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Pensacon 2016: The Party Starts Soon

Pensacon

Mike Ensley loves talking about Pensacon. Going into its third year, the gathering of science fiction and comic books and cosplay and pop culture in general fans continues to exceed the organizer’s expectations. This year, a new venue has been added to the event. "We've always had the Pensacola Bay Center and the Crowne Plaza Hotel. We added the Saenger Theater last year and this year we the Rex Theater. So the folks at Harvest Church [are] letting us use the historic Rex this year as a separate venue where we are going to have panels and different things happening." Ensley says that was an important addition to the weekend because they have limited space and not much room to grow in town. 

Find the entire Pensacon schedule here!

There has also been a lot of participation from the business community. "This is the most that downtown has been involved yet. More restaurants and bars and clubs and things are on board this year, more hotels are on board this year. It just continues to grow." The first day of this year’s Pensacon is Friday, February 19, which also happens to the next Gallery Night in downtown Pensacola. "I imagine that's going to be an interesting mix of (people) downtown. A lot of costumed folks and a lot of (people) who normally come out to Gallery Night so it'll be a lot of fun to see what happens down there." 

Each year the big name celebrity guests get the bulk of the attention  with the public, but Ensley says there are smaller names that are well known in their industry that keep returning the Pensacola. "There a lot of (guests) that people just want to see again. Like R.J. Haddy from Face Off is someone who's probably always going to be at Pensacon. He was there our first year. He comes and does those make-up classes every year and people love them. We have some comic book guests that are always going to be with us. We always try to change out those bigger names but we love those guys. They work with us all year long." Ensley says much of the art work used by Pensacon is created by these professionals who have been in the comics industry for years.

As the the celebrities, some of the bigger name guests that people will recognize come from the world of Star Trek. Michael Dorn who played the Klingon Officer Lieutenant Worf on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine will be in town, as well as Denise Crosby, who played two different roles on Next Generation and also recently had a role on The Walking Dead.

Some of the guests from Star Wars, however, have had to cancel their appearances because filming of the next movie has begun. But David Prowse, the man behind Darth Vader’s mask in the first three movies released will be there. Other celebrities include Michael Rooker from The Walking Dead, Mallrats and Guardians of the Galaxy, Bruce Boxlietner from Babylon 5 and the Tron movies. There will also be a special Rocky Horror Picture Show reunion. Ensley says that movie has a special place in his heart. "This year at Pensacon we're lucky enough to have Barry Bostwick, Patricia Quinn and "Little" Nell Campbell frlom the movie so that's Brad, Magenta and Columbia from the film coming to Pensacon. And on Saturday night at the Vinyl Music Hall we're going to have a special showing of the film." That event will include the cast members introducing the movie and a live cast acting out what you do when you see Rocky Horror.

There are dozens of other guests and events going on all over town throughout the weekend. Mike Ensley says it’s hard to believe that his idea for a convention in Pensacola took off so fast and became this successful so soon. "Social media was how I started this whole thing. I had this idea that we could do something in Pensacola. I didn't know what (and on) what scale, but I put that out on social media." Ensley says that was in 2012. Two years later that idea became the first Pensacon.

Pensacon 2016 is February 19 through 21 at the Pensacola Bay Center, the Crowne Plaza Hotel, The Saenger Theater and the Rex Theater. 

Bob Barrett has been a radio broadcaster since the mid 1970s and has worked at stations from northern New York to south Florida and, oddly, has been able to make a living that way. He began work in public radio in 2001. Over the years he has produced nationally syndicated programs such as The Environment Show and The Health Show for Northeast Public Radio's National Productions.