The Christchurch Armageddon show also draws in huge crowds. Photo: Supplied
The fallout from the cancellation of the Auckland Armageddon Expo has continued, with some vendors losing out on thousands of dollars.
An ongoing legal battle involving ASB Showgrounds resulted in the plug being pulled on the expo, scheduled for Labour weekend, and no alternative venue could be found.
Armageddon Auckland usually brings in more than 60,000 attendees, but the future of the pop culture extravaganza is now up in the air.
Armageddon director Bill Geradts, who started the Expo back in 1995, was devastated to cancel his latest event.
"We spent the last two-and-a-half years just battling through things and I think everybody just thought, 'OK, we can finally get to whatever the new normal is going to be and we will move forward'," Geradts said.
"Now here we are just sitting back and having the rug pulled out from under us at the last minute."
Over the years, it has seen appearances from Game of Thrones superstar Jason Momoa, Doctor Who's Jenna Coleman and Harry Potter's Tom Felton, better known as Draco Malfoy.
Now, the future of the four-day expo is uncertain. The ASB Showgrounds in Auckland's Green Lane is the city's only venue with the capacity to hold it.
But instead of showcasing pop culture icons from around the world, it will sit empty, as its owners seek to lease the land to a film production company instead.
That decision is being challenged in the High Court by Brent Spillane of XPO Exhibitions, but Armageddon will not go ahead regardless of the outcome due to the tight turnaround.
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Geradts said he was often asked why they did not just move Armageddon to somewhere like Mystery Creek in Hamilton, but he conceded it was not as easy as that.
"It's purely location - this location, location, location," he said.
"One third of the population is in one space.
"That's where we need to be and when we can't do it, everything else suffers because we don't have the budget, we don't have the resources and we have to re-watch everything we're doing.
"We're finally at a point where I thought we were rocketing ahead, and instead I've got to play it a little safer."
He felt for the vendors and fans who were missing out, Geradts said.
"Everybody suffers. I've got hundreds of exhibitors that are, that were desperate for us to do this and hung in there with us," he said.
"We kept them updated, we kept them informed.
"And in the end, they were there right beside us, ready to do the show
"It's heart-wrenching that we couldn't deliver for them, because we certainly wanted to."
One of those vendors is Sani Gregory-Moore, who creates handmade art toys such as plush dolls and long furbies.
Sani said vendors like them relied on the Auckland show to get through a tough period of the year.
"Everything kind of dies out after Christmas for a couple of months when everyone spent all their money and you know, going to festivals and stuff.
"So we rely on their income from Armageddon to be able to get through that time."
Now, they have to rethink about to how to make back that lost revenue.
"We planned all of our markets in the year around this.
"We were instantly having to push things and pull things, apply to different markets and then applying to those bigger different markets, having to then wonder if we'd have to pull out of like smaller passion markets, like gallery projects et cetera."
Fellow vendor Annabelle Temperton has sold jewellery and prints at Armageddon for the past four expos.
The artists affected have banded together by promoting one another's work online, Temperton said.
"We worked on a big Linktree filled with every artist that was meant to be at Auckland show, and that's linked to their stores and Instagrams and stuff like that," she said.
"It's really wholesome and sweet and everyone sharing everyone's work and yelling about each other, and just community grieving while also hyping everyone up."
Kellen Worger has had a stall at the Armageddon expo for five years.
The illustrator sells art, prints, stickers and keychains based mostly around fantasy and the popular Dungeons and Dragons game.
"I usually make around about $4000 to $6000 in those four days, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less.
"So for an artist that is quite a bit of money just all in one go to lose out on."
They said the cancellation was bad news for all concerned.
"I mean it's not going to just be a blow to people who do Armageddon.
"I know there's many events that happen in that space and there isn't really anywhere else like it in Auckland.
"People come from out of town to come to these events, it doesn't feel fair for it to just sit empty like that."
And it was not just the vendors who were upset.
Jerika Teare, who has been a cosplayer for the past decade, has been attending from a young age.
"It's a big part of my life. Cosplay is probably my main hobby.
"I love to dress up as characters, my mum does it with me sometimes, I've dragged friends into it.
"Much of my calendar year is based around it, and Armageddon is of course the premiere event."
Cosplay was one of the major draws of the expo, and Jerika said thousands of people attended dressed up as their favourite characters.
"To lose this is heartbreaking. It's the highlight of my year, and it's so, so sad to see it go."
The future of the ASB Showgrounds remains unclear as the High Court appeal continues.