San Diego Comic-Con Málaga 2025: Tens of thousands of fans enjoy geek paradise on day one

Mario Bros, Captain America, Spider-Man and Pirate of the Caribbean characters were waiting outside the San Diego Comic-Con Málaga even before the doors of the city's Palacio de Ferias y Congresos (Fycma) had opened on the convention's first day yesterday - Thursday, 25 September. Thousands of people started queueing before 10am, eager to be among the first to enter the geek paradise of popular culture. Old and young, families and groups of friends attended the first convention outside the US. There were queues everywhere, even for water bottle refills, but everybody still had a good time as they connected with the fandom of their favourite universe.

People came from Mallorca, Madrid, Barcelona and even Massachusetts. "In San Diego it's hard to get a ticket and this is a more interesting experience," said Jenny, who had recently arrived from the US for the event. Daniel, Bruno and Marcos missed university and school classes in Madrid to attend San Diego Comic-Con Málaga, in addition to spending a good part of their savings in doing so. "It's worth it, we're big Marvel fans," they said. They were wearing Spider-Man T-shirts and Deadpool and Wolverine costumes in the hopes of meeting Logan's heiress Dafne Keen.

The display of costumes and cosplay was impressive. There was absolutely everything: from the most obvious, like all the Spider-Mans of the multiverse and the superheroes of the Marvel saga, the main characters of Harry Potter, various Star Wars warriors, many characters from the manga One piece and Dragon Ball, Indiana Jones, Mario Bros... There were even more unexpected 'characters', such as El Chapulín Colorado or Bruno Mars. Some had put months' worth of work into their costumes. Génesis Negrín, for example, had been making her Predator costume for five months and everyone wanted to get a photo with her. Her companion jokingly said that if she had charged for every photo, she could have covered the cost of her San Diego Comic-Con Málaga ticket.

People would humorously respond to the question: "What are you dressed as?". Julio, for example, said: "Me, I always dress like this." He was, in fact, wearing a black skirt, a sheer shirt and a wide-brimmed hat. He had come all the way from Mallorca just for the day, as he had to work on Friday. "Aliexpress," answered another attendee dressed as a warrior when asked where his costume was from.

With epic music playing in the background, the entire Palacio de Ferias divided the public in an orderly fashion between the different areas. It was quite a challenge: never before had the entire Fycma been used for the same event. There were queues for practically everything, but it all went smoothly, with a large number of staff to guide the attendees. The event was a full house: during the talks in Hall M, with a capacity of 3,000 people; at the autograph stalls; during the workshops; in the 'Village' (where, by the way, the hot air balloon did not fly on Thursday, as planned); in the food area; inside the exhibition hall. It was madness.

A constant stream of people walked through the different exhibitors and the stalls of production companies to take photos with the motorbike from Tron or the dinosaur eggs from Jurassic World. Anybody could get their hands on a new Funko Pop, a T-shirt, stickers or bags. An R2-D2, created by R2-D2 Builders Spain, once again accompanied Legion 501 around the venue.

Famous gamers played Mario Kart in front of hundreds of spectators, while the border games corner offered more peace and quiet but just as much fun to parents, their children and groups of friends. Play Station and Nintendo had also installed their consoles for fans and prospective buyers to check them out and play for free. Indie video games also had their own space.

Take a few photos, play a game and take a souvenir home with you - the perfect plan in geek paradise.