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39 Gathering

126 days away

Long Beach Comic Expo 2027

Feb 6, 2027 Long Beach Convention Center, 300 …

At most conventions the person who actually drew the thing is behind a rope with a line and a forty-second window. Here they are sitting at a table with an empty chair beside them. That is the entire identity of this one-day show: writers, pencilers, inkers, colorists, letterers — working professionals available for a real conversation about the craft instead of a signature and a shove. The floor treats mainstream and alternative as equals, Marvel and DC in the same aisles as independent publishers and self-published creators who came because the audience here came specifically for comics. Artist alley carries a density of professional quality that bigger, more casual shows cannot match. One day only, at the convention center downtown, with the Metro A Line running straight into Long Beach. Check the official site for the date. Go with the person who lent you their first trade paperback. Buy them something original.

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22 Gathering

🌎 Nation's Best 132 days away

Katsucon 2027 — National Harbor, MD

Feb 12, 2027 Gaylord National Resort & Conventi…

There is a photograph you have seen without knowing where it came from: someone in an elaborate costume standing on a marble staircase under an eighteen-story glass atrium, winter light coming through, looking like a still from a film that was never made. That is Katsucon, and the building is most of the reason it has the reputation it does. Held every February at the Gaylord National Resort on the Potomac just outside Washington, it is among the most photographed anime conventions in the world, and the cosplay community treats a weekend there as something closer to a pilgrimage than a trip. The atrium is the event. Other conventions have panels and dealers and artist alleys, and Katsucon has those too, but what actually happens is that thousands of people spend three days building and wearing things they worked on since summer, and then the building gives them the best backdrop in North America to be seen in. Photographers book months ahead. There are impromptu gatherings by series on the staircases at all hours. Because the whole thing is under one roof and the weather outside is February in Maryland, the convention never really stops — the hallways at three in the morning are as busy as the floor at noon. Worth it? If you make things — sew, foam-smith, wig-style, prop-build — this is the room where that labor is understood without explanation, and there is no substitute for that. If you are coming to shop or to meet voice actors, other conventions do that better and cheaper. Katsucon is for the makers and the people who love watching them, and it is honest about that. First-timers who come without a costume routinely report it was still the best convention they had been to, because the spectacle is genuinely free to watch. What to know: the host hotel sells out almost immediately, and staying on-site is materially different from staying off — the atrium at night is the whole point. Budget for that. Bring a repair kit; something will break. The convention center portion and the hotel portion are connected but the walk is longer than it looks in costume. And Friday is the quiet day worth arriving for. It earns a place here because it is the clearest example in American fandom of a venue and a community finding each other perfectly, and because knowing it exists changes what you think a costume is for. Katsucon 2027 runs February 12–14, 2027 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, National Harbor, Maryland.

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13 Gathering

140 days away

Alhambra Lunar New Year Festival 2027

Feb 20, 2027 Main St at Garfield Ave, Alhambra,…

The second weekend is the one nobody tells you about. By late February the parades are over, the restaurants have stopped being impossible to get into, and most people assume the new year has been thoroughly celebrated and put away. Then Main Street closes and Alhambra does the thing it has been doing for more than three decades, which is to treat the whole holiday less like a spectacle and more like a block party that happens to have a dragon in it. What you get is the unglamorous, better version: cooking demonstrations where somebody's aunt explains what she is actually doing with the wok, an artist alley that leans local rather than imported, and a food row that stretches far enough that you will make a strategic mistake at the first booth and regret it by the fourth. The performances run all day on a street stage, and nobody is filming for anything. This is the Year of the Goat, celebrated by a San Gabriel Valley city that does not need anyone's permission or attention to do it properly. Saturday, February 20, 2027, on Main Street in Alhambra.

Emerald City Comic Con 2027 — Seattle, WA

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🌎 Nation's Best 152 days away

Emerald City Comic Con 2027 — Seattle, WA

Mar 4, 2027 Seattle Convention Center, 705 Pik…

Comic conventions mostly stopped being about comics some time in the last twenty years, which is a reasonable business decision and a real loss. The Seattle one is the largest that never quite let go. Artist alley here is not an afterthought tucked behind the celebrity photo ops — it is enormous, central, and full of people who make the actual books, which is why working comics professionals treat this as the show they look forward to rather than the one they are contractually obliged to attend. What it feels like is a very large city being unusually generous for four days in March. The Seattle Convention Center sits right in the middle of downtown, so the convention spills into the surrounding blocks in a way that walled-off complexes never allow — bars fill with people in costume, restaurants run specials, the whole neighborhood participates. Inside, the programming leans hard into craft: how pages get made, how a script becomes art, panels where writers talk about work rather than about announcements. The crowd is noticeably more mixed in age than most conventions, and considerably more likely to be carrying a stack of books they are getting signed. Is it worth it? If you read comics — actually read them, not just watch the adaptations — this is the best large convention in the country for you, and the artist alley alone justifies the trip. If you are chasing exclusive collectibles or a specific film cast, the bigger coastal shows do that better. What Seattle does better than anyone is put you in a room with the people who make the thing you love, at a scale where you can actually talk to them. What to know: March in Seattle is grey and wet and nobody minds. Buy artist alley prints early on Thursday or Friday because the good ones sell out. Bring a portfolio bag if you are collecting anything on paper. The convention center's layout has two buildings now; check which one your panel is in before you walk. And the small-press section, which most attendees walk straight past, is consistently where the next few years of comics are sitting on folding tables. It is here because a convention that still centers the artists is genuinely rare, and because knowing there is one place where that is still true tells you something worth knowing about the form. Emerald City Comic Con 2027 runs March 4–7, 2027 at the Seattle Convention Center.

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37 Gathering

161 days away

Anime Pasadena 2027

Mar 13 – Mar 14, 2027 Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E …

The panels are the reason to go, which is not a sentence anyone gets to say honestly about most conventions. Blame the geography. This corner of the city sits within a few miles of Caltech, JPL, and the studios, which produces a fan base that reads closely, argues in specifics, and will not let a guest coast through a Q and A. The questions are better here. Everybody notices it eventually. The rest is the good stuff done properly: voice actor panels and signings, a cosplay competition judged on actual craftsmanship, an artist alley of independent creators selling original work, a vendor hall, and a game room running open play all weekend. Old Town is the other half of the argument — you walk out for real dinner instead of eating a pretzel over a trash can, and the Gold Line puts you a few blocks off. Bring the friend who takes the craftsmanship judging personally. They will find their people inside of an hour.

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11 Gathering

173 days away

WonderCon Anaheim 2027 — Preview Night

Mar 25, 2027 Anaheim Convention Center, 800 W K…

Vendors are still cutting boxes open when you walk in, and the exclusives are all sitting untouched on the shelf. Nobody has bought anything yet. The whole hall is laid out in front of you, quiet, and for a few hours you get to learn it before it becomes a scrum. That is the reward for planning far enough ahead. Premium badge holders get the floor, the exclusives, and artist alley first — convention-only limited editions, publisher variants, and pieces from the most in-demand creators that are simply gone by Saturday afternoon. Programming is deliberately thin, a handful of panels and screenings, because the point is the floor: map it, mark what you want, buy before the competition arrives. Access requires the full weekend badge; there is no single-day version of this evening. The Anaheim convention center, with shuttles and the rail station close. The people who plan ahead have already decided. Decide alongside them.

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🌎 Nation's Best 174 days away

Sakura-Con 2027 — Seattle, WA

Mar 26, 2027 Seattle Convention Center, 705 Pik…

The oldest and largest anime convention in the Pacific Northwest was started by a group of college students in the mid-nineties, back when liking this at all required explaining yourself, and it is still run entirely by volunteers. That fact shapes everything about the weekend. Nobody is extracting margin from you. The programming is built by people who wanted it to exist rather than by a department, which is why the schedule is full of things no commercial convention would ever green-light. What that produces is a convention with an unusually high proportion of actual content — panels running past midnight, a serious concert program, a masquerade that people prepare for over months, and a video programming track that still shows things on a screen in a dark room to whoever wanders in. There is a formal ball. There is a chess tournament. The dealer hall is large but is not the center of gravity, which at an anime convention in the current era is genuinely unusual. The crowd skews younger than the older-guard conventions and the atmosphere is closer to a very large school event than to a trade show, in the best possible way. Worth it? If you want a convention where the programming rather than the shopping is the reason to be there, this is one of a handful left in the country, and it is the best of them on the West Coast outside of Los Angeles. If you are coming primarily for big-name industry announcements, the larger shows will serve you better. Sakura-Con is for people who want to spend three days inside the thing rather than adjacent to it. What to know before you go: registration opens early and the price ladder rewards buying well ahead. Late March in Seattle means rain, and the walk between the convention center and most hotels is short but unsheltered. The concerts are included with a badge and fill up, so line early for the ones you care about. Bring cash for artist alley. And the volunteer staff will genuinely help you if you ask, because they are attendees too. It belongs on this list because a thirty-year-old, volunteer-run, still-thriving convention is evidence that a community can build something durable without anyone monetizing it, and that is worth knowing exists. Sakura-Con 2027 runs March 26–28, 2027 at the Seattle Convention Center.

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15 Gathering

174 days away

WonderCon Anaheim 2027

Mar 26 – Mar 28, 2027 Anaheim Convention Center, 800 W K…

Everyone has a friend who has spent a decade losing the badge lottery down in San Diego. This is where you take them. Same organization runs it, same programming instincts, and a floor you can actually cross without a strategy meeting. Sixty thousand people rather than six figures, which is the difference between a convention and an evacuation drill. Publisher booths, artist alley, preview screenings, exclusive merch, and the Saturday-night masquerade, which is the flagship — costumes built over months, walked in front of a crowd that knows exactly how hard the seams were. Because the badges are gettable and the halls are navigable, it has quietly become the best first convention a person can have. Families bring kids. First-timers stop being first-timers. The panel access is still real. Anaheim Convention Center, three days in March, badges on sale months ahead with the good tiers moving fast. Take the person who has been saying next year about the other one for a decade. End the streak.

Coming Soon

175 days away

WonderCon Anaheim 2027 — Saturday

Mar 27, 2027 Anaheim Convention Center, 800 W K…

The whole case for this convention is a math problem. You can actually reach three or four things you cared about in a single day. At the bigger show you pick one and spend the afternoon in a line for it. Saturday is the peak — Hall B panels with talent in the room, the exhibit floor and artist alley at full activity, exclusive merch lines, and the masquerade final in the evening. That last one is the sleeper: judged on craftsmanship and performance, and the entrants treat the competition exactly as seriously as they treated the building of the costume. Same production ambition as the bigger convention, in a footprint you can cross without a strategy meeting. Saturday single-day badges go first; the full convention runs the weekend in Anaheim. Send it to the friend who has been sewing for months with nowhere to take it. This is the room.

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176 days away

WonderCon Anaheim 2027 — Sunday

Mar 28, 2027 Anaheim Convention Center, 800 W K…

Ask a veteran convention-goer which day they actually love and a surprising number will say the last one — when the urgency has drained out and what is left is a hall full of people who came for the same thing, quietly aware it is ending for another year. Sunday is the undervalued badge. Crowds thin. Artist Alley cuts prices on whatever is left rather than haul it home. Vendors bundle things that were not bundled on Friday. Publishers discount remaining stock. The competition for panel seats evaporates and the convention finally becomes a social space instead of a logistics problem. Closing panels run, and next year's dates get announced on the way out the door, which hands everyone something to look forward to before they have even reached the parking structure. Take the train and stay until they sweep the floor. The last hour is the one people remember.

Star Wars Celebration 2027 — Los Angeles Convention Center

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18 Gathering

🌎 Nation's Best 180 days away

Star Wars Celebration 2027 — Los Angeles Convention Center

Every day · Next Apr 1 Los Angeles Convention Center, 120…

Fifty years ago a farm boy looked up at twin suns and a generation learned what longing sounds like. Star Wars Celebration returns to Los Angeles on April 1–4, 2027, to mark the 50th anniversary of the film that changed everything. This is the gathering where Lucasfilm pulls back the curtain — world premieres of upcoming projects, panels with the creators who are building the next chapters, first looks at footage that won't exist anywhere else for months. The show floor spans the LA Convention Center with immersive exhibits, a cosplay showcase that draws the most ambitious builders on the planet, exclusive merchandise that sells out before lunch, and the collective energy of tens of thousands of people who all trace something essential about who they are back to that same opening crawl. The 50th anniversary makes this one different. Half a century of stories, characters, music, and moments that shaped how an entire culture thinks about heroism, redemption, and the distance between who you are and who you could be. Whether you've been here since 1977 or discovered it last year, Celebration is the room where every version of that journey is valid. What makes Star Wars Celebration unlike any other fan convention is that it is the only place where the future of the franchise is revealed first. Every major announcement — from The Mandalorian's debut trailer to Ahsoka's first footage to the reveal of new theatrical films — happened at Celebration before it happened anywhere else. The industry comes because Lucasfilm treats this room as the premiere venue. The fans come because they've been part of this story longer than most relationships in their lives. Expect four full days of programming: the headline showcase at the Honda Center (separate ticket tier), hundreds of panels across multiple stages, the Fan Stage where cosplayers and community creators take the spotlight, interactive experiences that put you inside the worlds of the saga, and the Artist Alley where illustrators who shaped the visual language of Star Wars sell original work. Four-day adult passes from $260.99. Children 4–12 from $105.99. Los Angeles Convention Center. April 1–4, 2027. Tickets via starwarscelebration.com.

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🌎 Nation's Best 202 days away

Awesome Con 2027 — Washington, DC

Apr 23, 2027 Walter E. Washington Convention Ce…

Washington takes itself extremely seriously fifty-one weekends a year, and once each spring several tens of thousands of people in costume take over its convention center and the effect is genuinely restorative. Awesome Con is the capital's pop culture convention, and its particular character comes from the city it happens in: there is a substantial science track built with the Smithsonian and NASA sitting directly alongside the comics and the film guests, and it does not feel bolted on. What that produces is a convention where a nine-year-old can go from a panel by an actual planetary scientist to a line for a voice actor without leaving the building, and where the crowd is noticeably more family-heavy and more racially mixed than most large cons. The Walter E. Washington Convention Center is enormous and easy to move around, which matters more than people expect — there is room to sit, room to eat, room for kids to melt down and recover. Artist alley is strong. The cosplay is competitive without being cliquish. And because it is April in Washington, the city outside is at its best; a lot of attendees build a weekend around the museums, which are free. Worth it? If you have children who are into any of this, it is one of the best large conventions in the country for that, and the science programming is a genuine differentiator rather than a marketing line. If you are a hardcore collector chasing exclusives, the bigger coastal shows have deeper inventory. Awesome Con is broad rather than deep, and that breadth is the point. What to know before you go: the convention center sits on top of a Metro station, so do not drive — parking downtown is punitive and the trains run late. Badges are cheaper in advance and children's pricing is generous. Saturday is by far the busiest day; Friday and Sunday are calmer and better for actually talking to artists. Bring a bag for prints. And if you are traveling in, the museums a few blocks away mean the non-convention hours are unusually well spent. It is on this list because a convention that treats curiosity and fandom as the same impulse is a rarer thing than it should be, and because a weekend where the most self-serious city in America lets go is worth knowing about. Awesome Con 2027 runs April 23–25, 2027 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

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19 Gathering

202 days away

San Diego Comic Fest 2027

Apr 23 – Apr 25, 2027 San Diego, CA 92108

Somewhere in that room two strangers are deep in an argument about print runs that neither of them will win, and both are having the best afternoon of their month. That conversation mostly went extinct the moment the entertainment industry discovered comics. Here it never stopped. This is a collector's room first — condition, variant identification, print-run knowledge as the shared currency. The vendor floor is the reason to come: original art pages from creators whose names you know, silver and bronze age books priced by sellers who know their own inventory, Golden Age finds in sleeves, and a small-press aisle where independent creators sell and sign the thing they made themselves. Programming runs to history and craft, and the guests are there because they care about comics, not because a film is coming. Spring in San Diego; venue and admission post at sdcomicfest.com. Send it to the person who still has their long boxes in the closet.

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🌎 Nation's Best 209 days away

C2E2 2027 — Chicago, IL

Apr 30, 2027 McCormick Place, 2301 S King Dr, C…

Chicago spent years being treated as a stop rather than a destination on the convention circuit, and the show that changed that did it by being unusually good at the unglamorous parts — floor layout, panel scheduling, actually letting people talk to creators. C2E2 has grown into the Midwest's flagship pop culture convention, held each spring at McCormick Place on the lakefront, and it now draws six figures of attendance across a weekend. The experience is defined by scale plus air. McCormick Place is one of the largest convention buildings in North America, which means that even at peak Saturday the floor does not have the crushing quality that smaller venues develop. The artist alley and the comics guests are substantial, the anime and gaming presence has grown considerably, and the cosplay championship is a serious competitive event rather than a costume parade. What regulars single out is the programming: panels here are frequently craft-focused and long enough to get somewhere, and the moderators generally know the material. There is also a genuinely good kids' area, which makes it workable as a family weekend rather than a thing one parent does alone. Is it worth it? If you live anywhere in the middle of the country, this is your show and there is no real competitor — the alternative is flying to a coast. If you already attend two or three large conventions a year on the coasts, C2E2 will feel familiar rather than revelatory, though the artist lineup is consistently strong. It is best understood as the most complete general-purpose fan convention between the coasts. What to know: McCormick Place is not downtown and the walk from most hotels is longer than the map suggests; use the shuttles or plan for a train. Chicago in late April can be forty degrees and windy off the lake regardless of what the forecast promised. Food inside is expensive and mediocre — eat before or walk to the south loop. Buy exclusives Friday morning or accept you will not get them. And the smaller press tables at the back of artist alley are where the finds are. It belongs here because a healthy convention in the middle of the country is a real indicator about where fandom lives, and it is not only on the coasts. C2E2 2027 runs April 30 – May 2, 2027 at McCormick Place.

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🌎 Nation's Best 223 days away

Anime Central 2027 — Rosemont, IL

May 14, 2027 Donald E. Stephens Convention Cent…

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.

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11 Gathering

🌎 Nation's Best 229 days away

MEGACON Orlando 2027 — Orlando, FL

May 20, 2027 Orange County Convention Center, 9…

The largest fan convention in the southeastern United States happens in a city already built entirely around manufactured wonder, which could have made it redundant and instead makes it a useful contrast — this is the weekend when Orlando's fantasy is assembled by the people attending rather than sold to them. MEGACON has grown into a four-day event at the Orange County Convention Center drawing well over a hundred thousand people. What it is, practically, is enormous and unusually broad. Comics, anime, gaming, horror, science fiction and a large celebrity guest roster all sit under one roof, and the show has leaned hard into fan-built spectacle: costume contests with real production value, a substantial number of large-scale prop and vehicle builds, and an artist alley that has become one of the bigger ones in the country. Because Florida draws attendees from across the Southeast and the Caribbean, the crowd composition is different from the coastal shows — younger on average, more family groups, and noticeably more first-timers, which gives the floor an enthusiasm that jaded convention veterans find slightly startling. Worth it? If you live anywhere in the Southeast, this is the show, and the guest list alone usually justifies it. If you are traveling from far away specifically for it, the honest answer is that the convention is excellent but the surrounding city will absorb your budget fast, so plan for that deliberately rather than accidentally. It is not the show for deep comics scholarship; it is the show for scale, spectacle and meeting people whose work you know from a screen. What to know: the Orange County Convention Center is vast and the two buildings are a real walk apart, so check your hall. Autograph and photo op tickets sell separately and the popular ones go early. Florida in May is hot and the walk from parking is unshaded. Bring water; there are refill stations. And the Thursday preview day is significantly calmer if your badge covers it. It sits on this list because a hundred thousand people building their own spectacle in the shadow of the world's most engineered one is a genuinely interesting thing to know is happening. MEGACON Orlando 2027 runs May 20–23, 2027 at the Orange County Convention Center.

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247 Gathering

231 days away

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Comic Con Revolution 2027

May 22 – May 23, 2027 Ontario Convention Center, Ontario…

Somewhere in the artist alley there is a table with your favorite book on it, and the person who drew it is sitting behind it, waiting for someone to say the right thing. That is the whole reason to go. The Inland Empire's comic weekend stays small enough that you can actually reach that table — no wristband lottery, no line that eats your morning, no security walking the queue with a clipboard. Panels run all day for the people who want to hear how the work actually gets made. The exclusive merchandise moves early, which the regulars know, which is why they walk the floor before they do anything else. Pop culture at large is here too, but comics are still the spine of it. Ontario Convention Center, in Ontario. Bring the friend who has been quietly drawing in the margins since middle school and has never shown anyone.

Anime Riverside 2027 — Inland Empire Convention

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159 Gathering

238 days away

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Anime Riverside 2027 — Inland Empire Convention

May 29 – May 31, 2027 Riverside Convention Center, 3637 …

An hour to Los Angeles for the big convention, an hour back at one in the morning — that is what being an anime fan out here has always meant. This is the year that stopped. There is a real pride in a room full of people from Riverside, San Bernardino, Temecula and Redlands who finally did not have to leave home to find each other. It is the whole format at a scale you can actually walk: panels, an exhibit hall, artist alley, gaming rooms, and a cosplay contest judged by a crowd that recognizes the characters without being told. No airport-terminal sprawl. That trade was made on purpose — less distance between you and the thing you came for. The convention takes over the Riverside Convention Center downtown, with dates confirming at animeriverside.com. Bring the friends who made that drive with you one too many times.

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