ERIC STUART, the voice of Brock and James from Pokémon, and Seto Kaiba from Yu-Gi-Oh!, will be the special guest at Akumakon, Galway's annual festival of Japanese culture, anime, and manga, which takes place in NUI Galway next weekend.
More than 1,500 people are expected to attened the festival which runs in NUIG from Friday January 20 to Sunday 22, during which Mr Stuart will take part in a special Q&A and panel discussions, as well as perform a concert on the Saturday. He has supported Lynyrd Skynyrd and Ringo Starr in the past.
Other guests will be Japanese singer Aya Ikeda, and cosplay superstars Lux Cosplay and Shappi Cosplay. There will also be screenings, author panels, guest signings, workshops, video gaming tournaments,a special Pokémon event, a European Yu-Gi-Oh! championship qualifier, and a cosplay masquerade where attendees can showcase their costumes.
Day and weekend tickets are available on the door while under 12s have free entry with a guardian. Proceeds from Akumakon will go to Cancer Care West. The festival has donated more than €15,000 to Irish and Japanese charities to date.
See www.akumakon.com as well as Facebook and Twitter.
