Longest-running fan convention for a videogame character

In 2008, the UK-based convention Summer of Sonic became the first official fan convention for a single videogame character, created to celebrate Sega's iconic Sonic the Hedgehog. Since then, the event has had annual conventions staged in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2016, the latter of which was hailed by organizers as the "biggest yet" and celebrated the character's 25th anniversary. Activities at the 2016 event included cosplay and art contests, plus guest appearances from voice-actor Mike Pollock, game designer and current head of Sonic Team, Takashi Iizuka, and videogame composer and musician Jun Senoue.

Although the Summer of Sonic site says it was created in 2006, its creator Svend Joscelyne (aka "Dreadknux") explained that it wasn't a convention back then: "It was more of an unofficial 15th anniversary celebration where community webmasters wrote articles and stuff. We just re-used the name when we started doing the convention because it sounded cool!"

The convention also set the record for the first fan convention for a single videogame character.