Since 2002, fans of anime and cosplaying and other Japan-related topics have flocked to Uppsala, Sweden every year for Scandinavia’s largest Asia-related convention: Uppcon! It started off as a simple film screening at Slottsbiografen, a cinema located inside the Castle of Uppsala, where about 50 people attended the first year. Just three years later, the Uppcon team had to move the screening to the Atrium Conference Center, much larger than Slottsbiografen, where 700 people attended in 2005. By 2008, there were 2000 people attending what now had become a true anime and cosplay convention, and the Atrium Conference Center was filled to its limit. Therefore, the next year, Uppcon was moved to Uppsala Konsert & Kongress (UKK), an even larger building and according to some, Uppsala’s ugliest building (since it doesn’t fit in with anything of the buildings around it), and the attendance digits reached 3000. The year after that, in 2010, the team had to claim the square behind UKK to be able to fit everyone. And finally, two years later, the convention is celebrating its final occurrence. After this Sunday, the convention will be shut down. Scandinavia’s largest anime and cosplay convention will be shut down.

But Uppcon will live on in the hearts of those who have experienced and enjoyed it. The team has also recently launched a website, konventsbilder.se, where conventioners can upload their photos from all their anime and cosplay conventions (including other conventions throughout Sweden) to share with the world. Pictures from Uppcon’s final appearance should show up this weekend.

But being the largest convention of this sort in Northern Europe, do you think it will actually be shut down for good? Or will another convention take its place? There have been rumors that many Uppcon-goers wish to sustain the convention themselves, but no one knows where to start. What do you think will happen?