York Board Games Convention

Now in its third year and bigger every time — a genuinely huge free-to-borrow game library alongside tournaments, demos and open tables, in a school hall that somehow doesn't feel institutional once it's full of dice and cardboard. Solo attendees are the norm, not the exception; nobody blinks if you sit down at a table of strangers.

Family-friendly by design — under-16s go free and there's a real mix of ages at the tables — so it works equally well as a first proper gaming convention or a weekend for hardened hobbyists.