In late December 2014, Artexis Easyfairs, specialist in events organisation and event halls management, reached an agreement with company Con-Fuse about the acquisition of FACTS, the largest comics, sci fi and anime festival in the Benelux held annually at Flanders Expo in Ghent, which is also run by Artexis Easyfairs.
By acquiring FACTS, Artexis Easyfairs is tapping into a new market segment it wishes to specialise in further locally and internationally: the world of comics, science fiction, fantasy and animation. Characters from television series, films, video and computer games are also an important part of the FACTS experience.
Dirk Van Roy, CEO of Artexis Easyfairs Benelux confirms: “With FACTS, we diversify again within our events portfolio. For several years already, FACTS has experienced significant growth in a segment that is new to us. As a market leader in the organisation of ultimate meeting & market places, our aim is to increase the experience of this close-knit community even more”.
In October 2014, FACTS was organised for the 24th time. Since its inception, FACTS has developed into an extremely successful, 2-day event of 250 exhibitors and 40,000 visitors. It is not only the oldest, but also the biggest comics, sci fi and anime festival in the Benelux.
Koen De Baets and Emmanuel Van Melkebeke, organisers who are also co-founders of FACTS, explain: “The cooperation with Artexis Easyfairs offers new prospects in order to develop FACTS even further as an entertainment event, with more exclusive activities, even more famous names from the world of comics, film and television and an even wider range of content. The future editions of FACTS here and abroad are certain to enthral fans even more.”
Emmanuel, Koen, Jörgen en Stefaan will certainly continue to provide their expertise for the next 3 editions of the festival and will be cooperating closely with Artexis Easyfairs Benelux.
The cooperation will start effectively from the next edition of FACTS, which will be the 25th already. This anniversary edition will take place on 26 and 27 September 2015 at Flanders Expo in Ghent.
With this new acquisition, Artexis Easyfairs will continue the momentum of its strategy for growth “Visit the Future”.
Artexis Easyfairs Benelux has already adopted a strategic position in a number of other sectors. For the construction industry, it offers trade fairs such as bis (Flanders Expo Ghent), bouw&reno (Antwerp Expo), Bois&Habitat (Namur Expo) and Builty (Tour&Taxis). For the hospitality industry, it organises Horeca Expo (Flanders Expo Ghent) and Bakkersvak (Rosmalen). For the healthcare sector it is responsible for trade fairs Healthcare (Brussels), Expo 60+ (Mechelen) and Soins & Santé (Namur)