UK PonyCon 2026 venue and dates announced!

Hah, the world really does not want me to have a quiet time, does it? The one week I actually have Ponyfic Roundup ready to post, and it's trumped by something that has to take priority! So, without further ado: last night UK PonyCon announced:

Host city: Leicester
Venue: The Venue@DMU (yes, the venue is The Venue...)
Dates: Fri 30/10 to Sun 1/11
Theme: Trick vs. Treat

I must admit I didn't see Leicester coming! I thought it was pretty likely UKPC would remain in the Midlands, since this year there'll be a con in the north of England (Griffish Isles), one in the south (Festival of Friendship) and one in Scotland (BronyScot). But Leicester wasn't on my very short list of guesses.

No real complaints, though! It's easy to get to and I've been there before: UKPC 2014 and 2015 were in Leicester, albeit at a different venue. This year's location isn't quite as ultra-convenient as that one was, but it's good enough. A considerably higher capacity venue than in Brum, which is a huge plus. Hotels are obviously in shorter supply than they were in Birmingham in 2025, but I already have a couple of options in that regard.

The choice of Halloween weekend is interesting. That's several weeks later than UKPC has been most years in the past. Obviously events don't get a totally free choice of dates as (for some reason) Pony isn't given total priority over everything else. It does mean it'll be colder and darker in the evenings – clocks go back the previous weekend – but that shouldn't make an enormous difference.

As for the theme? We've had similar themes in the past, notably "The Gothic" in 2022 and the cancelled 2020 "SpookyCon", but it seems a perfectly decent choice to me. Let's hope the spider-tossing game (that we never managed to find in Nottingham) returns this year! Every year I debate with myself whether I'm actually going to cosplay for once, and every year I chicken out. So expect the same in 2026. :P

Further details still to come: prices are obviously going to be a major point of interest, but I'll also be very interested to know whether catering will still be the minimal offering we've had for the past few years, as this venue isn't absolutely surrounded by eating places, although walking 10-15 minutes gets you into the city centre proper where there are tons.

Still, knowing the venue and the dates means planning in earnest can begin. Huzzah for the UKPC team!