HIGH POINT – The first national airsoft exposition on the East Coast will open at Showplace on Friday.

The North Atlantic Airsoft Exposition will come to this side of the country after two airsoft enthusiasts, Kyle Thaggard and Anthony Letourneau, decided to expound on an airsoft exposition that’s held each year in California, which was the sport’s only exposition in the nation.

“With the economy like it is, there aren’t many people that can travel from the East Coast to California,” said Thaggard, a High Point 911 dispatcher. “We’re also hoping to provide some things in the show that the West Coast doesn’t provide.”

Airsoft is a sport used primarily for recreation where replica firearms shooting 6 mm or 8 mm plastic rounds are used for gaming similar to paintball, Thaggard said. Exhibitors of airsoft products will be at the event, set to open Friday at 11 a.m.

It ends on Sunday evening.

Tickets are $8 per day or $20 for all three days. The show is open to the public. “We’re trying to expose the sport,” he said. “Sometimes when the public first gets involved, they initially go to a big box store to buy an airsoft gun.