Lucca Comics & Games brings comics publishers, game designers and cosplayers into Lucca’s historic centre and festival pavilions. Choose the part of the festival you most want to experience, whether that means finding comics, trying board games or joining a costumed gathering. You can enjoy its public spaces without buying pavilion admission, but a ticketed day opens up a different set of activities.
Dates and the official programme
- Calendar window
- October and November; dates set annually
- Usual duration
- Five days
- Free participation
- City streets and designated free-entry areas
- Paid access
- Ticketed exhibition pavilions, including those on the walls’ bastions; ticket and wristband required
- Advance planning
- Buy admission ahead of your chosen day; arrange accommodation early
Choose your attendance day around your main interest: comics browsing, hands-on gaming and cosplay gatherings offer quite different ways to spend it.
The official edition website publishes its Programme page, usually in late September at the programme presentation. Individual entries give you the day, venue and session details needed to choose a talk or workshop. Use those entries to build a small set of priorities rather than treating every festival area as a stop.
Comics, games and family areas
Piazza Napoleone is a useful focus for comics pavilion browsing, with publisher stands where you can look for books and discover unfamiliar titles. Give browsing room in your day rather than fitting it between several scheduled sessions.
- Name
- Piazza Napoleone
- Location
- Piazza Napoleone 27, Lucca Maps
Syrio · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Edited
Palazzo Guinigi hosts comics exhibitions, offering a different way to spend time with the work beyond the stands. Festival-day exhibitions open in the morning and continue into the early evening. Do not assume the exhibitions are free during the festival: free access ahead of the main event has given way to ticket-holder admission during it in past editions.
- Name
- Palazzo Guinigi
- Location
- Via Guinigi 29, Lucca Maps
- Site
- cultura.comune.lucca.it
- Hours
- 10:00–19:00
Padiglione Carducci at Campo Balilla, outside the southern city walls, is the main choice here for hands-on board gaming. At the Lucca Games Café, you can borrow from a game library and have volunteers explain the rules. Open play needs no reservation, so you can try a game without committing to a scheduled session. Designer-led play and tournament activities offer more structured alternatives. Choose those when playing, rather than shopping, is your priority.
- Name
- Campo Balilla, Padiglione Carducci, Lucca Comics & Games
- Location
- Viale Giosuè Carducci 187, Lucca Maps
- Site
- luccacomicsandgames.com
- Hours
- Open 24/7
Real Collegio hosts Lucca Junior, the Family Palace, with workshops, interactive games and meetings with authors and characters. Entry needs neither a ticket nor a wristband. Individual activities have their own scheduled times, so choose a particular workshop or meeting around your child’s interests rather than expecting one continuous drop-in programme.
- Name
- Real Collegio di Lucca
- Location
- Piazza del Collegio 13, Lucca Maps
- Site
- realcollegiolucca.it
- Hours
- Mon–Sat 10:00–12:00
- Sun Closed
For a first visit, pick a main area and one contrasting activity. Comics browsing with an exhibition, or a game session with a family workshop, leaves more time to enjoy each than trying to cover every pavilion.
Talks and the cosplay contest
| Moment | Day pattern | Venue | Spectator admission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucca Cosplay Contest | Programme-assigned slot; may be closing day | Auditorium San Francesco | Day ticket and wristband |
The traditional Lucca Cosplay Contest brings costumed performances to the festival. Treat it as a scheduled performance rather than a casual gathering when deciding how much pavilion browsing to fit around it.
Meet The Author combines a game-related talk by one or more creators with a signing and a demonstration game featuring their work. Each programme entry assigns its own day and venue. The date filters let you narrow the choice to your attendance day.
Most creator talks need only that day’s festival ticket and wristband. Designated major talks also require a separate free reservation and voucher. Pick one session you particularly want to attend, leaving the rest of the day for browsing or play, rather than moving between talks in different venues.
Tickets and accommodation
Day admission typically costs around €25–€35, depending on the attendance day, including the published purchase fees. Multi-day passes range from around €40–€60 for two days to around €95 for the full festival. Intermediate passes depend on the number and combination of days. Choose admission for the activities you want, not simply for walking around Lucca.
The festival’s official ticket pathway leads to TicketOne, with online purchase and physical outlets in Italy. Smartphone and print-at-home tickets still require wristband collection at a Welcome Desk. Participating TicketOne Gold outlets also offer collection. Eligible home-delivery purchases send both items to you, avoiding that collection stop. Allow time to collect before heading to your first ticketed venue.
For a day without pavilion admission, Self Area & Underground Comics offers independent comics interests, while the IMT Library’s Game Science activities include talks and demonstrations. Public streets and the walls also let you see costumed visitors without buying entry to the pavilions.
Arrange your room early if you want to stay in Lucca during the festival. As a planning estimate, allow roughly €120–€250 per night for a simple double room, with central locations, better facilities and peak weekend nights often costing more. A room in a nearby town may be around €80–€160, but weigh that saving against the return journey after your last activity. Choose a location that lets you leave without rushing out of a session or relying on a tight connection.
Cosplay, breaks and food
Giardino degli Osservanti is a hub for cosplay gatherings, with community stage activities, music, themed shows, games and meet-and-greets. Entry needs neither a festival ticket nor a wristband. Casual attendance in costume needs no contest registration, so you can join the wider festival without entering a competition.
- Name
- Giardino degli Osservanti
- Location
- Lucca, Province of Lucca Maps
- Hours
- Open 24/7
Syrio · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Edited
To enter the Lucca Cosplay Contest, pre-register online before the contest, giving your group size and each participant’s Italian tax code. You receive a confirmation email and code. For participants without an Italian tax code, leave them out of the group form and email their details to cosplay@luccacomicsandgames.com.
Leave real weapons and sharp or pointed costume materials at home. Firearm replicas need a red cap or similar red marking at the front. Blade replicas must have no pointed tip or sharp edge and must match the costume. Soft, lightweight props are easier to carry through crowds. Choose shoes and clothing you can comfortably wear all day.
Ask permission before photographing a cosplayer, and accept a refusal without pressing. A simple outfit assembled from existing clothes with a purchased wig or accessory might cost roughly €20–€60, while a complete bought costume can cost considerably more.
Keep a meal and a seated break in your day. Focaccia or a filled sandwich makes a straightforward savoury snack. Buccellato, Lucca’s sweet bread with raisins and aniseed, is another local choice. Allow around €5–€10 for a substantial snack and drink, or €15–€25 for a simple sit-down meal, with fuller restaurant meals costing more. Eat before hunger forces you to abandon a session queue.
Crowds and getting around
Lucca railway station is the main arrival and departure point for visitors coming by train. Extra regional services are usually added during the festival, but heavy passenger flows can mean altered station access, designated arrival and departure paths, and queues outside. Leave room for station queues after your last activity, rather than planning to reach the platform at the last moment.
Temporary traffic, parking and access restrictions affect festival setup and dismantling as well as attendance days. Around pavilion work sites, vehicle and pedestrian access can be restricted and stopping prohibited. If you arrive by car, do not rely on driving into the historic centre or parking beside a pavilion.
The Comune di Lucca, the city council, announces traffic, parking and access measures. The organiser publishes visitor information, while Trenitalia announces additional trains and railway arrangements. These measures change the approach to the city as well as the departure, so allow a less crowded part of your day for ordinary sightseeing.
People intoxicated by alcohol or drugs cannot enter event areas, and climbing on the city walls is forbidden. When time is tight, drop an area rather than your departure margin: enjoying one game or exhibition is more rewarding than spending the end of the day crossing between distant venues.
Sources & fact-checking
Checks against the sources below cover: opening hours, services, and fares and charges.
- Lucca Crea s.r.l. — opening hours
- Lucca Crea / Lucca Comics & Games — service
- Tickets | Lucca Comics & Games 2023 – Together
- PreIscrizioni Lucca Cosplay 2026
- Lucca Comics & Games — fares and charges
- Lucca Crea / Lucca Comics & Games — opening hours
- Il Gioco al Lucca Games Cafè
- Programma – Lucca Comics & Games 2026
- Lucca Crea — opening hours
- Lucca Tourism — opening hours
- Press | Lucca 365 Comics & Games
- Lucca Crea — service
- Ordinanza n. 2242 del 01/10/2026
- Trenitalia, in agreement with Regione Toscana — service
- Lucca Comics and Games 2026: tutte le ordinanze e i provvedimenti per l’edizione 2026
- Meet The Author: Matteo Tudisco – Six Bullet System
- Reservation-based Talks
- LCC – Lucca Cosplay Contest 2026
- Lucca Crea S.r.l. — service
- Torre Guinigi per la prima volta ospita le mostre di Lucca Comics & Games
- Lucca Comics & Games organiser — fares and charges
- I talk su prenotazione
