FanX Salt Lake City prepares for its 2026 show at the Salt Palace

This year’s FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention may be the last time guests see it in the form they’ve come to expect the past few years. After all, the impending closure and redesign of the Salt Palace Convention Center in the fall of 2027 will force FanX to reconfigure itself and eventually move for three years.

Founder Dan Farr has concerns, of course, but they are mostly logistical. As he has found since the annual convention began in 2013, “we have a very passionate fan base here in Utah. They do a great job of taking care of celebrities when they come here, and that’s why so many of them — both fans and celebrities — want to come back.”

This year’s show runs Sept 24-26, with ticket sales brisk. Already booked for this year (as of June 15) are stars Helen Hunt, Alan Tudyk, Giancarlo Esposito, Manny Jacinto, Nia Verdalos, Amy Smart, Rainn Wilson, Angela Kingsley, Jane Seymour and Eva LaRue, to name a few. Local author Brandon Mull is coming, along with dozens of other authors, illustrators and creators of all things pop culture. Literally hundreds of booths will spread across the entirety of convention space at the Salt Palace.

Farr and his former business partner Bryan Brandenburg started the confab in 2013, originally planned for the South Valley Exposition Center (now the Mountain America Expo Center) in Sandy. Farr knew that the “biggest get” he could book as a guest for that first show was legendary comic book writer, editor and publisher Stan Lee, who didn’t do conventions. But as planning was underway for that first show, “we thought we could sell maybe 10,000 to 15,000 tickets, which would be great. We’d already reached an agreement with actor Lou Ferrigno to be at our show, and when he was presenting Lee with a Lifetime Achievement Award at another event, he pitched our convention to Stan.”

Lee agreed to come, about the same time that actor Willian Shatner announced he was coming, and ticket sales exploded. Farr said the show sold 25,000 to 30,000 tickets the following Monday, and he knew the convention would have to move to the larger Salt Palace, where it’s been ever since. He said when Lee flew into town that year, Gov. Gary Herbert met him on the tarmac at Salt Lake International Airport and escorted him into the city.

Farr and his team begin working on a future show as soon as the current one closes. It takes many weeks and oftentimes months to get celebrity commitments, largely due to schedule conflicts. Two guests who had initially agreed to come for 2026 — actresses Juliette Lewis and Elizabeth Mitchell — had to postpone their appearances this year.

“It’s not a simple thing when somebody cancels,” Farr said. “Families plan their trips around coming to a show to see someone, and their hearts are set on them. But conflicts happen for all of us. We’ve been fortunate that some guests who had to cancel have come back in subsequent years.”

FanX Salt Lake has become one of the largest shows of its type in the country, annually drawing at least 100,000 people over three days. It takes an army of 500-600 volunteers to help with setup and takedown, marshaling, transportation and managing the floor. The lists of celebrities who’ve attended over the past 13 years is endless, and has included Carrie Fisher, Micky Dolenz, Patrick Stewart, Dick Van Dyke, Ernie Campbell, Shantel VanSanten, Jon Heder, Ron Perlman, Hulk Hogan, Cary Elwes, Barbara Eden, Lindsay Wagner, Lee Majors, Adam West, Burt Ward, Dirk Benedict, Henry Winkler, Peter Mayhew, Karen Gillan, Karl Urben, Kelly Hu, Laurie Holden and many more.

Going forward, Farr is planning to change things up a bit — holding two smaller conventions in the spring and fall of 2027, then relocating back to the Mountain America Expo Center in 2028, That’s where the show will be held during the duration of the Salt Palace construction that is slated to be completed in January 2031. It will make this year’s show “a really big sendoff, a big celebration. We’re going to have another great one.”