Fri, May 14
🌎 Nation's Best
Anime Central 2027 — Rosemont, IL
Before anime was something you could explain at work, a few thousand people started meeting once a year in a suburb next to O'Hare airport to watch subtitled tapes and argue about them. Three decades on, Anime Central is the largest anime convention in the Midwest, still in Rosemont, still fundamentally shaped by having been built by fans rather than by a company.
The thing that makes it distinctive is the hotel geography. The convention center connects by covered walkway to several large hotels, and because Rosemont is a small municipality that exists mostly to serve the airport, the convention effectively takes over the entire area for a weekend. That produces the phenomenon regulars talk about most: the con does not close. Room parties, hallway gatherings, impromptu dance circles, people in costume getting food at two in the morning at the same handful of restaurants. The formal programming is strong — a large dealers hall, a serious artist alley, concerts, a masquerade that people train for — but the actual memory people carry out is of the hours between the scheduled things.
Worth it? If you want a large anime convention with a genuine all-night social culture, this is one of the best in the country and the walkway layout is a real structural advantage over conventions where you have to cross a city at midnight. If you want polished, corporate-run programming and major industry announcements, the coastal shows are bigger. ACen is scrappier and warmer.
What to know before you go: book a connected hotel the moment rooms open, because being on the walkway versus off it changes the entire weekend. Rosemont has its own train stop on the blue line, so you can fly in and never rent a car. May in Chicago is unpredictable and the walkways mean you may never need a coat. Bring cash for artist alley. And the panel rooms fill fast for anything popular, so queue rather than wander.
It is on this list because a thirty-year-old fan-built institution that still runs on its own social energy is a genuinely interesting thing to know exists, whether or not you ever fly to Illinois for it. Anime Central 2027 runs May 14–16, 2027 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont.
Before anime was something you could explain at work, a few thousand people started meeting once a year in a suburb next to O'Hare airport to watch subtitled tapes and argue about them. Three decades on, Anime Central is the largest anime convention in the Midwest, still in Rosemont, still fundamentally shaped by having been built by fans rather than by a company.
The thing that makes it distinctive is the hotel geography. The convention center connects by covered walkway to several large hotels, and because Rosemont is a small municipality that exists mostly to serve the airport, the convention effectively takes over the entire area for a weekend. That produces the phenomenon regulars talk about most: the con does not close. Room parties, hallway gatherings, impromptu dance circles, people in costume getting food at two in the morning at the same handful of restaurants. The formal programming is strong — a large dealers hall, a serious artist alley, concerts, a masquerade that people train for — but the actual memory people carry out is of the hours between the scheduled things.
Worth it? If you want a large anime convention with a genuine all-night social culture, this is one of the best in the country and the walkway layout is a real structural advantage over conventions where you have to cross a city at midnight. If you want polished, corporate-run programming and major industry announcements, the coastal shows are bigger. ACen is scrappier and warmer.
What to know before you go: book a connected hotel the moment rooms open, because being on the walkway versus off it changes the entire weekend. Rosemont has its own train stop on the blue line, so you can fly in and never rent a car. May in Chicago is unpredictable and the walkways mean you may never need a coat. Bring cash for artist alley. And the panel rooms fill fast for anything popular, so queue rather than wander.
It is on this list because a thirty-year-old fan-built institution that still runs on its own social energy is a genuinely interesting thing to know exists, whether or not you ever fly to Illinois for it. Anime Central 2027 runs May 14–16, 2027 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont.
The thing that makes it distinctive is the hotel geography. The convention center connects by covered walkway to several large hotels, and because Rosemont is a small municipality that exists mostly to serve the airport, the convention effectively takes over the entire area for a weekend. That produces the phenomenon regulars talk about most: the con does not close. Room parties, hallway gatherings, impromptu dance circles, people in costume getting food at two in the morning at the same handful of restaurants. The formal programming is strong — a large dealers hall, a serious artist alley, concerts, a masquerade that people train for — but the actual memory people carry out is of the hours between the scheduled things.
Worth it? If you want a large anime convention with a genuine all-night social culture, this is one of the best in the country and the walkway layout is a real structural advantage over conventions where you have to cross a city at midnight. If you want polished, corporate-run programming and major industry announcements, the coastal shows are bigger. ACen is scrappier and warmer.
What to know before you go: book a connected hotel the moment rooms open, because being on the walkway versus off it changes the entire weekend. Rosemont has its own train stop on the blue line, so you can fly in and never rent a car. May in Chicago is unpredictable and the walkways mean you may never need a coat. Bring cash for artist alley. And the panel rooms fill fast for anything popular, so queue rather than wander.
It is on this list because a thirty-year-old fan-built institution that still runs on its own social energy is a genuinely interesting thing to know exists, whether or not you ever fly to Illinois for it. Anime Central 2027 runs May 14–16, 2027 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont.
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Anime Central 2027 — Rosemont, IL
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Friday, May 14, 2027
9:00 AM CDT – 11:00 PM CDT
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Before anime was something you could explain at work, a few thousand people started meeting once a year in a suburb next to O'Hare airport to watch subtitled tapes and argue about them. Three decades on, Anime Central is the largest anime convention in the Midwest, still in Rosemont, still fundamentally shaped by having been built by fans rather than by a company.
The thing that makes it distinctive is the hotel geography. The convention center connects by covered walkway to several large hotels, and because Rosemont is a small municipality that exists mostly to serve the airport, the convention effectively takes over the entire area for a weekend. That produces the phenomenon regulars talk about most: the con does not close. Room parties, hallway gatherings, impromptu dance circles, people in costume getting food at two in the morning at the same handful of restaurants. The formal programming is strong — a large dealers hall, a serious artist alley, concerts, a masquerade that people train for — but the actual memory people carry out is of the hours between the scheduled things.
Worth it? If you want a large anime convention with a genuine all-night social culture, this is one of the best in the country and the walkway layout is a real structural advantage over conventions where you have to cross a city at midnight. If you want polished, corporate-run programming and major industry announcements, the coastal shows are bigger. ACen is scrappier and warmer.
What to know before you go: book a connected hotel the moment rooms open, because being on the walkway versus off it changes the entire weekend. Rosemont has its own train stop on the blue line, so you can fly in and never rent a car. May in Chicago is unpredictable and the walkways mean you may never need a coat. Bring cash for artist alley. And the panel rooms fill fast for anything popular, so queue rather than wander.
It is on this list because a thirty-year-old fan-built institution that still runs on its own social energy is a genuinely interesting thing to know exists, whether or not you ever fly to Illinois for it. Anime Central 2027 runs May 14–16, 2027 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont.
The thing that makes it distinctive is the hotel geography. The convention center connects by covered walkway to several large hotels, and because Rosemont is a small municipality that exists mostly to serve the airport, the convention effectively takes over the entire area for a weekend. That produces the phenomenon regulars talk about most: the con does not close. Room parties, hallway gatherings, impromptu dance circles, people in costume getting food at two in the morning at the same handful of restaurants. The formal programming is strong — a large dealers hall, a serious artist alley, concerts, a masquerade that people train for — but the actual memory people carry out is of the hours between the scheduled things.
Worth it? If you want a large anime convention with a genuine all-night social culture, this is one of the best in the country and the walkway layout is a real structural advantage over conventions where you have to cross a city at midnight. If you want polished, corporate-run programming and major industry announcements, the coastal shows are bigger. ACen is scrappier and warmer.
What to know before you go: book a connected hotel the moment rooms open, because being on the walkway versus off it changes the entire weekend. Rosemont has its own train stop on the blue line, so you can fly in and never rent a car. May in Chicago is unpredictable and the walkways mean you may never need a coat. Bring cash for artist alley. And the panel rooms fill fast for anything popular, so queue rather than wander.
It is on this list because a thirty-year-old fan-built institution that still runs on its own social energy is a genuinely interesting thing to know exists, whether or not you ever fly to Illinois for it. Anime Central 2027 runs May 14–16, 2027 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont.
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