After the smashing success of last year’s debut, one of our favorite new events is back in St. Pete for 2024. Organizers announced that Sunshine City Scare, the immersive horror convention, is returning to the St. Pete Coliseum on Saturday, May 11 and Sunday, May 12.

The two-day festival was a huge hit in its inaugural campaign last spring, and this year’s rendition is going even better, with massive headliners and an absolutely jam-packed schedule of events. New this year is a Five Nights at Freddy’s experience, including several of the voice actors, which will be a major draw throughout the region. FNAF has become one of the country’s most popular horror franchises, and Sunshine City Scare will also include themed gaming, panels, photo meetups, and some incredibly imaginative FNAF cosplay on display.

As St. Pete’s only horror con, Sunshine City Scare also includes more than 100 vendor booths selling “macabre merchandise,” horror video games, cosplay and TikTok competitions, cosplay workshops, panel discussions, photo meetups, and for the first time, an “After-Hours Fright” experience showcasing 18+ entertainment.

Tickets for Sunshine City Scare are available now, and while single-day passes offer access to the entire convention grounds, we certainly recommend the weekend passes if you truly want to see and experience everything. VIP passes earn early entry on both days of the festival and come with a gift bag as well as the ability to skip the line.

Children 9 and under get in free, and all moms get in free on Sunday for Mother’s Day, as long as they are accompanied by a ticket holder. Anyone can take their mom to brunch – doesn’t a horror convention sound more fun?

Sunshine City Scare is the ultimate pop culture horror experience

Over the course of the festival’s two days of activities, The Coliseum will be a veritable Mecca for pop culture aficionados, and particularly those who enjoy things on the somewhat gory side. But to be clear, this is the type of event that can be enjoyed by anyone, including casual fans of the genre or just those interested in the new experience. Just browsing through the gigantic collection of hundreds of vendors is worth the price of admission, and the food trucks on site are always stellar.

On Saturday, the bulk of the festivities will be centered around Five Nights at Freddy’s, the smash-hit horror franchise valued at nearly $1 billion after its highly successful film release last year. Sunshine City Scare’s FNAF celebration includes voice actors Chris McCullough and Joe Gaudet, who portray six characters from the highly popular video games. In addition, there will be FNAF gaming, panels, and photo meetups – not to mention the imaginative FNAF cosplay that will be on display.

Also, all six of the voice actors’ FNAF characters have Funko Pop figures. Other franchise celebrations will include Resident Evil and The Walking Dead, both featuring horror video game actor Jeff Schine, as well as franchise panels and photo meetups.

Of course, a huge part of the fun is seeing the creativity of the fans who attend. While you won’t be out of place in jeans and a t-shirt, you may regret not donning something more colorful. Some of the biggest cosplayer influencers around will be in attendance, and seeing the creativity on display by fellow attendees is always one of the most impressive and entertaining parts of these events.

All the Sunshine City Scare activities are hosted and judged by the guest cosplayers – industry influencers who collectively have more than 1.5 million followers on TikTok and nearly 300,000 on Instagram. “Our guest cosplayers are a lively crew with theater and acting backgrounds who love to interact with attendees,” organizer Dewey Caruthers said.

See the full schedule of events here, and get tickets for Sunshine City Scare here.