inclusive for decades. Look at the missing quiz, game show, all fans together feeling, the sheer brilliance of their agreements and all for one price promise. It was all Legendary: Yes this Clearly isn’t DJ!!!!  It’s a world away from that . At nearly five times the cost top level it doesn’t fully match what even the last DJ was let alone the most legendary ones: 

Anyone ranting that is totally valid dashing of expectations. We as fans used to criticise DJ also after all, sometimes it deserved it and some times it didn’t. We watch a show where shouting “Smeg” is what we do. This smegging ain’t DJ & there is no DJ. That’s where we are at. Rant on fans. Good luck Official Convention.  See you in Notts

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

We’ve had insane inflation since the last DJ, so it’s understandable prices are higher than they’ve been in previous years (just look at how batshit mental a lot of gig tickets got real wuick after COVID) 

But I’d also assume as a private enterprise, and not a Fan Club effort, they’re trying to turn a profit. Which is sort of understandable in terms of living in a hellish capitalist society, but for a show with a relatively small fan base and a cast of well know but not mega stars, it does feel like an attempt to gouge poor fans as much as possible. 

[Podey]

We’ve had insane inflation since the last DJ, so it’s understandable prices are higher than they’ve been in previous years (just look at how batshit mental a lot of gig tickets got real wuick after COVID)  

This is a factor, of course, but I was comparing the prices to Starfury’s current pricing. 

For comparison, here’s their structure for an upcoming Stargate event. £280 is the most expensive ticket. ‘Gold’ get a ‘meet and greet’, priority seating for the panels and one autograph from each ‘bonus’ guest over ‘Regular’ attendees. 

[Jonsmad]

BTW. If you haven’t seen the part of the site. It’s 1,000 capacity.   /. 250 gold, 250 silver, 250 bronze, 150 standard weekend. With 50 standard day tickets. With presumably a few complimentary event people making up the last 50 in that total. 

[Warbodog]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Dave]

[Jo]

We as fans used to criticise DJ also after all, sometimes it deserved it and some times it didn’t. We watch a show where shouting “Smeg” is what we do. This smegging ain’t DJ & there is no DJ. That’s where we are at. Rant on fans. Good luck Official Convention.

Yup, can confirm. It’s slightly triggering, but also kind of interesting to be able to watch this from a distance, to see people use DJ as a weapon against this event, when their beef seems to actually be that DJ doesn’t exist anymore. 

And FWIW, I don’t give a fuck that they call themselves the first official convention. 

[Jo]

I’m tempted. It’s not a million miles away… but I’ve no one to come with me.

I’m sure there’ll be a G&T contingent you could meet up with! 

[Ridley]

Brown level? Harsh.

[Podey]

Brown level? Harsh.

You won’t be saying that in a minute! 

[Technopeasant]

The only cons I’ve been to are Animethon in Edmonton and Otafest in Calgary. At 50$ CAD (£27) a ticket those now seem cheap, even if it was mostly so my wife could buy manga at the vendor halls, and see girls in short skirts. I have always found it bizzare that they didn’t have anywhere to just hang out and meet other people (granted we never stayed for the dances but that doesn’t quite seem the same thing), so interesting that DJ did offer that.

[Warbodog]

I’ve only been to my small market town’s free “Comic Con,” which is just some market stalls and the occasional special guest appearance of someone dressed as a video game character. (Only Super Mario, mind. Maybe you can pay for an upgrade to get Sonic).

[Technopeasant]

But hey, it could have been knockoff Mario!

[Author]

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