Fanfest 2026 - Fenris Creations Comes Home

Fanfest 2026 - Fenris Creations Comes Home

Fanfest 2026 ran 14-16 May 2026 at Harpa in Reykjavik, with extended community programming spreading from Monday 11 May through Sunday 18 May. The keynote slot on Friday 15 May included guest speakers Paul M. Sutter (cosmologist, NASA-advisory background) and Dr. Beth Healey (researcher on isolation and survival in extreme environments), continuing a Fanfest tradition of pairing real-world hard-science guests with the in-fiction stage.

The institutional headline of the year was that this was the first Fanfest of an independent studio since 2017. The $120M USD management buyout that returned ownership from Pearl Abyss to a CEO-led group fronted by Hilmar Pétursson formally completed on or around 6 May 2026 - eight days before Fanfest opened. On 6 May - EVE's 23rd anniversary - the studio also rebranded from CCP to Fenris Creations (FC), so Fanfest 2026 was the first community event under the FC banner. The timing was deliberate: FC wanted it to be the first community gathering of the new era. Coverage in the run-up explicitly framed the convention as a turning point for the studio.

The most distinctive iteration moment of Fanfest 2026 was the unveiling of the Capsuleer Edda - described by FC as "one of the boldest cultural projects ever undertaken in EVE." Attendees were invited to contribute a literal blood drop to the production of a vellum manuscript preserving New Eden's history, riffing on the Icelandic medieval Edda tradition. The Edda is a heritage / community project, not a game mechanic, but it captures the tone FC set for the year.

The Trade Hub on the convention floor included gameplay stations for EVE Online, EVE Vanguard, EVE Frontier and a "Crucible" build, plus art booths, tattoo artists and community vendors. The closing Party at the Top of the World featured Crowd Kon7rol and Icelandic band GusGus.