About Andy Kleek
Andy Kleek is a serial entrepreneur and empire builder, with brands, companies and business associates spanning the globe. You have probably seen Andy on TV or even heard him on the radio. Andy’s main passion and business interest is events. He has set up a string of successful events and brands over the past decade, the highlight of which is the For the Love of Sci-Fi experience, a new event concept created by Andy which crosses a comic con / fan convention with a movie theme park.
Andy Kleek’s fresh approach to this kind of event has caused a shift in thinking in the industry, the growth of the event has been phenomenal, it has taken little under five years to establish For the Love of Sci-Fi Manchester, and it is now regarded as the UK’s no1 sci-fi comic con / convention.
For the Love of Sci-Fi started out life as a dedicated Star Wars event in 2015 which was named For the Love of the Force, the first show attracted an audience of 21,000 people from all over the world over a three day period split into two sessions per day. In 2016 Andy decided to turn the focus of the event to everything sci-fi and rebranded into For the Love of Sci-Fi which was a huge success. Names of the event included Andy’s now personal friend Dirk Benedict and Michael Biehn among others.
In five short year’s Andy’s connections in the film industry have allowed him to secure major A-list names for his shows. Elijah Wood, David Harbour, Jean-Claude Van Damme, The Undertaker, Jon Bernthal, Karl Urban, William Shatner, Dolph Lundgren, David Hasselhoff, Ernie Hudson, Casper Van Dien, Ian McDiarmid, Brian Blessed, Zach Galligan and many more have accepted and sometimes requested to attend his events in a Hollywood who’s who of celebrities.
The events under Andy's belt continue to grow at a frightening pace. In 2017 Andy created Macclesfield Festival featuring The Brand New Heavies, The Farm, and Dodgy. In 2018 Andy stepped it up again and booked the Happy Mondays to headline the festival, then again 2019 saw a successful festival headlined by Soul II Soul and Heather Small of M People. The first event saw Andy get a commendation from the council for his work in the community and the area and it has now become Macclesfield’s main festival bringing in business and outside investment into the Cheshire town. The event is associated with Cheshire East Hospice who is the official charity partner of the event.
The Great Northern SKA Festival is now in its fifth year, the first four years have seen the likes of The Selecter, The Beat, Bad Manners, Brinsley Forde (Aswad), Dawn Penn, Neville Staple, and many other top bands grace the stage. 2018 saw Ali Campbell's UB40 headline the event while 2019 saw Neville Staple thrilling fans.
2018 also saw an explosion of other events created by Andy, including Comic Con Liverpool which in March 2018 attracted 15k visitors with amazing reviews nationwide and then double that at the second Comic Con Liverpool in 2019, the 2020 event was the biggest ever with a massive amount of people filling the venue for three full days. Timequake Steampunk Festival, Comic Con Manchester, Comic Con Scotland, UK Bike Fest, For the Love of Horror, and For the Love of Fantasy, are even more new brands recently created that have so far proved to be huge successes.
2019 saw the very first For the Love of Wrestling explode onto the scene, the wrestling heavy event was the largest of its type in Europe and saw famous fighters such as The Undertaker in his first EVER UK appearance, Brett "The Hitman" Hart and many more meeting fans which was a huge success. The second Comic Con Scotland was a massive hit as well and thrilled the North with guests such as Jean-Claude Van Damme, The Undertaker, and Christopher Lloyd. For the Love of Horror returned for its second year as well and what an event it was! A Lost Boys special was the order of the day and there was a reunion of the cast members including Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Patric, and Alex Winter, as well as a Saw special with Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith and Costas Mandylor, plus an unforgettable rendition of "I Still Believe" by Tim Cappello live on stage!
2019 was rounded off nicely with For the Love of Sci-Fi's 5th birthday celebrations, which included Jon Bernthal, Karl Urban, Peter Weller, Warwick Davis, Danny Glover, Sam Jones, and Brian Blessed among others, and Andy has already started getting our fans excited for the 2020 Sci-Fi event with the announcement of Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown!