Utah fantasy author Brandon Sanderson announced this week that his yearly fan convention, Dragonsteel Nexus, has found a new home — and it’s outside of Utah.
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The convention, which in recent years has drawn thousands of Sanderson fans to Salt Lake City, will be moving to Denver, Colorado, starting in 2027, Sanderson said in a video posted to his YouTube channel.
Here’s what Sanderson said about the move, and when fans can expect Nexus to return to Salt Lake City.
Why is Dragonsteel Nexus moving to Denver in 2027?
Nexus will be held in Denver starting in 2027 until 2030, while the convention’s former home — the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City — is shut down for planned renovations, Sanderson said.
Earlier this month, it was announced that the Salt Palace, which hosts nearly 200 conventions every year, would be closed starting in the fall of 2027 for a “a major renovation and redesign project” that coincides “with the creation of a new large sports and entertainment district downtown,” as KSL reported.
“The Salt Palace is really the only venue in Utah capable of holding Dragonsteel Nexus,” Sanderson said about the decision to move to Denver.
Sanderson’s team was given a heads up about the Salt Palace closing, the author said, giving them time to scout out a new location for next year’s event. After looking at venues in multiple locations, they settled on Denver for a couple of different reasons.
“One of the really key ideas for us was finding a place that’s affordable for our fans,” he said.
According to Sanderson, his team felt that the costs of travel to Denver, including both airplane ticket prices and hotel prices, would be less expensive for his fans than other potential locations — in some cases, as much as half the price.
But Sanderson said he’s also a fan of the venue itself in Denver.
“I’ve been to conventions in that convention hall, and it’s a really good convention hall,” he said.
Although the plan for now, according to Sanderson, is for Dragonsteel Nexus to take place in Denver for the next three years, he acknowledged that could change. “There could be one of them we go somewhere else,” he said. “But you should expect, in general, we’re going to be in Colorado through 2030.”
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When will Dragonsteel Nexus come back to Utah?
As of now, Sanderson said that the plan is for Nexus to return to Salt Lake City once the Salt Palace has reopened.
“We hope to be back in 2031,” Sanderson said, which, he noted, likely would coincide with the release of the sixth book in his “Stormlight Archive” series.
However, he noted that his team has found that around 70% of the convention’s attendees come from outside of Utah. He also said that the venue in Denver is slightly larger than the Salt Palace, meaning they will be able to offer more tickets and allow more people to attend.
“We’re able to get about 75% of you into the Salt Palace, so we’re figuring if we have this larger space, we can add those extra 25% of you,” Sanderson said, though he also said that they don’t want the event to grow too large.
“We want Nexus to remain small enough that it has a small sort of feel.”
What about Dragonsteel Nexus in 2026?
Nexus will take place as usual in the Salt Palace this year, with the event scheduled for Dec. 3-5.
Featured guests at this year’s convention include Matt Dinniman, author of the “Dungeon Crawler Carl” series, and Martha Wells, the Hugo Award-winning author of the “The Murderbot Diaries.”
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Other Utah cultural events on the move
Dragonsteel Nexus isn’t the only convention that’s been impacted by the upcoming closure of the Salt Palace.
FanX Salt Lake Comic and Pop Culture Convention, which has taken place at the Salt Palace since 2013 and attracted over 100,000 visitors last year, will be moving to the Mountain America Expo Center in Sandy in 2027, KSL reported.
Because of the expo center’s smaller size, FanX will be holding two separate, smaller events in 2027, per KSL.
Nexus will be following in the footsteps of Utah’s largest cultural event, the Sundance Film Festival, by moving to Colorado. The film festival celebrated its final year in Park City after 45 years, and will hold its first festival in its new home of Boulder, Colorado, in January 2027.
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