Padua is preparing to welcome an expanded and renewed edition of the Be Comics! festival, which this year presents itself with a new name and a section entirely dedicated to video games. After the success of the 2024 edition, with over 20,000 visitors and 160 stands, Be Comics! returns to Padua on 15 and 16 March 2025 with an important innovation: the integration of Be Games!, an area entirely dedicated to the world of video games. This evolution, also reflected in the new name of the festival, Be Comics! Be Games!, was born from the desire to fully embrace contemporary pop culture, in which gaming plays an increasingly central role.
The event is proposed as a true transmedia event, capable of connecting all dimensions of pop culture, from comics to manga, from board games to video games, up to the K-Pop phenomenon. Representing this fusion between different forms of entertainment is the poster for the 2025 edition, created by Federico Vicentini, an internationally renowned cartoonist who has collaborated with Marvel Comics and Sergio Bonelli Editore. Vicentini reinterprets Lionesse, the festival mascot, in a “Marvel-style” key, enriching it with references to the videogame world.
Be Comics! Be Games! presents itself with a rich and varied program capable of satisfying the tastes of a heterogeneous audience. The Comics, Comics & Manga area will host publishers, the Artist Alley and stands dedicated to board games, role-playing games and Trading Card Games. The Be Games! area, however, will offer over 60 gaming stations, a watch party area and arcade consoles for retrogaming lovers. The Be Stage! it will be animated by talk shows, shows, fashion shows and cosplay competitions, panels dedicated to comics, manga, board games and gaming, with a focus on the K-Pop phenomenon, presented by Luca Panzieri and Giovanni “Zeth Castle” Zaccaria. Don’t miss the first stage of the K-Pop League Italia and the cosplay competition valid for the Cosplay Italian Cup. Finally, there will be a food & beverage area with a wide selection of food trucks. The event will be held in pavilions 7 and 78 of the Padova Hall exhibition center, on 15 and 16 March 2025, from 9.30 to 19.30.
