To The Moon’s inaugural event took place last month in the United Kingdom, and it was, by all accounts, a complete shambles. The images and clips shared on social media painted a picture of a sorry affair in every respect, and many creators made videos exposing the event as an utter failure.
Weeks after the event, To The Moon’s founder, Monty Stewart, has surfaced on LinkedIn with a lengthy statement about what comes next for the expo. He stressed that it will be back, and suggested that this year’s expo wasn’t all that bad.
To The Moon Will Return in 2026
Early in November, To The Moon was on a little marketing kick, and the materials provided suggested that it planned to revive the UK’s failing gaming expo scene. Fast forward to a weekday in the middle of November, and To The Moon had arrived, halted temporarily by bad weather, poor planning, and an almost empty conference hall in Birmingham, England.
On social media, creators wasted no time sharing images of the event, with some claiming they’d spent hundreds to reach the venue and were left feeling extremely sour and disappointed:
There was almost nothing good to take away from To The Moon, but that’s not how the expo’s founder, Monty Stewart, put it on LinkedIn in a recent post:
On a personal level I wanted to say thank you to every single person that has supported and continues to support the vision of To The Moon Expo and attended. Every speaker, exhibitor, attendee and the like.
Seeing the vast majority of posts on LinkedIn being positive, hearing that some of our indies acquired investment meetings and received invaluable feedback on their games is a check box for me; alongside gamers being able to interact with actual games and their favourite IP’s, not just merch stalls. And let us not forget, we were the largest gathering of unique studios and games under one roof nationally within the UK for 2025.
If we can help people realise their dreams, acquire the funding they need to shoot for the stars and follow their creative passion; that is a win.
Were there some learning curves? For sure. Definitely some curveballs with the weather and a couple other aspects, but we continued onwards and adapted with the hand we were dealt.
Can we make it better? Damn right. How are we going to do that? We are looking to 2026 and moving forward with experience that only progress can teach!
I cannot wait to share with you what is coming for next year. I am also incredibly grateful to not have to handle the mantle by myself moving forward into 2026.
Innovation has always belonged those willing to challenge the status quo, not those who cling to it. So to the certain few people who have spent more energy on blocking new ideas than building their own; don’t worry, we aren’t here to replace you. Time will handle that for us.
We will continue to stand at the Vanguard for our creative industry and our movement to ensure that exhibiting at events is not fiscally gatekept and that creative passion within the UK and the globe can thrive.
Not only does Stewart think the event wasn’t all that bad, but he also intends to come back in 2026 with a new expo, seemingly expecting it to be better received just because he promises it will be.
Some reports came in ahead of the event that revealed how ill-planned it was, even before it landed:
Everyday gamers went to the expo at the NEC in Birmingham expecting a spectacle of an event because of bold marketing claims, but were met with almost nothing to do. One user wrote on X (formerly Twitter), ‘Went to see the To the Moon expo today as it was my first ever time heading to see one, it’s just disappointing how little there was to do there, legitimately one area just has consoles connected to monitors with Minecraft installed.’
This is a little first-person perspective, but I was invited to attend To The Moon and got cold feet in the morning before making the 2.5-hour drive to Birmingham, instructing my colleague to ‘stay in bed’ because I had some ill juju about the expo. Was that a lucky escape?
Sadly, as EGX has died a death, Insomnia appears to be coming back under some distrustful banner, and WASD has also faded into an abyss; there’s effectively nothing left in the United Kingdom for gamers.
Let us know on the Insider Gaming Discord if you attended To The Moon and what you thought about the event.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that TheBurntPeanut lashed out at Dr Disrespect fans on stream
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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