The Official Red Dwarf Convention 2026

[barbucha]

This weekend (July 18-19, 2026) the long-awaited event The Official Red Dwarf Convention 2026 took place at The Level in Nottingham. Our crew was right in the middle of the action, but we have to admit that we return with very mixed feelings.

Although the dedication of the fans, who have been invaluable “co-pilots” for the series for decades, was felt at every step, the organization of the event itself had significant gaps in our opinion. We expected a slightly more precise course from an event held under the official license of Grant Naylor Productions.

Were any of you there too? What was your impression of the panels and the overall atmosphere? Share your experiences, so we know if we just had a bad day in our judgment. We will prepare a detailed report for you in the future.

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[clem]

See the recent comments under this article: https://www.ganymede.tv/2025/09/the-ow-much-red-dwarf-convention/

[ListersGransBra]

Absolutely awful. So badly organised and managed. At one point on the Saturday, I queued for over an hour and a half for a bonus cast autograph which I didn’t end up getting, plus I’d been put in the wrong queue, then I gave that up and queued from 11:30 till 13:50 for a group photograph, which although I wasn’t expecting dinner and dancing, boiled down to “stand there. Smile. Right next person!!” then I had to wait an hour and half to get my photo, (people who were in front of me in the queue still hadn’t got theirs by closing time)

the cast (minus Craig because he had another dj set to do), ended up doing their q&a about 40 minutes late due to trying to catch up with autographs. 

The next day wasn’t much better, and it was only because me and another woman kicked up a fuss after being told we could just join the queue and get a main cast members autograph because we’d been in the cosplay competition, that we were allowed in and I got Robert’s autograph.

I managed to snag a ticket for Craig’s meet and greet because the husband of someone who worked there had to go home Ill and she randomly asked a group of us if anybody would like it. 

I was only there because there was so little to do, i figured I’d be just as well starting to queue for the bonus guest autograph session two hours early.   

The group who went in before us must have had at least twenty minutes. Our group got to ask about seven questions because they had to get Craig and Robert back doing auto graphs. 

The q&a on Sunday had been meant to start at 16:30 but I had to leave at 17:00 for my train and the boys from the dwarf were showing no signs of even being able to move from the autograph tables to go on stage. 

I adore Craig but he seemed hungover on the Sunday and seemed rather “refreshed” at the meet and greet. The fact that he was consistently siping from a glass of lager didn’t help. He was either drunk or that tired and hungover mood that sends the alcohol straight to your head after one drink. Either way it was a shame. he was chatty but it was very noticeable  

There was no organisation. Most of the people in the orange T-shirts were great. There was a gerodie woman with multi coloured hair who was a gem. Plus the dark haired lady overseeing the outside queueing Saturday afternoon. She practically had steam coming out of her ears but was as calm and helpful as she could be. The rest of them were about as much use as men’s tits, and don’t get me started on the higher ups  

Gold silver bronze and general admission where basically queueing together at the same time, until at some point, somone from Emcon would shout” gold vips” come to the front!” 😬🙄

there was a merchandise stall, and a stall with general scfi/ super hero prints, plus costumes on ropy looking mannequins.

The Canaries, the Trojan episode jumpsuit and series 8 lavender jumpsuit costumes didn’t have any sort of Info on them, so you didn’t know which characters costume it was  

In short, it was just fucking awful. 

They were so overwhelmed by the amount of people, plus the fact that they had a lot of trainees in, that they didn’t even bother going bag or body searches, and quite readily admitted that was the reason why. 

[Author]

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