GFest Sofia 2026
Bulgaria's gaming and pop-culture festival returns to Sofia on 17-18 October 2026, filling Hall 3 of the National Palace of Culture with tournaments, cosplay and an expo hall.
GFest returns to Sofia on 17 and 18 October 2026, taking over Hall 3 of the National Palace of Culture (NDK) in the heart of the Bulgarian capital. The festival brings together fans of gaming, esports, hardware, cosplay and K-pop culture, alongside Yu-Gi-Oh! and board game communities.
The programme is built around several activity zones: gaming tournaments, an expo hall with hardware and gaming brands, meet-and-greet sessions, card game competitions, a K-pop stage programme, cosplay events and an art alley for regional creators.
For players from the Balkan region, GFest is one of the more accessible weekend trips of the autumn - Sofia is an easy drive or short flight from most of the region, and the NDK venue sits right in the city centre. If you follow the Bulgarian gaming and cosplay scene, or just want a compact two-day convention without the scale (and cost) of the big Western European shows, this is a solid pick. Tickets are sold through the official GFest website, where the zone schedule is published closer to the event.
Image: Bin im Garten / CC BY-SA 3.0, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NDK_Sofia_2012_PD_09.jpg