If you are not within the know, Lucca Comics and Games 2023 is about to kick off subsequent week in Lucca, Italy.

For a complete week, the fortress city in Italy will likely be taken over by numerous nerd tradition manufacturers, corporations, and experiences to have fun the fandom.

From Netflix and Amazon Prime Video to PlayStation, Star Wars, Riot – and past. During this time, the city will change into the hotbed for greater than 800,000 geeks from world wide.

And this 12 months it is star-studded, as properly. DC Universe star Joe Manganiello is attending because the conference’s associate, and so, too, is Sir Ian Livingstone; gaming’s forefather.

But proper on the prime of the chain is Emanuele Vietina: King of the Nerds.

The Italian native has been placing on Lucca Comics and Games for years, however his ardour for the annual expertise started when he was only a little one.

Speaking completely to Express.co.uk, Emanuele appeared again: “I came into Lucca hand-in-hand with my mother.”

At simply eight-years-old, the wide-eyed fan visited Lucca for the primary time and had his future modified for good.

He went on to volunteer on the gates of the Lucca, and now runs the entire occasion. And this 12 months is especially particular for Emanuele – and the attendees of Lucca Comics and Games.

Originally two festivals (Lucca Comics & Lucca Games), this 12 months’s occasion marks 30 years for the reason that inception of Lucca Games. It additionally shares a thirtieth anniversary with the exceedingly standard buying and selling card recreation, Magic the Gathering, and certainly one in all Emanuele’s favorite video video games of all time: Myst.

But Emanuele was fast to stamp out any ideas of Lucca being only a place for corporations to shout about their successes. “We don’t call Lucca Comics and Games a show or festival. We call it a community event. Because our first mission is to take care and love our communities.”

Emanuele practices what he preaches, as properly. He nonetheless video games (“I play a Middle-Earth board game every week”) and could be very concerned with the comedian guide world. So he is aware of how essential Lucca Comics and Games is to the individuals who truly attend and have interaction in these areas. “The deepest motivation for us,” he smiled. “Is to give back to show our gratitude.”

While talking to Emanuele it was apparent that he really loves his job. Sure, he will get to take care of numerous video games and comics in his day-to-day work, however there’s absolutely numerous admin that goes together with it.

Still, he does not see it that means. Instead, he seems to be at organising a worldwide occasion a bit like… taking part in Dungeons & Dragons.

“I am the director of the festival,” he mentioned. “But, I feel in myself I am a Dungeon Master.

“I do not actually like… I’m not a director, I’m simply making ready a quest for folks on this lovely city. We are passionate guys who need to organise this present, this conference, that the group wish to attend.”

Lucca Comics and Games 2023 begins November 1, 2023. Get tickets here.