Photocons: The Best Cosplay Events You've Never Heard Of

In 2016 I was a small photographer living in Berlin with no car and no driving license. That year I first heard about an event in Poland called Fotocon (which started in 2015), a weekend where Polish cosplayers and photographers meet only to make photos. Not a convention, not a stage, not a queue for an autograph. Something very strange and new back then. Just people taking photos, in places you normally cannot get into.

I applied almost at the end of registration and got in. Then I realised I had no idea how to get there. Wleń is only about four hours from Berlin, but public transport does not go where the shootings go. So I found friends in Berlin who were driving and took a seat in their car.

That weekend blew my mind. Castle ruins, waterfalls in the forest, a whole community of Polish cosplayers and photographers, and a memory card full of pictures I could not have taken anywhere else. I came home tired, happy and already thinking of the next year! There was one catch: every shooting depended on someone else being able to drive me there and back, and I did not enjoy that feeling at all. So back in Berlin I signed up for a driving school, and the next year I came to the event on my own wheels. A rental, but mine for the weekend!

This is how these events change people. They ask you to take a small risk, and they pay you back with friends, places and pictures you would never get otherwise. Within a couple of years Fotocon grew from a local Polish event into an international one, and in 2018 it changed its name to Pixelmania. Ten years later there are many more events like it, and I still travel to them.

The Cosplay Photography Awards has five of these events as partners: Pixelmania in Poland, Volta in Italy, Focus Cosplay in France, Picvetia in Switzerland and Cosphoria in Belgium. Many of you reading this are from outside Europe and have never heard of any of them. This article is for you, and it is a thank you to the people who run them.

So what is a photocon?

The community has a word for this kind of event: a photocon. Fotocon in Poland used it as a name back in 2015. Today Focus Cosplay calls itself “the first French photocon”, and other events use the word too. It is a convention where the only thing on the programme is photography.

Every photocon I know works roughly like this:

1. You apply, and a jury picks. Cosplayers, photographers and videographers send a portfolio. A jury reviews it, and only a part of the applicants get in. Back in 2018 Pixelmania had about 500 applications for 200 places. There is definitely some competition to get in, but it’s manageable.
2. The organisers open doors for you. Months before the event they scout locations and talk to owners and town halls. They arrange permits for castles, palaces, gardens, abandoned factories and forests. Many of these places are closed to the public the rest of the year.
3. Everything goes on a map. Participants get a map with every location, photos from previous years and notes on how to get there. Where to park. Some important tips. You plan your shootings from it.
4. You plan before you arrive. Each event has its own booking platform, and that is where the weekend is really decided. You find your team there and agree on characters, locations and times, long before you pack the car. Some cosplayers and photographers are fully booked within hours after the booking opens. Nothing is planned on site: by the time you arrive your schedule is full, and the only gaps are there for the last minute photoshoots.
5. It lasts two or three days. Usually Friday to Sunday, with a headquarters where people meet, eat and rest between shootings.
6. It costs little, and the rest is on you. The entry fee is small, usually a few dozen euros. Travel, food and a place to sleep are your own business of course. Some events offer local hotel discounts.

And then there is the part no list can describe. For one weekend, a small town in the countryside belongs to us. Cosplayers who spent months on their costumes, wigs and props finally bring their characters to life where they belong: a vampire lordess in castle ruins that look like their own world, an anime character in a forest straight out of the series. There is no stage, no crowd of visitors and no queue. Everyone comes to make the best photo of their year!

What unites all of the events

Each of these events has its own character and its own speciality, and I will get to that. But after ten years of going, I see the same four things in all of them.

Exploration. Driving four hours, or flying to another country, to take pictures in a forest is a choice. The people who make that trip are curious and ready to take a risk on a place they have never seen. That is the motivation filter, before any jury looks at a portfolio. The friends I made at my first two events are still close friends today, and I think this is why.

Collaboration. At a convention you shoot whoever walks past or you have a fixed slot with people you know. At a photocon you plan a shooting with someone you may never have met, from a country you may never have visited. I met Italians and French people at Pixelmania, and when I went to Volta for the first time I already knew a lot of people there. The events feed each other.

Care. When you travel that far, you want to come home with your best work. And at a photocon the care runs both ways: from the people who come, and from the people who organise.

The people who come prepare for weeks. A mood board for every shooting, so everyone knows the look, the poses, the framing and the story before the wig goes on. Scouting the location the day before, ideally at the same hour, so you know where the light falls and how long the walk is. An assistant to carry the light stand and throw the cape at the right moment.

And then the part nobody sees: after the event. Going through thousands of frames, sending the first picture within a couple of weeks and the rest within a few months. If something is delayed, you say so. You do not ghost someone who crossed Europe to work with you.

The people who organise care about everything around the picture. Months before the event they scout the locations, talk to owners and town halls, and get the permits. Then they hand you a map with every spot, how to reach it and what it looked like last year. During the weekend they solve the problems you never hear about.

All of that so that, for one weekend, the only thing you need to worry about is the picture.

These events are good for the places that host them. The castles, villas and small towns open their doors to us, and in return they get the kind of attention no tourist brochure can buy. Pixelmania says openly that one of its goals is to promote its region of Poland. Volta works together with the towns around Mantua. It is a fair exchange, and it is why the same doors open again every year.

Pixelmania, Poland: the wild one

Pixelmania is where it all started for me, and for many people in Europe. It began in 2015 as Fotocon, a local event for the Polish cosplay community, in the small town of Wleń in Lower Silesia, in the south west of Poland. Since 2019 its headquarters has been in Lubomierz, a short drive away. Within a couple of years it was international. In 2017, Kotaku wrote about it: about 200 cosplayers and 150 photographers and videographers, from 22 countries.

What makes Pixelmania special is how wild it is. Waterfalls in the forest, a huge dam, ruins of castles, abandoned churches and factories, a Japanese garden. These are places you will not find anywhere else, and many of them you could never shoot without the organisers. In my first year the location map already had around 80 spots, and it keeps growing. The list of partners on their website reads like a guide to the castles and palaces of the region.

For me Pixelmania was always the practical one: four hours from Berlin, shooting from sunrise to sunset, four hours back. And Pixelmania has its own law of nature: it always rains on Friday haha. Then on Saturday evening there is always a BBQ, everyone exhausted and happy, swapping stories with people from ten different countries.

pixelmania.ovh · @pixelmaniaevent

Volta, Italy: the one that feels like a holiday

“Volta is not a fair. Volta is a photographic event dedicated to cosplay.” That is how the organisers describe it, and it is true. Volta started in 2017 in the countryside around Mantua, in the north of Italy. The shootings spread across seven towns, from Volta Mantovana to Mantua and Sabbioneta. You work in villas, historic gardens, woods and abandoned factories, many of them opened by the towns only for these three days. Today it brings together more than 500 photographers, cosplayers and assistants.

I skipped the very first one. It was a closed circle of friends back then. From the second edition it was open to everyone, and since then I have applied almost every year and been lucky enough to be selected. When I arrived the first time, I already knew a lot of people there from Pixelmania. That says a lot about how these events connect.

For me Volta is a different kind of trip. I fly to Milan or Venice, rent a car and drive to the Mantua area. So I always add a few days around the event: a walk in Milan, an evening in Venice, a long Italian dinner. The work is just as serious as anywhere else, but the trip around it feels like a small holiday. And Italian food after a twelve hour shooting day is its own kind of reward.

But what I love most about Volta is the people. After so many years it feels like a reunion. Friends I made at other events, from all over Europe, come together in one place, and every breakfast and every dinner is a long round of catching up on the year. I come for the photos, and I stay for the people.

ilvolta.com · @il.volta

Focus Cosplay, France: parks, then castles

Focus Cosplay calls itself the first cosplay photography event in France, and as far as I know it is. It is run by La Ligue des Cosplayers Extraordinaires, a non-profit association founded in 2020. The first edition was in 2022 near Nevers, in the middle of France. About 150 cosplayers, photographers and videographers are picked by a jury every year.

My first Focus was in 2024, still in the Nevers area. I remember one place in particular: the Parc Floral in Apremont-sur-Allier, a village listed among the most beautiful villages of France. I went there for a single shooting and thought: I could stay here the whole weekend and never run out of spots. The park was created in the 1970s by Gilles de Brissac, and it carries the official “Jardin Remarquable” label. It is a magical French garden with a waterfall, a lake, a Turkish pavilion and a red pagoda bridge in Chinese style.

A fun fact from that day: I had a little time between two shootings and stopped at La Brasserie du Lavoir, about fifty metres from the park entrance. Not a quick snack between locations. It was the best lunch of my entire trip.

I skipped 2025 and came back in 2026. By then the event had moved to Touraine, the region around Tours, which is castle country. Big châteaux and small ones, little French towns with stone streets, gardens that look like paintings. The number of locations grew and so did their quality. My weekend turned into castle hopping: a new castle every day, and every one completely different. Some people collect stamps. In Touraine, you collect castles.

focuscosplay.fr · @focus_cosplay

Picvetia, Switzerland: the one that travels

Picvetia is young. It started in 2023, and it has a clever idea: it travels. Switzerland has three big language regions, German, French and Italian, and Picvetia moves to a different one every year. So each region gets its turn every three years. Yverdon on the French side, Locarno and Bellinzona on the Italian side, Solothurn on the German side: every edition shows you a different Switzerland.

I went in 2026, to the Italian part. What you get there is nature: lakes, rivers, gorges and mountains, with the Alps always somewhere in the background. It is the kind of nature that does half of the work for you. The other half is still yours, of course.

A practical tip from experience: Switzerland is expensive. I did my grocery shopping in Italy before crossing the border and did not set foot in a single restaurant. The good news is that fuel cost about the same as in Italy, so the car trip was fine.

What stands out about Picvetia is how open they are about how things work. The whole team is listed on the website with names and roles. The selection criteria are public: lighting, composition and editing for photographers; costume quality, make-up and posing for cosplayers. It feels very Swiss in the best sense: open, clear and fair.

picvetiaevent.ch · @picvetia

Cosphoria, Belgium: the newest one

Cosphoria is the youngest of our partners. Its first edition was in 2026, and it is the first event of its kind in Belgium. Like the others it is application based: two days somewhere in the heart of the country, with cosplayers, photographers and filmmakers picked from all over.

I have not been yet, so I will not pretend I know what it feels like on the ground. But I know what it takes to start one of these. Someone has to knock on the door of every castle and every town hall, explain what cosplay is, and promise that two days of strangers in costumes will leave the place as they found it. Then they have to convince people from other countries to come to an event that has no history yet. I was one of those people at Fotocon in 2016, a foreigner at what was still a local Polish event. Somebody took a chance on a new event, and look where it went.

The organisers say they want to give participants a safe space to make the perfect picture. Belgium is a small country full of castles, abbeys and old towns, all within a short drive. I think that is a very good start, and Cosphoria is on my list.

@cosphoria.event

There are more of them

Our five partners are not alone. The format has spread across Europe, and new events appear almost every year. Here are the ones that follow the same recipe: application, selection, and locations opened only for the weekend.

Italy alone has three, plus Volta. Germany has a cousin of the format: Cos in the Castle at Leuchtenburg is a single day, open to everyone, but the idea is the same: a castle opens its doors for cosplay photos.

If you run an event like this anywhere in the world, and I missed it, please write to us. We would love to know you.

Why Europe?

I think it comes down to two things. The first is history. For hundreds of years, kings, princes and aristocrats poured their wealth into castles, villas and gardens. The courts are long gone, but the places remain, and today they are cared for by small towns, foundations and families. Keeping a castle alive takes more than money: it needs people to come, to look and to talk about it. A weekend of photographers and cosplayers gives a forgotten garden hundreds of beautiful pictures that travel around the world, and gives a small town a reason to be proud of it. The aristocrats built these places for themselves. Now we help keep them in the spotlight for everyone (so do tag those places on instagram, ok?).

The second is that Europe already looks like our games. So much of the fantasy we cosplay is built on European imagery: the kingdoms of Elden Ring and Dark Souls, the castles of Zelda, the countless anime set in an imagined old Europe. The Witcher is literally Polish. Here you do not search for a place that resembles the game. You stand in the place the game was copied from.

Other parts of the world have one of these, but rarely both, and I do not know of a single event outside Europe with the same recipe. Japan and China have centuries of palaces and temples, but those are carefully protected, and costumes in public places are not always welcome. Japan has a huge culture of location shooting, but it works differently: cosplay photography lives in rented studios and at events like acosta!, which take over a park or a building for a day for anyone with a ticket. The US has breathtaking nature, but it is huge, most land is private, and getting insurance and permits for a big group is a project of its own. So American cosplay photography grew up inside the conventions. Photographers from Brazil and the US do fly to Volta, though, so the word is getting out.

Why our Landscape prize is a pass to all five

When we planned the categories for the Awards, one of them was always going to be Landscape: a character small in a big world, a castle, a valley, a ruin. And when I think about where my own best landscape frames were made, the answer is always the same. At a photocon, in a place someone opened for us.

So the prize for the Landscape category in the 2026 Awards is not a gadget. It is an event pass for two, backed by all five partners together:

• Free entry to Pixelmania, Volta, Focus Cosplay, Picvetia and Cosphoria in 2027.
• No application. Normally you apply and a jury decides. The winner skips that step, and their place is guaranteed.
• One assistant comes too, also free. The pass is for a photographer and an assistant, not for models.
• It covers the entry tickets. Getting there, a place to sleep and food are up to you.

If you are from outside Europe, I know this may look like a modest prize next to a camera or a lens. It is not. It is five applications you no longer need to win, and five long weekends in places most photographers never get to stand in. Ask anyone who has been to one of these events what that is worth.

And no, you do not have to go to all five. They are spread across the year and across Europe, and doing all of them is hard, if not impossible. My own record is three in one year, and that was already a lot. Use the pass for one or two, pick the ones that call you, and enjoy them properly. That is exactly what it is for.

Thank you

These events are run by small teams of cosplayers and photographers, many of them volunteers in non-profit associations, who spend a whole year on one weekend. They write emails to castles, sit in town hall meetings, scout forests, build maps, read hundreds of portfolios, and then spend three days solving everyone else’s problems so we can take pictures.

To the teams behind Pixelmania, Volta, Focus Cosplay, Picvetia and Cosphoria: thank you for opening the doors, and thank you for supporting the Awards in our first year. Many of the pictures that people will see in this contest exist because of you.

There is a personal thank you, too. The team behind the Cosplay Photography Awards came together at these events. We met as strangers, worked together on shootings, and stayed friends long after the weekend was over. Without these photocons there would be no team, and no Awards.

And to everyone reading this: go and follow them. When their registration opens, apply. Bring your best portfolio, plan your shootings, drink water, and be nice when it rains on Friday. It will. And if you want to know what you are getting into, I once wrote a survival guide for Pixelmania. It is a few years old and written for one event, but the long days, the heavy bags and the planning are the same at all of them.

If you scrolled to the end to find the short version, here it is:

1. Pixelmania, Poland: the wild one. Waterfalls, ruins, the Saturday BBQ, and the place where it all began in 2015.
2. Volta, Italy: villas and gardens around Mantua, a small Italian holiday, and a reunion with friends from all over Europe.
3. Focus Cosplay, France: the first French photocon, now in the castle country of Touraine.
4. Picvetia, Switzerland: travels between three language regions, and is open about how it works.
5. Cosphoria, Belgium: the newest one, started in 2026. Go and be part of its story from the beginning.