St. Petersburg will soon get its first-ever horror convention – Sunshine City Scare, set for May 13-14, 2023 at the Coliseum and surrounding areas. It’s a new type of convention that includes anime horror, video game horror, and comic horror. Early bird tickets for the two-day, family friendly event start at $25.
St. Petersburg, known as the “The Sunshine City,” joins other large Florida cities like Orlando and Tampa as well as smaller municipalities like Ocala and Cocoa in hosting a horror convention. While many Florida cities have comic conventions, far fewer can boast of hosting a horror con.
“St. Pete is ready for an annual horror con after showing tremendous support for our comic con and anime festival,” said convention organizer Dewey Caruthers, who also created St. Pete Comic Con and Anime St. Pete in the past year that drew 3,500 and 3,700 fans, respectively.
The new convention will broaden the definition of a traditional horror con by going beyond movie horror and adding anime horror, video game horror, and comic book horror. “Sunshine City Scare will be honoring horror movies, and we also want anime fans to come revel in their most beloved anime horror, comic geeks to honor their favorite villains, and for gamers to celebrate the most cherished video game horror,” Caruthers said.
Sunshine City Scare guests
Sunshine City Scare with have more than 15 guests, including nationally known voice actors from anime horror and video game horror, horror comic artists, and live-actions actors from horror movies. the first four guests to be announces are:
Jodelle Ferland who is known for portraying Emily in the TV series Dark Matter, and Alessa from the movie Silent Hill.
Austin Tindle‘s anime horror characters include Ken Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul and Marco Bodt from Attack on Titan.
Lindsay Seidel‘s anime horror characters include Eto from Tokyo Ghoul and Pocita from Chainsaw Man.
Adam Gibbs’s anime horror characters include Shinichi Izumi from Parasyte and Kuki Urie from Tokyo Ghoul:re.
Happy Murder’s Day!
The convention will honor mothers, since May 14 is Mother’s Day. For the special day, Sunshine City Scare Crafted a concoction called “Happy Murder’s Day,” celebrating mothers who are murderers or who have birthed murderers in horror movies, anime, and comics.
“We believe mothers deserve better than a boring ham dinner, so we have created Happy Murder’s Day,” Caruthers said. The special day includes a cosplay contest, panels, a movie viewing room, and special holiday cards — all around the theme of mothers.
Contests and programming
This first-of-its-kind horror con will also feature five contests with a total of $2,000 in cash prizes. There will be two cosplay contests (Craftsmanship on Saturday and Murder’s Day on Sunday), as well as a lip sync contest, a fan art competition, and a TikTok film festival. Sunshine City Scare will also feature more than 50 hours of panels on topics that horror geeks and nerds can appreciate.
Vendor booths available
Vendor booths are available with applications available here.
Event sponsors
The event is sponsored by Florida Comic Cons, a news media website that covers conventions and cosplayers; and Florida Cosplay Digital Magazine, which spotlights the state’s best cosplayers from experts who win competition to beginners in cosplay.
Need Help Finding Comic Cons in Florida?
Florida Comic Cons provides the Con Calendar — a curated calendar of upcoming comic, anime, horror, science fiction, fantasy and pop culture conventions in The Sunshine State. Furthermore, event listings include con info as well as helpful links for things like buying tickets and registering as a vendor.
