Games Day
Games Day was a yearly gaming convention sponsored by Games Workshop. It was started in 1975, after another games convention scheduled for August that year cancelled. Games Workshop decided to fill the resulting gap by running a gaming day of their own. As a result, after some delays, the first Games Day was held at Seymour Hall, London on 20 December 1975. The convention was important because there were few outlets for gamers to meet each other and play, and Games Workshop used this in their efforts to build the gaming scene in the U.K.
Following this successful start, and encouraged by mainstream media coverage, the second Games Day was held at a different venue, Chelsea Town Hall, London, on 12 February 1977. The event was somewhat delayed, owing to the logistics of running a rapidly expanding business. It followed rapidly by a separate "D&D Day" at Fulham Town Hall on 12 March, this being their core funding stream at that time.
The Games Day convention was regularly held in the United Kingdom at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham. It drew enthusiasts of Games Workshop's three main games. It was not just a commercial venture, gamers go to play their games and attend presentations by special guests from the Games Workshop's head office in Nottingham.
Alongside the gaming was a dealer's area which commonly included products from Citadel Miniatures, particularly, armies for all the game systems scheduled for release. Another attraction was the Golden Demon, a painting competition of miniatures. There was also a competition of varying degrees of seriousness, the Scrap Demon competition, in which competitors create a models from plastic sprues.
It included the Golden Demon painting competition, news stands, sales stands, and tables to play on. In 2014 it was replaced by 'Warhammer Fest', similar but with additions such as demonstration pods and seminars.
Game Day conventions outside the United Kingdom
Within the US, Games Days were held in Los Angeles, California; Baltimore, Maryland; Chicago, Illinois; and Atlanta, Georgia. In Canada, the venue was the Queen Elizabeth Building at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario. In France, the venue was Le Stade de France, Paris.In the Netherlands, two Games days were organised under the Name "Mega Gaming Day", the first on 21 November 1998 in Amersfoort at De Flint theatre and the 2nd on 13 November 1999 in Utrecht at de Jaarbeurs.