VidCon 2026 returns to the Anaheim Convention Center June 25-28 — the original convention for internet creators and the communities they built. Community Track is where fans meet their favorite creators in person for the first time. Creator Track is where full-time creators learn from the people who figured it out. Industry Track is where brands, platforms, and deal-makers find the next generation. The Anaheim venue is massive — Disney across the street, creator booths everywhere, and meet-and-greet lines that start at 6am. Why go: VidCon is where parasocial becomes real. Passes at vidcon.com.
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Tomorrow· Jun 14
$4-$8
Shrine Auditorium, 665 W Jefferson…
The regulars know each other. That's the first thing you notice — the room has a history you walked into the middle of.
The LA Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention at the Shrine Auditorium is the longest-running monthly pop culture convention in Los Angeles. Dealer tables with original comic art, golden and silver age books, horror movie posters, vintage paperbacks, and the people who have been collecting these things long enough to know exactly what they have. You won't find it all in one trip. That's the point — you come back.
If you have a want list, bring it. The dealers here know their inventory and they will dig for you if they can. If you don't have a want list, you'll leave with one. The range is wide: a $3 box of beat-up Bronze Age books next to a signed original piece next to a box of 70s sci-fi paperbacks someone clearly loved and someone clearly moved on from. The people selling here have been here before. Most of the people buying have too.
Sunday morning is the least crowded session and the most relaxed. Dealers are dealing. Collectors are talking to collectors. If you are new to this, Sunday is the right entry point — no crowds, no rush, the floor laid out in front of you.
June 14, 2026 at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. Low admission. No corporate activation booths, no celebrity photo ops with 45-minute queues. Just the floor, the dealers, and the people who know why they're there.
Little Tokyo after dark is already a different city. Add an anime community that claims it on a Thursday night, and you have one of the few Los Angeles experiences that doesn't try to be Coachella. This is a neighborhood event run by people who actually live in the culture — not a convention, not a festival, not a sponsored activation. Just anime fans, good food, and Little Tokyo's block-by-block intimacy.
The gathering rotates between Little Tokyo's best spots — restaurants, lounges, and venues that have their own identity outside of event night. The crowd is a mix of casual watchers and people who can quote chapter numbers. Both feel at home. Themed nights rotate through the seasonal anime calendar — currently tracking the summer 2026 lineup (Mushoku Tensei S3, Kagurabachi, Ghost in the Shell theatrical). Cosplay is optional but present. Vendor tables bring fan art prints, acrylic standees, and buttons from local creators. The format keeps things loose enough that you end up talking to strangers about seasonal lineups and leave with three new shows on your watchlist.
For the SoCal anime community that lives outside convention season — between AX in July and SDCC in summer — this is what the in-between looks like. It doesn't peak. It's just consistent. Thursday nights, Little Tokyo. That's the rarer thing.
Address: 327 E 2nd St, Los Angeles, CA 90012. Nearest metro: Little Tokyo/Arts District (A Line). Free street parking available after 8pm in most Little Tokyo lots.
Jul 2 – Jul 12, 2026
Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, CA 90012
The manga lives in a building in Little Tokyo for eleven days this summer. The creators are inside.
Inside Kodansha House you will find a manga gallery, cafe, reading lounge, and library dedicated to Kodansha's most beloved titles. The confirmed guest lineup alone makes this a must-attend moment for manga fans: Blue Lock creators Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yusuke Nomura are appearing, as well as Witch Hat Atelier (Tongari Boushi no Atelier) mangaka Kamome Shirahama. These are the artists behind two of the most-followed manga series currently airing in anime — Blue Lock Season 2 and Witch Hat Atelier are both Spring 2026 hits.
This year Kodansha House is also hosting the finals of the Blue Lock × Concacaf: Diamonds in the Rough competition — a creative collaboration that launched during the World Cup. The competition bridges Blue Lock's anime fanbase with the actual tournament happening across the US this summer. Winners are announced here at Kodansha House, with additional events at Anime Expo (July 2-5) and the final SDCC announcement at Comic-Con San Diego (July 24-27). If you are making the circuit — AX in LA, then SDCC — Kodansha House is the physical anchor between them.
The Kodansha House model debuted in New York City in 2024 and generated significant fan community response — not as a typical convention booth, but as a relaxed space where you can read, sit with the art, and occasionally find yourself in the same room as the people who made it. It is a different register from the convention floor energy at AX. The Little Tokyo location is intentional — the neighborhood already functions as a cultural anchor for the LA anime and manga community.
Free public entry. No tickets required — follow Kodansha USA (@kodanshausa) for the confirmed address and any reservation announcements. AX badge holders should check the official Kodansha House page for premium access details. Hours: approximately 11am-6pm daily, July 2-12.
In 6 days· Jun 19 – Jun 21
East San Diego Masonic Lodge, 7849…
East San Diego Masonic Lodge, 7849 Tommy Dr. South Pacificon Game Fest is the tabletop and board game convention that belongs to San Diego specifically — a community-run event that doesn't try to be PAX West and doesn't need to. June 19th, in a real venue, with the game library and the people who know how to use it.
Pacificon is built by gamers for gamers, which means the priorities are right: tables big enough for the game that needs them, organizers who know the titles and can teach them, a schedule of demos and freeplay that covers both the classics and the games that just came out this year. The dealer area runs titles from publishers who are present specifically to talk about them, not just sell them.
South Pacificon is smaller than the Bay Area original, which makes it more navigable — you can cover the floor, meet the people who run the events, and get into a game the same day you arrive. pacificonquest.com for the full schedule and registration. June in San Diego means heading inside from pleasant weather, which is the right reason to spend a day at a table playing games with people who showed up for the same reason.
In 7 days· Jun 20 – Jun 21
Paid - $25-$45
Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E …
DesignerCon is the flagship convention for the designer toy, art toy, and collectible art community. The Pasadena edition runs June 20–21, 2026 at the Pasadena Convention Center — the same venue and community that has shown up for this event every year.
The floor is 300+ exhibitors: independent artists selling one-of-a-kind resin figures, limited-run vinyl toys, art prints, custom sneakers, and handmade objects that sit somewhere between sculpture and collectible. There are no mass-market toy companies here. The culture is small-batch, artist-direct, and expensive for a reason.
Notable staples include exclusive colorways of popular toy lines (Bearbrick, Dunny, Kidrobot formats), signature pieces from Instagram-famous toy artists, and the secondary market buyers who show up specifically to find grails.
DesignerCon Pasadena is a sister show to DesignerCon Las Vegas, which debuts in November 2026. The Pasadena show is the West Coast home base — the community that built it is here. Lines form early for exclusive drops. Day-one badges sell out. This is the same crowd that buys Kaws originals and camps outside Supreme drops. Plan accordingly.
In 12 days· Jun 25 – Jun 27
Anaheim Convention Center, 800 W K…
Millions of subscribers, thousands of fans, several days in Anaheim — the moment the people on the other side of the screen become real. VidCon is where the parasocial relationship finds its physical address.
What it feels like to be there: VidCon operates on a different logic than most entertainment conventions. The celebrities here are creators who built their audience one subscriber at a time — the recognition runs both ways in a way it rarely does at traditional fan events. A creator who makes videos for 2 million subscribers genuinely knows the specific language and inside jokes of their audience, and the interactions in hallways and signing lines reflect that. The energy is different from comic conventions: less cosplay, more collaboration and mutual recognition between people who have been watching each other's content for years.
Is it worth it? VidCon is for people who consume content online and want to experience its creators in person, or for people building a creator career who want access to industry conversations that do not exist elsewhere. Community Track provides the fan-meeting experience. Creator Track has panels and workshops taught by people who figured out what you are still trying to figure out. Featured Creator panels are the highest-demand events and require early arrival.
What to know before you go: The Anaheim Convention Center is large, and VidCon fills all of it — reviewing the schedule the night before and planning your route through the building is essential, not optional. Lines form early for Featured Creator events; arrive 30-60 minutes ahead for the creators you most want to see. The Anaheim Resort Transit or a nearby hotel within walking distance are practical alternatives to convention center parking. Programming emphasis shifts between days, with Creator and Industry days having different energy from Community days.
VidCon sits on Falkor's Nation's Best list because it documents a cultural shift that happened faster than most institutions could track. The most-watched content on Earth in 2026 was made by individuals in their homes, not studios — and VidCon is where the people who made that happen gather to meet the communities that chose them. That is a historically unusual thing, and watching it in person is worth understanding even if you never attend.
2026 specifics: This is VidCon Anaheim 15th anniversary edition. The biggest new addition is a dedicated AI and Innovation Track -- the first VidCon to formally address AI tools as a creator discipline. For anyone building a content business in 2026, this track will be the most talked-about room at the convention. Honest split: Creator Pass holders consistently rate VidCon as worth it for education and networking. Community track holders are increasingly mixed -- the fan experience peaked around 2018-2019 as brand activations thinned. The value depends entirely on which track you buy. 55,000 attendees expected.
In 13 days· Jun 26
From $55
1111 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, C…
Kid Cudi brings his Rebel Ragers Tour to Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles for one of the most anticipated hip-hop shows of the summer. Cudi is one of the most influential figures in modern hip-hop — his albums Man on the Moon and Speedin Bullet 2 Heaven helped define introspective, psychedelic rap and influenced an entire generation of artists.
The Rebel Ragers Tour spans his full catalog, from early fan favorites to recent material, with production designed to match the cosmic, otherworldly quality of his music. Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles holds 20,000 and is one of the premier indoor concert venues in the country.
Doors open at 5:00 PM. Public transit is available via the Metro A Line (Blue), with Pico Station adjacent to the arena. Parking is available in multiple structures around Staples Place and Convention Center. VIP packages include early entry and exclusive merchandise. A full supporting act is expected — check the event page for lineup updates. This is a rare headlining arena date for one of hip-hop's most beloved artists.
In 14 days· Jun 27 – Jun 28
Varies
Waterfront Park, 1600 Pacific Hwy,…
Into the Horizon brings two days of world-class electronic music to Waterfront Park along the San Diego Bay, produced by Insomniac Events — the team behind Electric Daisy Carnival and Beyond Wonderland. Headliners Martin Garrix and Tiësto anchor a lineup spanning house, techno, trance, and bass music across multiple stages.
Waterfront Park sits directly on the bay in downtown San Diego, giving this festival one of the most spectacular urban festival settings in California. The stage configurations take advantage of the open waterfront, with the San Diego Bay as the backdrop for the main stage. Daytime programming runs through sunset, and the evening sets are designed around the bay lighting and skyline.
Insomniac festivals are known for production quality — LED rigs, full stage decor, and the infrastructure that distinguishes a produced event from a promoter show. Food and beverage vendors are spread throughout the grounds. The venue is walkable from the downtown core, the Convention Center, and the Little Italy and Gaslamp neighborhoods.
Two-day passes and single-day tickets are available. Age 18+. Rideshare drop-off on Pacific Highway. This is a marquee summer festival weekend for San Diego — whether you are a longtime EDM fan or just discovering the scene, Into the Horizon is the summer anchor event for the city.