A NEWPORT-BASED games convention has raised £2,000 for two children’s charities.

Dragondaze - a one day convention that celebrates all types of gaming - took place in the city over the weekend, with LARP (live action role play), re-enactments, cosplay and traditional board games.

Now in its third year, the games convention is said to be the first of its kind in Newport, and one of the largest in Wales.

Simon Powell runs the festival along with Ann Macey and Steve Round.

“We organised Dragondaze after board games sort of went out of date after the 80s and we sort of brought it back," he said.

"Board games have come back now and they're really popular, loads of establishments have board game nights and there are board game cafes so we thought why not start a gaming festival."

The event previously raised money just for the children's charity Barnados, but this year decided to raise for local charity The Sparkle Appeal, which offers support to children and young people from Gwent with a disability or developmental difficulty.

Mr Powell said himself and the other organisers decided to raise money for The Sparkle Appeal after local businesses wanted to see the donations to go towards a Wales-based charity.

He said: "The last two years the money has just gone to Barnardos but we found when we went round shops they don't see Barnados as local. So we brought in The Sparkle Appeal as its local.

"We decided to invite kids from Sparkle and from Barnados, there were 60 altogether, 30 from Barnados and 30 from Sparkle.

"It was really nice and they really enjoyed themselves," Mr Powell added.

This year the convention did suffer a loss in the amount of visitors, which Mr Powell believes is down to the Severn Tunnel closure and the Road Dahl centenary event in Cardiff.

"There were around 650 people there and to be honest we expected there to be a lot more. Hopefully next year's will be busier and we will manage to raise a bit more money too."

However, even with a loss of visitors, many activities were on for the public, including a cosplay competition, a raffle with prizes of restaurant vouchers and other items, and a room solely just for people to play board games.

Mr Powell and the other organisers will be giving the £1,000 to both Barnados and The Sparkle Appeal this week.