Lucca Comics & Games 2026: Tickets, Wristbands and Games

Update, November 1, 2026: Lucca Comics & Games 2026 (October 28 to November 1) is over. Everything below was read off the festival's own pages on October 14, before the show, and is kept as an archive and a planning reference for 2027; we have not updated it with what happened on site, and the festival had published no closing attendance figures as of November 1. Prices, deadlines and programme times are given as announced, in the past tense where they have passed, and the programme may have changed after October 14.

The date that mattered most for Lucca Comics & Games 2026 was not October 28. It was Friday, October 16, at 10:00 Italian time. A Lucca ticket on its own got you into nothing that charged admission: you also needed the coloured wristband for that day, and October 16 was the last moment to buy online with the option that posted the wristband to your door. Buy after that and you queued for it in Lucca.

This was the festival's 60th-anniversary edition, branded Lucca60 with the theme "Legacy", and it is not a small show. Lucca's own closing figures for 2025, as reported by Multiplayer.it, were more than 280,000 tickets sold and 17,000 accredited professionals. Here is what Lucca Comics & Games 2026 cost, how the wristbands worked, how the free Pikachu card worked, and what was announced for video game and card game players, all read off the festival's own pages on October 14. The 2025 figures are the only attendance benchmark we can cite.

The dates, the hours and the 80,000 cap

Lucca Comics & Games 2026 ran Wednesday, October 28 to Sunday, November 1, spread across the historic centre of Lucca, its walls and the Polo Fiere exhibition site outside them. The festival's FAQ gave the same hours for all five days: 9:00 to 19:00, with evening events running past closing. The exhibitions at Palazzo Guinigi opened early, on October 3.

Two numbers frame the ticketing:

• No more than 80,000 tickets per day. The FAQ gave that as the cap, and said on-site ticket desks kept selling only until it was reached.
• No more than five tickets per transaction.

On October 14 the ticket counter on the festival's homepage labelled all five days "Hurry up". Its scale ran Available, Hurry up, Last spots, SOLD OUT, so no day had sold out then, but none was in the easy band either. We did not record availability after that date.

Times below are Italian time unless labelled otherwise. Note that Italy was on summer time (CEST, UTC+2) for the October 16 deadline and on standard time (CET, UTC+1) by the time the festival opened, because clocks went back on October 25.

What a ticket costs

Tickets were sold through TicketOne, online and, from October 1, at TicketOne shops across Italy, plus at Lucca's own ticket desks during the festival. The online total is the base price plus a €2.50 presale fee and a €1 commission. The festival's ticket desks in Lucca charge the same totals, so there is no gate markup; TicketOne's physical shops may add a commission of their own.

Day tickets

Passes, against the same days bought as single tickets:

What falls out of those tables:

• Saturday is the dearest day and Wednesday the cheapest, €8 apart.
• The weekend pass is the worst-value pass. Friday–Saturday and Saturday–Sunday both cost €68 as single tickets, but the weekend pass is €2 dearer and saves only €9.50.
• The 5-day pass is €11.50 more than either 4-day pass. Even the cheapest single day, Wednesday, is €26.50, so if you are doing four days, the fifth costs €11.50 as a pass upgrade.
• Both 4-day passes cost €83.50, even though Thursday to Sunday is worth €7 more as singles than Wednesday to Saturday.
• Every pass covers consecutive days. There is no Wednesday-plus-Saturday product on the price list.

The early-bird sale ran June 23 to July 27 and saved between €2 and €7.50 per product; it is gone. So is the Level UP pass, the €601.50 super-fan tier with priority entry to every pavilion, a lounge and meetings with guests; its €682.60 parking version is listed as sold out too.

The rest of the rules, from the ticket FAQ:

• No refunds and no date changes. If you cannot go, the FAQ points you to resale through TicketOne's FANsale platform, open since October 1.
• Children born from January 1, 2017 get in free with an adult holding a ticket and wristband, and need no ticket of their own. There is no family discount.
• Groups of 20 or more buy through a dedicated groups site, and the 21st ticket is free.
• Visitors with disabilities request free tickets, plus a reduced ticket for a companion, through the festival's "Senza Barriere" site.
• Italy's Carta del Docente and Carte Cultura vouchers are accepted through TicketOne.

Wristbands, and the October 16 cutoff

The FAQ was blunt: a Lucca ticket was valid only when shown with its wristband. There are five wristbands, one colour per day, and you need the right one to enter any paid space. Keep the ticket itself until the end of the festival as well; it is the wristband plus the ticket that gets you in.

There are two main ways to get the wristband.

1. Have it posted to you ("salta il welcome desk"). The ticket and wristbands arrive by courier, and you never touch a welcome desk queue.

• Included with every 3-, 4- and 5-day pass, with free delivery within Italy.
• €9.99 extra for day tickets and 2-day passes. That is the express-courier price for Italy. The FAQ's example is five 2-day passes arriving together with all ten wristbands, which it says saves on shipping, so bundle a group's tickets into one order.
• Abroad, it costs more. The FAQ's price table says the delivery bundled with 3- to 5-day passes is free in Italy but costs €19.99 to Western and Central Europe, €29.99 to Switzerland, the USA and Canada, and €39.99 elsewhere. It gives no foreign rate for day tickets or 2-day passes.
• It has to be chosen at checkout. A print-at-home or e-ticket bought without the option cannot have its wristbands posted later.
• The cutoff was 10:00 on Friday, October 16 (now passed), for online purchases.

On the US West Coast, Thursday night was the real deadline.

2. Collect it at a welcome desk. If you bought after the cutoff, or picked print-at-home or e-ticket, you collected your wristbands at a welcome desk in Lucca, unless you bought at one of the GOLD shops below. The desks sat next to the festival's ticket offices and opened 6:30 to 18:30, Wednesday, October 28 to Sunday, November 1. One opened early: Baluardo San Regolo, on Tuesday, October 27, from 16:00 to 19:00.

The card pages give October 28 to November 1 as the distribution window and list no Tuesday hours, so the card was not expected to be available during San Regolo's Tuesday opening.

A few rules make the queue shorter. Anyone holding single tickets for several days, or a 2-day pass, collects every wristband at the first visit. Buyers of a 3-, 4- or 5-day pass after the October 16 cutoff still collect in person, but the FAQ says they get a dedicated fast lane. And a short list of TicketOne "GOLD" shops both sell tickets and hand out wristbands: the Teatro del Giglio and MediaWorld in Lucca, plus shops in Florence, Bologna, Rimini, Parma, Rome, Milan and La Spezia.

Our read, for anyone planning 2027 if the schedule repeats: a Tuesday-evening pickup, if offered again, is the better plan for people flying in. It is the same trade we made the case for at Gen Con, where picking up a badge a day early turns the first morning into show time instead of queue time. San Regolo was also one of the desks that handed out the Pikachu card once the festival opened.

The queue for the Games stand at the Real Collegio in 2021, per the photographer's caption. In 2026 the Real Collegio hosted the free Family Palace instead. Photo: Syrio via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The Pikachu card every ticket gets

For Pokémon's 30th anniversary and Lucca's 60th, The Pokémon Company International gave every Lucca60 ticket holder a Pikachu card with the Lucca60 logo. The festival's FAQ describes it as a reissue of one of the most iconic cards, customised with the logo. It was not for sale, in Lucca or anywhere else, and could not be booked or pre-ordered. The rules, from the dedicated FAQ:

• One card per ticket, not per day. A day ticket, a pass or a 5-day pass each get one card.
• Show the ticket and the wristband together. The wristband alone does not count. No ID is needed for adults.
• Collect it yourself. There are no proxies: you cannot pick one up for a friend in a pavilion queue, or for someone who is not coming.
• One collection, on one day. Cards come in their original plastic packaging, are not numbered or serialised, cannot be chosen or swapped, and are not replaced if damaged or lost.
• Children under 10 get one too. A child without a ticket goes to the desk with an adult who has a valid ticket, shows an ID document, and gets a special barcode wristband that is scanned for the card.

Where it was collected, from October 28 to November 1:

The collection points share a location with the welcome desks, but run a separate line for people who only need the card. If you come in by train and pick up your wristband at the station desk, you needed to queue again elsewhere for the card, because the Piazzale Ricasoli and Via Vincenzo Consani desks are not on the list. You could take the wristband first and the card later.

The festival's own map of the Pikachu card distribution points. The Bacchettoni point was the one open until 22:00. Map: Lucca Crea, from the festival's Pikachu card announcement.

Not in Lucca? The festival announced that from October 31 to November 8 the card would also be handed out at participating Play! Pokémon stores, found through the Play! Pokémon event locator, while supplies last. The announcement said that limit applied "as at the event", so a ticket was not a guarantee of a card late on Sunday. That store window runs to November 8; check the Play! Pokémon event locator for current availability.

The card is one part of a Pokémon pavilion at the Palestra Bacchettoni, a gym inside the walls. Lucca lists a Play Lab where you can learn the Pokémon TCG and take home an exclusive mini-deck, stations for Pokémon Champions and the latest Pokémon TCG Pocket updates, a TCG Pocket booster-opening experience that gives an exclusive in-app code, giant LEGO Pokémon builds of Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise, and a Pokémon Store. Pokémon GO players get extra PokéStops and Gyms across the city. Our Pokémon TCG 30th Celebration guide covers the anniversary products in shops.

The video game programme

Lucca is a comics festival with a gaming half, and the 2026 video game guest list was long. From the official programme as read on October 14 (we have not confirmed what ran, or any later changes):

The guest names are the story. Kamiya directed Devil May Cry, Ōkami and Bayonetta, and Lucca's guest page says he is now directing the Ōkami sequel at CLOVERS. Kitase produced the Final Fantasy VII Remake series and is producer on FINAL FANTASY VII REVELATION; Square Enix also listed him for the festival's Walk of Fame and signing sessions, with its own REVELATION showcase with new information, freebies and merchandise at the Casa del Boia. Both Kitase sessions were marked "Event by booking only", and the festival said bookable events were reserved through its LuccaCG Assistant app.

CD PROJEKT RED's Songs of the Past session listed Miles Tost, level design lead on The Witcher 4, and Paula Mejsner, lead writer of Songs of the Past, and Lucca said it included a demo presentation. A Witcher cosplay parade through the streets was also announced. If the Remastered upgrade is your actual question, we covered who gets it free.

Away from the panels, as announced in Lucca's video game announcement:

• Plaion was bringing SEGA and ATLUS to the Casermetta San Paolino, with the Italian premieres of Alien: Isolation 2, STRANGER THAN HEAVEN and Persona 4 Revival, plus a meet and greet with the Alien: Isolation 2 developers.
• The Bandai Namco Palace, in its fourth year, was announced with more than 400 m² of video game previews, Banpresto collectables, Gashapon, Ichiban Kuji and model kits.
• Indie Vault at Palazzo Guinigi was to show ten independent studios picked by a jury, and the Multibrand Videogames Pavilion was to host Trinity Team with Slaps and Beans, and Honkai: Star Rail.
• The Red Bull Wings Cup EA SPORTS FC National Final was listed for Lucca, with its winner going to the World Final in Miami in January.

Yoko Kanno, who began her career in video game music on the Nobunaga's Ambition series per her guest page, was listed in Lucca on October 31 and November 1, with a public interview on the morning of the 31st.

Yoji Shinkawa and Hideo Kojima greeting fans at Lucca Comics & Games 2025. In 2026 the headline game creators were Kamiya and Kitase. Photo: Luca Dell'Orto via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

Card games, board games and D&D

The games side was in the Padiglione Carducci, the main games pavilion, plus the Games Café and spaces across town. Lucca billed itself as the premier venue for trading card games, and its games announcement listed:

For the Naruto stands, our breakdown of both companies' Paris and Lucca booths has the tutorial booking and playmat terms. Riot also listed Lucca among the shows where its Riftbound Secret Garden bundle was planned to be on sale, and our PAX West Riftbound guide explains the Riven, Shattered promo. Lorcana's multiplayer format is covered in Format Coconut, explained, and if you are walking into a Reality Fracture event cold, our set guide has the mechanics. New to Palworld's card game? Here is how it plays. Cyberpunk players can find more in our Cyberpunk TCG section.

Beyond the card games:

• D&D: actor Joe Manganiello curated the Lucca60 Dungeons & Dragons programme, and Tracy and Laura Hickman were listed for the return of Dragonlance.
• Daggerheart: Darrington Press and Acheron Games were bringing the Italian edition of the Hope & Fear expansion. The Games Café listed a Daggerheart Multi-Table on Friday, October 30 and D&D Epic on Saturday, October 31.
• Board games: the world premiere of the Harry Potter board game Defenders of Hogwarts, then due in spring 2027, and a preview of Ravensburger's Horrified Ravenloft.
• Awards: the Gioco dell'Anno finalists were Art Society, Bomb Busters, Echoes of Time, Rebirth and Thunder Road Vendetta. Paolo Mori had already been named Board Game Designer of the Year.

The Lucca Games pavilion in the moat below the walls in 2008. The 2026 games pavilion, the Padiglione Carducci, needed a ticket and wristband. Photo: Alessio Sbarbaro via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

What you can do without a ticket

The city itself was free. The FAQ said walking around Lucca during the festival was unrestricted for residents and visitors alike, and these areas needed no ticket or wristband:

• the Family Palace at the Real Collegio, home to the Lucca Junior children's programme
• Area Self, the independent comics area
• Area Pro, which is open without a ticket but only to people selected by publishers for portfolio meetings
• IMT Library – Game Science in Piazza San Ponziano, with talks and game demos
• the walk along the city walls, except the pavilions in the bastions
• the Giardino degli Osservanti, with the Community Village and the cosplay area
• the Piazzale Verdi stage, up to its capacity
• the 2026 exhibitions, free for everyone during the festival, with priority for ticket holders. The exceptions are the exhibitions inside Japan Town and the Padiglione Carducci, which need the wristband.

The Pokémon pavilion, the Padiglione Carducci and the venues for the Kitase and Kamiya sessions were not on that list, so the wristband was needed for those. The cosplay crowd and the walls needed nothing.

The rules at the gates

From the festival's safety FAQ (rules as published for the 2026 edition):

• Bags over 20 litres were banned, and smaller ones could be checked. Suitcases and trolleys are on the banned list too, and can be inspected at the city's entry points.
• Also banned: spray cans, stadium horns, chains, drinks over 5% alcohol, glass containers, tripods, sticks and poles, laser pens and pointers, drones (flying them over the city is banned too), bicycles, skateboards, hoverboards, skates, tents, sleeping bags, flammables, and weapons of any kind, licence or not.
• Cosplay weapons: replica firearms are allowed only with a red cap or equivalent painted tip, bladed replicas only without a sharp point or cutting edge, and either one only if it matches the costume you are wearing.
• Security: expect checks at the city entrances and the exhibition spaces. Take off a mask when asked, open your bag, and carry an ID document.
• Food and drink from home are fine; the FAQ asks that liquids be in plastic containers or reusable bottles, since glass is not allowed into the pavilions.
• Dogs of any size are allowed in the pavilions only on a lead and muzzled, and small dogs carried in bags must be on a lead too.

Getting there: Lucca station is in Piazzale Ricasoli, with trains from Florence Santa Maria Novella, Pisa Centrale and Viareggio, and Pisa airport is about 30 km away. The festival advised buying your return train ticket as early as possible to avoid queues at the station. A free shuttle for ticket holders was announced out to Polo Fiere and Japan Town.

Where the official pages disagree

Read on October 14, the festival's own pages contradict each other, or an exhibitor's page, in these places.

• How many welcome desks there are. The September 1 ticketing announcement says five. The FAQ says "sono sei", six, and then lists five.
• The under-10 cutoff. The announcement says children born "dal 1° gennaio 2017 in poi", from January 1, 2017 onwards, get in free. The FAQ and the Pikachu card FAQ say born "dopo", after, January 1, 2017. A child born on January 1, 2017 fits one wording and not the other.
• The 5-day pass commission. The ticket page breaks the €95 total down with a €1.50 commission; the FAQ's price table gives €1.40 and still totals €95.
• The English ticket page is a step behind. As read on October 14 it still said the general sale "opens" on September 1, which had passed.
• Cyberpunk TCG's timing. Lucca's games announcement places the festival "just one week after its global release" in the same sentence that calls the event a pre-launch tournament. WeirdCo lists Lucca as an on-site Pre-release, and its in-store Pre-release window was October 30 to November 1.
• Name spellings. Lucca's video game announcement gives the Edgerunners 2 showrunner as "Bartosz Stybor" and an Alien: Isolation 2 developer as "Ana Sopikova". The programme spells the first "Sztybor", and gives the second as "Ana Sokipova" in the session summary but "Anastasia Sopikova" further down the same page.
• The Wonderful Neoran Valley date. The programme entry for the trailer session gives a start date of October 31 and an end date of October 30, and its own text says October 30 at 16:30. The festival's own app was the place to confirm it, and we did not check which date held.
• Where the Gundam demos are. Lucca's games announcement lists the Gundam Card Game demos with the NARUTO CARD GAME space in Piazza Santa Maria; Bandai's own Gundam Card Game event page puts them at the Gametrade booth in the Padiglione Carducci.
• Leftover copy. The FAQ entry on Area Self still says "Anche nel 2025", also in 2025.

What was never published

• Availability by day after October 14. The homepage counter said "Hurry up" for every day on October 14. We could not load the TicketOne shop itself to check stock, and did not record a later reading.
• When Kitase bookings opened. Both sessions were "booking only", and the programme gave no booking start time.
• Whether the Plaion games were playable. Lucca called Alien: Isolation 2, STRANGER THAN HEAVEN and Persona 4 Revival "Italian premieres" and did not say there were hands-on stations.
• How many Pikachu cards existed. The Play! Pokémon store offer was "while supplies last", which the festival said applied as at the event, and no quantity was published.
• The language of most sessions. Of the video game sessions in the table above, only CD PROJEKT RED's two panels were stated to be in English.
• Closing figures for 2026. None had been published by the festival as of November 1; the only benchmark is the 2025 total of more than 280,000 tickets and 17,000 accredited professionals.

Quick Action Checklist

• Wristband posting (closed). The posted-wristband option ended at 10:00 Italian time on Friday, October 16, 2026 (4:00 a.m. Eastern, 1:00 a.m. Pacific). It had to be chosen at checkout ("salta il welcome desk"), not added later. If the 2027 edition repeats it, expect a similar cutoff weeks before the show, but nothing for 2027 has been announced.
• Multi-day buyers. The fifth day cost €11.50 more as the 5-day pass, against €26.50 or more as a single day ticket.
• Weekend pass. Friday–Saturday was €56.50 and Saturday–Sunday €58.50, for the same €68 of single tickets.
• Early pickup (past). Baluardo San Regolo opened on Tuesday, October 27, 16:00–19:00, for early wristband collection.
• Arriving by train. The station welcome desk did not hand out the Pikachu card. The card points were Santa Croce, San Regolo, Polo Fiere and the Bacchettoni point, open until 22:00 (18:30 on Sunday).
• Ticket plus wristband for the card. A 5-day pass got one card, not five.
• Kitase sessions (past). Both were booking only through the LuccaCG Assistant app; we have no record of how bookings went.
• Gate rules. Bags had to be 20 litres or less, no glass, and replica firearms needed a red tip.
• Doing a European run? Paris Games Week and SPIEL Essen both ran October 22 to 25, the week before Lucca. More in the Gaming Events archive and across the Mythras blog.