More initiatives of the Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft
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More initiatives of the Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft

Recap: Polaris 2023

The Polaris 2023 was a blast! While it was just the second edition of the games, anime and community convention, the event already pulled a great number of visitors from all over Germany and beyond, resulting in a sold-out event on Saturday and Sunday. In addition to that, the organizers even set a new world record!

Friday the 13th was a lucky day this October because the Polaris opened its doors for 2023! Already on the first day, the halls were busy and the game station never stayed empty for long. The Gamecity Hamburg booth was close by the entry and we had great booth neighbours with the fine folks from Nintendo. The Gamecity Team itself was present to provide more info about our work and also offer some advice on how to break into the industry. We hope we'll meet some of the interested visitors again in the future at networking events or different university programs. 

Goodies are an important part of every good booth
Goodies are an important part of every good booth

Meanwhile, the main area of our booth belonged to the wonderful teams that were part of our Road to program: About Cannons & Sparrows, Light of Atlantis, Beacon Patrol, Turbo Shell and Reddie - ReRun Reality. The latter could be found in the VR area a bit further down the hall, where there was plenty of room for their VR game. Find more details on these games here.   

But the opening of the convention was just one highlight of the day: in the evening we invited the games industry to join us for the second Gamecity Treff of the year. Almost 300 industry members came together at the Grüner Jäger. 

A great crowd gathere at the Grüner Jäger for the Gamecity Treff. Photo by Jan-Marius Komorek
A great crowd gathered at the Grüner Jäger for the Gamecity Treff. Photo by Jan-Marius Komorek

It was wonderful to see so many people from all over Germany who came to Hamburg for the convention and had a lovely time exchanging their impressions of the day, networking and seeing old friends. While the event officially had to close around midnight, many had such a good time that they took the party down the road. We love to see it! Find more pictures form the evening in the gallery below. 

Photo by Jan-Marius Komorek
Photo by Jan-Marius Komorek

On Saturday it was back to business for the second day of the convention. Saturday and Sunday were both sold out, thanks to the fantastic program which included a cosplay contest, a live program by Rocket Beans TV and Meet & Greets with popular creators like Gronkh. 


Sunday started off with a brunch organised by GAME:IN and continued with packed halls and two highlights. For one, many were looking forward to meeting Gnu, the biggest female streamer in Germany. At 1 pm, the main stage was also the focal point of the convention, because the organizers had decided to attempt a new Guinness World Record, which required more than 491 cosplayers in game-related costumes to gather at the same time - and gather they did, with 492 attendees the world record could be verified by the independent jury. Congratulations! 

A small part of the cosplayer participants who broke the world  record. Photo by Hamburg Messe und Congress / Rolf Otzipka
A small part of the cosplayer participants who broke the world record. Photo by Hamburg Messe und Congress / Rolf Otzipka

We had a great time at the Polaris convention and are very much looking forward to the 2024 edition. It was great to see how many people enjoyed this event and all it had to offer! We greatly appreciated meeting our business contacts at the Gamecity Treff and many young professionals and students at our booth. Also a big thank you to the teams who accompanied us and made the fair so much fun. We're looking forward to an even bigger Polaris next year from October 11-13!    

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