Please note that this is preliminary and subject to change (revised September 16, 2024).
Details
The Irish Games Association hosts Ireland’s oldest independent gaming convention, Gaelcon. This year, it takes place from October 25-28th, at the Crowne Plaza, Northwood, Dublin 9.
Need accommodation for the con? Hotel link; this offer will expire at the end of September. Here’s a map of how to get here.
Memberships which include con entry will cost €50 but will increase in price to €55 on the door.
There is also a €35 Concession Ticket available for the unwaged.
Individual Day tickets are also on sale.
See HERE for more details
Site Guide
Our Con Map will be available as part of the programme. This will direct you to all the events and locations for the con, which is fully contained within the hotel.
Photography
Please note that the event may be photographed for the purposes of promoting the convention and the IGA. Please advise the photographer know if you do not wish to be photographed.
The Plan
So what do we have lined up for you? Here’s a very brief overview of what’s coming –
Guest of Honour
To be confirmed; Watch out for them in their ORANGE tee.
All Weekend
RPG’s and LARPS:
We will be running role playing games and live action role playing games all weekend long.
The full schedule is under preparation.
Board games!
Our amazing board games library will be open all weekend, just pay your refundable deposit (€5) and pick your game, we have a superb breakout area lined up this year too.
The 4-day schedule for the boardgames area is now live for Gaelcon 2024. Pick out the games you want to play and comment on the geeklist for soft pre-bookings. All details can be found here: https://iga.ie/boardgames-schedule-2024/
We are delighted to announce that GMT Games (https://www.gmtgames.com) has sponsored our boardgames events and raffle prizes all weekend. Make sure to rent or prebook a boardgame over the weekend to be in with a chance to win. Raffles will be held at 5pm Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
We will also be demoing some of these fantastic games in the board game room over the weekend.
Traders!
We have a veritable horde of traders and artists clamouring to sell you their wares! We’ll be sure to let you know who is coming!
Wargames – SOLD OUT
We have confirmed Warhammer 40K and Lord of the Rings Wargaming events running for the weekend – both are SOLD OUT as of 15/09/2024. If you can’t compete, we’d love to see you come along to support the competitors.
CCG’s
While the merchants cup battle rages on our CCG team will be working to present some great casual contests throughout Saturday and Sunday for everyone else.
Panels!
We will be hosting talks and workshops throughout the convention, We can’t confirm any details on this just yet, for reasons.
Kids!
We have been working on a host of activities for our younger gamers but I am pleased to confirm
Fingal Community Gaming will be offerring specially written D&D games for 8-12 year olds and 13-17 year olds both in the main hall and in a dedicated sensory friendly rpg room.
The plan is that the kids will pick characters to play in games, then draw those characters during their workshops.
Please note all children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian throughout the event.
Special Events
Charity Auction
The IGA Charity Auction at Gaelcon each year is a major highlight and focus of the event. Running since the late 90s, this auction has raised 100s of thousands of euro for children’s charities and was a part of the reason for the Diana Jones Award committee 2006 annual award for Excellence in Gaming was given to Irish Game Convention Charity Auctions. The auction runs on Sunday night and features a range of rare, collectable, used and unusable gaming related items donated from around the world.
We are delighted to announce that our Charity Partners for the IGA Charity Auction in 2024 are Autism Assistance Dogs and BeLongTo.
This year IGA pledge to donate 60% of the money raised in this year’s auction to Autism Assistance Dogs and 40% to BeLongTo, up to a total of €15,000 combined. Anything raised above €15,000 will be kept in a fund for any charities that might be approved during the year that could benefit from emergency funds.
If you would like to nominate a charity to the IGA please email charity@iga.ie with the name of the charity, outlining what they do and the reasons for nominating the charity. Any nominations will be brought to the IGA Executive Committee for discussion and then to the general IGA membership for further discussion and final approval
Appropriate charities shall be those deemed to improve the quality of life for disabled, ill or disadvantaged children.
This year the IGA Charity Auction will be held on Sunday, 27th October 2024 and will be hosted by Brian Nisbet
If you would like to donate a lot to the auction please email Zoe Thompson, IGA Charity Officer at charity@iga.ie.
Pub Quiz
Quiz will be on Saturday evening..
Contests:
Saturday:
The Merchants Cup:
Organised play has become ever more centred in the local games stores and each one produces a set of Champions at various games.
Question is can they go from best in store to the best of ALL the stores?
To find out we’re going to pit the store champions of different games from all over the Island against each other.
The contest in CCG’s:
Magic The Gathering
Pokémon
Yu-Gi-Oh!
Flesh and Blood.
We are also working on a BattleTech contest too!
In the unlikely event your local store hasn’t already recieved any information from us, they can contact merchantscup at gaelcon.com for details.
There will also be Casual tournaments occurring throughout the weekend in the chosen formats.
Monday 30th
SPOTLIGHT DAY!
On Monday we’re going to turn down the competitive heat and make the main hall into an exhibition centre to host demo’s and displays from up and coming game designers.
We’ll be releasing details of how to apply for a space incoming days
So that’s the plan in very broad strokes, I’ll be making further more detailed posts about each of the above in the coming weeks.
Until then head over to: https://iga.ie/gaelcon/gaelcon-tickets/ to sign up for the weekend memberships now!
By the way if you’d like to help us make the weekend great by donating a few hours of your time to help head over to https://iga.ie/gaelcon/volunteering/ and fill out the form there.
