EVERY room in the Newport Centre was taken over on Saturday at a games and comic con event which raised more than £2,000 for charity.

Around 600 people turned up for the annual Dragondaze event which was brought back to life last year in Newport after originally running for eight years in the 1980s.

Saturday was the first time in the Newport Centre’s history that every available room – except the gym equipment room and swimming pool – was hired out for a single event.

Scores of comic and games fans came to the day-long event which saw more than £2,000 raised for Barnardos Young Carers – double last year’s amount but the final total is yet to be counted.

In the main hall there were trade stands, a bring and buy stall and a raffle while in the balcony room there were games for people to sit down and play.

In the Castle Suite there were about 50 to 60 board games while in other rooms there were table-top role playing games and a Star Trek simulator which was popular with queues of people. There was also a bar with a live band.

Barnardos fundraiser Simon Powell organised the event along with Steve Round and Anne Macey, the woman behind the original Dragondaze event which was first set up 31 years ago in a church hall.

Last year Mr Powell decided to bring back the Dragondaze event to raise money for the charity.

Mr Powell said: “It was amazing, really pumping. Nearly 30 young carers were there, all dressed up in costume, and from as far as Merthyr Tydfil and Caerphilly.

“We had around 600 people in total come to the event; people flew in from Ireland, from Scotland, Plymouth. There wasn’t a corner of the UK which wasn’t represented.”

He said it was a “complete success” and the event is set to be repeated again next year.

Because the capacity of the venue was 2,000, Mr Powell said the event can only get bigger next year. He said: “600 people were there but capacity is 2,000. So we can take at least three times as much as what we took on Saturday.”