Experience CO.CON 2026: Sci-fi and fantasy in Pilsen

CO.CON, the largest sci-fi and fantasy festival in Western Bohemia, which regularly attracts over 2,000 visitors, returns to the Pilsen creative zone DEPO2015 on June 6th from 10 AM to 6 PM – this time as a summer edition with an open-air zone. Fans can look forward to a day packed with board and video games, cosplay, WarGames, retro arcades, racing simulators, comics, vendor stalls, special guests, and a live program.

The main hall will transform into a giant gaming space where visitors can try out both current titles and gaming classics. Throughout the day, characters from beloved worlds like The Witcher, Fallout, Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings will appear in meticulously crafted costumes and sets.

The festival will also feature the third annual cosplay competition, workshops, and a festival-wide game.

Moreover, this year's edition, falling on 6/6/2026, will embrace a theme of demons, villains, and hell, with thematic elements woven throughout the entire program.

Interview with the festival organizers

Ricardo Delfino: CO.CON project manager and dramaturg, production lead / deputy program director of DEPO2015 Lenka Honzová: CO.CON marketing, cosplay competition coordinator, marketing manager of DEPO2015

For readers who don't know CO.CON yet – what kind of festival is it, and how do you think it differs from other cons?

L: CO.CON is a festival for everyone who loves sci-fi, fantasy, games, and fandom culture in general. You'll find everything here, from cosplay, board games, and video games to retro arcades, WarGames, lectures, guests, and thematic zones. All of this within the space of Pilsen's DEPO2015.

I think the venue is what sets us apart the most. DEPO2015 has a very specific atmosphere – it's a former transport depot, now a cultural and creative space. The contrast between heavy industrial vibes and fandom culture works surprisingly well and gives the festival its own character.

CO.CON is celebrating its fifth year. How has the festival changed over that time, and what remains the most important thing to you?

L: The festival has grown a lot in these few years. From a smaller event aimed primarily at the local Pilsen audience, it is gradually becoming a festival that people from all over the country travel to, and we are happy that it is slowly making its mark on the Czech con map.

R: Compared to the early years, the program has expanded; I now have two stages with live programming, a large indoor area, and an extensive open-air zone. Even so, we manage to maintain the original community atmosphere and the feeling that anyone can truly enjoy the day, whether they attend such events regularly or are here for the first time.

This year, the festival is themed around demons, hell, and villains. How much has that influenced the program?

R: For our fifth anniversary, we gifted ourselves and our visitors a festival-wide game, a scavenger hunt across all zones. Its storyline is inspired by Dante Alighieri's Inferno and the nine circles of hell. Even the cosplay communities we collaborate with have prepared a more villainous take on their zones. The live program on both stages will touch upon the hellish theme to varying degrees. A new addition is a live hellish exhibition by the Prague Fear House ensemble. There are no good stories without a quality villain – the theme of hell, demons, and the antithesis of good can be found in novels, comics, anime, movies, series, and computer games; it's everywhere, especially across sci-fi and fantasy. But this is definitely not a summer version of a Halloween party or a haunted castle. We tried to enjoy the theme from all angles, though the horror aspect the least.

CO.CON combines gaming, cosplay, board games, fandoms, and live programming. How do you find the balance so that both a hardcore fan and a first-timer find something for themselves?

R: Everyone has their preferences, and it's always a challenge not to overlook pop-culture subgenres that I'm not as familiar with or don't personally prefer. The layout and disposition of the venue help a lot; we place cosplay groups, suppliers of game console and computer collections of all generations, board games, artist alley, or merch sellers into these spaces. On these 'islands,' we naturally try to balance the offerings so that individuals or entire communities don't compete, but rather complement each other. A diverse range of performers helps with that significantly. Our priority is the communities and ensuring they feel comfortable with us.

The cosplay competition is one of the most prominent parts of the program today. How do you manage to build it, and what is important to you for the contestants to take away from it?

L: Cosplay as such is a huge part of CO.CON today, and it gets more prominent every year. The competition itself is attractive to viewers, but it also carries great weight for the cosplay community.

It's not exactly easy to organize, but that's exactly why we enjoy it. Every year we refine the rules, improve the facilities, find new sponsors, and try to make the competition even more professional.

But the most important thing for us is that the contestants take away a good experience. We know that cosplay competitions can be stressful, so we try to create an environment where both experienced cosplayers and people competing for the first time feel comfortable. And I dare say that, based on the feedback, we are succeeding so far.

CO.CON prides itself on its community atmosphere. How do you maintain something like that when the festival grows and over two thousand people attend?

L: The community around the festival helps us a lot. At CO.CON, we collaborate with a number of groups that always naturally attract their own audience.

At the same time, we still try to keep a personal approach. Even though the festival is growing, we don't want to seem anonymous or 'corporate.' I think that is exactly one of the things that performers and visitors see and feel.

What is the biggest challenge in organizing a con?

L: For me, it's mainly time and capacity. CO.CON isn't the only cultural project we work on – throughout the year, we handle dozens to hundreds of other events and projects within DEPO2015 and beyond, so when the preparation period for CO.CON arrives, we are often already pushing the limits of our time.

And then, of course, there is the effort to combine all the different target groups. The festival is very diverse, and one sometimes wonders if it's possible to satisfy everyone – gamers, the cosplay community, families with children, sci-fi and fantasy fans, or even people who just come to enjoy a day off.

R: Managing time. There are countless tasks in preparing the festival itself, especially when it's created by such a small team, and getting them all done while leaving enough time and energy for follow-up steps is often stressful. Fortunately, and unfortunately, I stress out even earlier than necessary – a sort of educational pre-deadline – so I create fake time pockets that get me into the flow. It's strange that it works on me even when I know about it. However, even such a sophisticated system of self-torture has no chance when there is no time left due to other projects and events, as Lenka mentions.

A personal question: Ricardo – if you had a completely free hand and didn't have to worry about budget or capacity, what would you add to CO.CON?

R: I dream of a space for a full-blooded concert during the festival, whether it's legends of game and film soundtracks like Nobuo Uematsu and Joe Hisaishi with an orchestra, or their modern successors like Lorien Testard or Bear McCreary. And then, to have the chance to just enjoy it in peace. 🙂

Lenka – if you had to name one thing that visitors have no idea about regarding your work, what would it be?

L: That CO.CON is actually just one part of my work – albeit the most beloved one. Besides the festival, I am in charge of managing the marketing for all of DEPO2015; I also manage 7 other Facebook and Instagram profiles and 5 websites for other projects. It's quite intense time-wise, so if I don't reply to someone on Instagram within a few hours, it's not ignorance, but rather a battle with the number of open windows and notifications. 🙂

Looking into the future – where would you like to take CO.CON in the coming years, and what would you, on the contrary, never want to lose?

L: We definitely want to continue developing and growing the festival. But that also comes with the need for a larger team and the ability to dedicate ourselves to CO.CON more continuously throughout the year.

At the same time, we would really hate to lose its community atmosphere, friendly approach, and a certain 'soul' that we believe the festival has. That is something we don't want to sacrifice, even if the festival continues to grow significantly.

R: I can't help but agree with my colleague. I would also love to treat CO.CON to some smaller community events throughout the year, both for healthy brand strengthening and for the team itself.