Oct 30 – Nov 1, 2026
Los Angeles Convention Center, 120…
Stan Lee's LACC was built on a single premise: the people who built modern mythology deserve a room.
Three days at the LA Convention Center, October 30 through November 1 — celebrity signings, panels, exhibitor floors, and 50,000 people who grew up on the same stories. This is the West Coast convention for readers, collectors, and the crowd that turns a hall into a reunion.
The show has specific character. LACC is not San Diego Comic-Con, and the people who go know the difference. It is Los Angeles' convention — the one the industry attends in costume because they want to, not because the press is watching. Comics, sci-fi, gaming, horror, anime, fantasy — three days of programming across every genre.
Celebrity guests. Exclusive merchandise. The exhibitor floor runs independent publishers alongside major houses. A room where the mythology is still being made. Three days, full programming. The exhibitor floor opens October 30.
Nov 3 – Nov 7, 2026
0
Las Vegas Convention Center, 3150 …
Two thousand brands, 160,000 automotive professionals, the most elaborate custom vehicles on earth — all in a Las Vegas convention center every November. SEMA is the industry's annual argument about what cars can become.
What SEMA feels like is unlike any auto show in the world. This is not rows of production vehicles under fluorescent lights. This is a Dodge Challenger converted into a tribute to a deceased mechanic, a Bronco built for Baja racing with a 700-mile range, a Toyota Tacoma so extensively modified that the factory DNA is nearly invisible. The smell of fresh paint, engine oil, and ambition is everywhere. The Specialty Equipment Market Association show exists because the aftermarket parts industry — the people who make your car yours — needs one place to show what they built this year.
Is SEMA worth attending? It depends on who you are. If you are in the automotive industry or enthusiast community at any level, SEMA Fest on Saturday (the public consumer day) is one of the most inspiring afternoons you can spend in Las Vegas. Full-coverage builds that would cost six figures sit 10 feet from you. The designers will talk to you. The fabricators will explain how they built the thing. If you are not an automotive person, SEMA Fest may still surprise you — some of these vehicles are genuinely art. The Battle of the Builders final is as dramatic as any competition you will watch this year.
What to know before you go: SEMA Fest (Saturday, November 7) is the consumer day — this is what enthusiasts attend. The full trade show (Tuesday-Friday) requires industry credentials. Book hotel rooms well in advance; SEMA week in Las Vegas fills the Strip. Parking is manageable at the Convention Center. Wear comfortable shoes — the floor is enormous. The Battle of the Builders announcement happens mid-afternoon on Saturday and draws a crowd; position yourself early. Merchandise lines and meet-and-greets with builders and YouTubers run throughout the day.
SEMA is on Falkor's Nation's Best list because it is the single annual moment when the aftermarket automotive world shows what it has been building for twelve months. The builders who compete for the Battle of the Builders work all year for Saturday afternoon. The brands that exhibit have been prototyping their showcase parts since the last show. Nothing else in automotive culture operates at this level of craft density in a single location. For anyone who has ever modified a vehicle, looked at a stock car and imagined what it could be, or simply been moved by the intersection of engineering and aesthetics — SEMA Fest is the pilgrimage. The Las Vegas SEMA week has become its own cultural moment. Knowing about it makes you a more interesting version of yourself in any car conversation.
Nov 6 – Nov 8, 2026
TBA
Pasadena Convention Center, Pasade…
Eight years in and Anime Pasadena still feels like something you found before everyone else did. The convention returns to the Pasadena Convention Center November 6-8, 2026 — three days, free parking, and programming that consistently outperforms its own footprint.
The vendor hall is the argument. Artists who do not table at the larger shows. Japanese importers carrying inventory you are not finding on domestic sites. Figure collectors running serious stock. Small publishers with niche titles. The cosplay is strong and gets stronger every year — Pasadena attracts the builders, the people who spent six months on a prop and want somewhere to bring it that is not swallowed by a 100,000-person crowd. You can actually stop and look. You can actually talk to the artist.
Programming covers panels, screenings, and guest appearances across all three days. Friday evening hours mean the weekend has room to breathe instead of compressing everything into two days.
Who goes: anyone who has been to Anime Expo and wanted a version with more space and less distance between you and what you came to see. AX is the convention. Anime Pasadena is the one where you have the conversation.
Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E Green St. November 6-8, 2026. Weekend passes typically under $50. Tickets at animepasadena.com. 20 minutes from downtown LA. Gold Line stop nearby.
Nov 6 – Nov 8, 2026
Los Angeles Airport Marriott, 5855…
Los Angeles Airport Marriott, 5855 W Century Blvd, Los Angeles. November 6th. Pacific Media Expo 2026 — the long-running anime and Japanese pop culture convention built around the creative community: voice actors, anime producers, manga artists, and the Southern California fan community that has supported it since its founding.
PMX is the convention that rewards the audience that wants access, not just attendance. The panel programming brings the talent close — intimate Q&As with voice actors, creator conversations, industry insight from the people who make the content the community loves. The dealer room covers the range from mainstream to deep-cut. The AMV contest, the cosplay events, the fan gatherings that happen between the official programming — PMX has maintained its character as a community convention through two decades.
pacificmediaexpo.com for ticket details and the full event schedule. November 6th at the LA Airport Marriott. PMX draws from all of Southern California and from the convention community nationwide that prioritizes programming over scale. If you want to be in the room where the people who made the shows talk about how they made them — this is the convention.
Nov 11, 2026
$5 suggested
The Holding Company, 1841 5th Ave,…
Nerd Nite SD closes out fall with three talks that prove the most interesting people in San Diego are not the loudest ones — they're the ones who've spent three years going deep on something you've never thought about. November edition. The bar is open. The talks are free. Bring questions.
Shakespeare Pub Quiz Nights run every Thursday at 7 PM at the Shakespeare Pub & Grille in Mission Hills — San Diego's most consistent and longest-running pub quiz, drawing teams of up to six for a competitive general knowledge trivia night with themed rounds, cash prizes, and the kind of regular crowd that has been coming long enough to develop real rivalries.
The format is structured: multiple rounds of general knowledge questions with themed rounds mixed in throughout the night. The host keeps the pace moving, the scoring is honest, and the prizes at the end are real — gift cards for first and second place, and the kind of bragging rights that a regular pub quiz crowd actually respects. Sign-ups start at 6 PM; the quiz kicks off at 7 PM sharp. Teams of one to six people.
Shakespeare Pub & Grille, 3701 India St, San Diego, CA 92103. Mission Hills neighborhood, just north of Little Italy. Street parking on India St and surrounding streets. Free to play — just show up with your team. Prizes for first and second place. The regulars arrive early and take the same tables every week, which tells you something about what kind of room this is.
Nov 13 – Nov 15, 2026
DoubleTree by Hilton San Diego Mis…
San Diego Anime Convention 2026 is the third annual gathering organized by Silk Road Productions, a Southern California indie con operator with 12 years of experience running Scream Diego, Fangaea, and AniPop. Taking place November 13-15, 2026 at the DoubleTree by Hilton San Diego Mission Valley, SDAC is one of the most community-rooted anime conventions in the county.
The weekend features a full artist alley with 50+ vendors and 50+ artists, a cosplay contest with prizes across multiple categories, fan panels, a maid cafe, anime screenings, and programming designed by fans for fans. This is not a corporate production -- the volunteer network behind SDAC has built it from the ground up, and it shows in the energy on the floor.
The DoubleTree San Diego Mission Valley is located at 7450 Hazard Center Drive, San Diego, CA 92108, minutes from the 8 freeway and easily accessible from Mission Valley. Self-parking is available at the hotel. Early bird 3-day passes start at $40; single-day and VIP passes available. Cosplay is welcomed and celebrated at every level of elaborateness.
If you have been to SDAC before, you know what to expect: a community that shows up for each other, a vendor hall worth spending a full afternoon in, and panels that run the full range from technical cosplay workshops to deep dives into classic and current series. If this is your first time, welcome to the San Diego anime community's home weekend.
Nov 13 – Nov 15, 2026
From $40
DoubleTree by Hilton San Diego Mis…
A hotel con has a different texture than a convention center — the hallways are part of the event, the elevators are part of the event, and at 11pm when the programming ends the lobby becomes its own gathering. San Diego Anime Con fills the DoubleTree Mission Valley November 13-15 with anime, cosplay, gaming, and a community that came specifically to be around people who understand the references. Home by midnight. Worth every minute of it.
Nov 13 – Nov 15, 2026
San Diego Convention Center, 111 W…
TwitchCon North America 2026 returns to San Diego September 25-27 — the convention built for live streaming culture. The expo hall is a live streaming studio crossed with a gaming lounge — streamers broadcasting from the floor, sub-notification sounds everywhere, and meet-and-greets with people you've watched for 3,000 hours. Variety Arcades, developer showcases, cosplay competitions for game characters, and the inevitable TwitchCon Pool Incident follow-up safety improvements. Why go: Your favorite streamer is probably here and you can actually talk to them. Tickets at twitchcon.com.
DesignerCon Las Vegas is a brand-new show for 2026 — the first time DesignerCon has expanded to Las Vegas. It runs November 13–15 alongside the established DesignerCon Pasadena show that moved to June. The two shows now bracket the year for the designer toy and collectible art community.
DesignerCon is the premier convention for art toys, designer vinyl, limited-run resin figures, custom sneakers, and the independent artists who make them. The floor is 300+ exhibitors — no mass-market retail, all artist-direct and small-batch production. Limited colorways, grail finds, and exclusive drops are the pull.
The Las Vegas edition is a new chapter for a show that has been the center of the designer toy world since 2004. Exact venue and full exhibitor lineup to be announced. Check the official site for badge sales and hotel room block information as they open.
Nov 13 – Nov 15, 2026
DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel San Die…
San Diego Anime Con is the hotel-con format done right — an anime and pop culture convention that uses the intimate scale of a hotel venue to create the kind of fandom community that stadium-scale events can not replicate. Running November 13-15 at the DoubleTree by Hilton in San Diego, SDAC brings together anime fans, cosplayers, and pop culture enthusiasts in a setting where the hallway conversations are as good as the panel programming.
The hotel-con format means you are sharing space with everyone who loves the same things you do, from the lobby to the elevator to the dealer room. Voice actor guests do not feel a hundred feet away behind a rope. Artist Alley is close enough that you can actually talk to the creators. The cosplay in the hotel atrium at 11pm is some of the best you will see anywhere.
For San Diego's anime community, SDAC is the end-of-year gathering — the event that closes the convention season with the right people. Tickets and badge information available at sandiegoanimecon.com. Hotel room block available for out-of-town attendees.
Nov 13 – Nov 15, 2026
Georgia World Congress Center, Bui…
Wizards of the Coast brings the official Magic: The Gathering convention to Atlanta — three days of competitive play, exclusive reveals, and side events that don't exist at a local game store.
Step into MagicCon and the scale of the Magic ecosystem becomes visceral. The main hall hosts commander pods running nonstop, side event drafts firing every 90 minutes, and a merchandise floor stocked with exclusive foil treatments and collector editions that do not exist outside the convention walls. The World Championship stage draws a live audience who understands the stakes — watching a pro player navigate a complex board state in a top-8 match is legitimately thrilling even to non-competitive attendees. Panel stages feature lead designers previewing the upcoming set, Reality Fracture, with reveals that ripple across the entire community within minutes of announcement. Meet-and-greets with pro players and content creators run throughout the weekend, though they fill fast. The atmosphere skews intensely knowledgeable — this crowd knows what a Rhystic Study is, why it is obnoxious, and will argue about it with warmth.
MagicCon Atlanta is for anyone who plays Magic with genuine investment — not necessarily competitive, but committed. If your Friday nights involve a Commander pod and you have at least one deck you have been tuning for six months, you will feel completely at home here. This is not a casual spectator event. It is for the player who loves the game enough to fly across the country for three days of it. First-timers to MagicCon frequently say the same thing: they had no idea how large and how skilled the community actually is until they walked in.
Register for ticketed play events before the convention — sealed and draft pods sell out weeks in advance. Bring your trade binder if you have one: the secondary market area moves fast and has genuine deals. Badge merchandise must be picked up onsite; if you miss the pickup window before close on Sunday, you forfeit it. The Worlds stage is open to badge holders but seating near the feature match area is first-come, standing room fills by round 4 of the top 8. Bring cash for artist alley — many illustrators are cash-only and the original card alters available from top artists are some of the most collectible items in the room.
MagicCon Atlanta earns its place on Falkor Nation's Best list because it is one of the few conventions in the country where you can watch the best players in the world compete live, reveal new cards before the internet gets them, and find 30,000 people who care about a 30-year-old trading card game as seriously as you do. For the Magic community, this is not just an event. It is the proof that the game is still alive, still evolving, and still worth every dollar you have spent on it. MagicCon: Atlanta 2026 runs November 13-15 at the Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta. Tickets at mtgfestivals.com.
Nov 13 – Nov 15, 2026
DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel San Die…
San Diego Anime Con returns for its fourth year November 13-15, 2026 at the DoubleTree Mission Valley — three days of anime culture built at human scale, 50-plus vendors, 50-plus artists, and an atmosphere that feels more like a community gathering than a production.
The conventions that endure are rarely the biggest ones. They're the ones where the regulars know each other, where the artists in Artist Alley remember your face from last year, where the panels are small enough to actually ask a question. San Diego Anime Con has built that culture quietly over four years. The DoubleTree keeps it contained in a way that works: the hotel layout creates natural gathering spots, the bar fills up with cosplayers after panel hours, and the whole thing has the energy of a convention that hasn't forgotten why people go to conventions.
Tickets at sandiegoanimecon.com. Three-day badges are the move — Saturday is the peak, Sunday is the farewell circuit. Free parking at the DoubleTree. Mission Valley is accessible from anywhere in San Diego. Come in costume or don't. Both are welcome here.
Nov 14 – Nov 15, 2026
Long Beach Convention Center, 300 …
Streetwear, sneakers, contemporary art, and live music converge in Long Beach for two days every November. ComplexCon is the annual inventory of where culture is — and where it's heading.
The floor of ComplexCon is a study in what happens when hype culture and art culture occupy the same space simultaneously. Brands unveil exclusive collaboration drops available only to attendees — limited quantities, real lines, genuine scarcity. Sneaker collectors arrive with curated grails, ready to trade or sell at tables throughout the show. Artists install work commissioned specifically for the event. Musicians perform on the ComplexCon stage across both days. The product drops are genuinely limited: quantities are controlled and lines form before doors open. The art is genuinely original — not promotional material, but work made to exist here. Both things happening at once is what creates the energy that has made ComplexCon one of the most documented cultural events in streetwear media since its first edition.
Worth it? ComplexCon is for people who understand why a specific colorway of a specific shoe matters, why a brand's decision about who to collaborate with says something real, and why the line between art and commerce in streetwear culture is a productive tension rather than a problem to solve. If your relationship to streetwear, sneaker culture, or contemporary art sits somewhere between collector and participant, this is the one event where those identities fully coexist. It is not for people skeptical of hype or limited drops. It is very much for people who track the secondary market.
ComplexCon is at the Long Beach Convention Center — about 30 minutes from downtown LA by Metro A Line (Blue) to Long Beach Transit Hub, then a short rideshare to the Convention Center. Parking is available but traffic on both days is significant. Exclusive drops have sell-out timelines of minutes — follow brand announcements for specific release information before the event. Wristband systems vary by brand; some require advance registration. General admission is the standard ticket; VIP packages add early access and lounge areas. ComplexCon app provides real-time stage schedules, exhibitor maps, and drop alerts.
ComplexCon sits on Falkor's Nation's Best list because it answers a genuine cultural question: what does it look like when the internet's most culturally aware community occupies physical space together? The answer is recognizable — people who have spent years building taste online, finally in the same room, evaluating each other's choices with the fluency of a language they all speak. The product is secondary. The community is the event. Nation's Best. November in Long Beach.
Nov 16 – Nov 18, 2026
200
Dodger Stadium, 1000 Vin Scully Av…
Tyler the Creator builds his festival the way he makes his albums — as a complete vision, not a lineup. The 2026 edition runs November 16–17 at Dodger Stadium: Tyler himself, Andre 3000, Erykah Badu, Playboi Carti, Earl Sweatshirt, Vince Staples, Daniel Caesar. Sixty thousand people. This is his current read on what matters.
Flog Gnaw feels nothing like a conventional music festival. Tyler's aesthetic — Golf Wang colors, surrealist visual direction, Converse collabs, the cartoon universe he's been building since Odd Future — pervades every inch of the grounds. The headliner list reads like Tyler's personal taste index rather than a booking agency's safe plays: Andre 3000's rare public appearances, Earl Sweatshirt's deliberately sparse touring schedule, legacy artists like Erykah Badu alongside younger voices. The surprise guest tradition is genuine — in past years unannounced performers have drawn more conversation than the headliners. The crowd skews young, fashion-conscious, and culturally literate in a way that is self-selecting. Flog Gnaw is the festival where people bring cameras for the fits, not just the performances.
This is for people whose music listening doesn't fit a single genre label — who have Tyler the Creator, Badu, Earl, and Daniel Caesar on the same playlist and see nothing contradictory about that. It is for the aesthetically curious. It is not for people who want clear setlist times, grid-pattern stages, and predictable headliner slots. Tyler runs his festival on his own logic, and that's the point. If that energy resonates, Camp Flog Gnaw is one of the few festivals where the curation is unambiguously the product.
Two-day passes sell significantly faster than single-day. The Dodger Stadium location is accessible by Metro (Dodger Stadium Express from Union Station — skip the parking). Merchandise drops at Flog Gnaw are serious and sell out quickly; the Golf Wang collabs available only at the festival have become collector items. Arrive early day one — the grounds have carnival rides, food, and art installations that reward exploration before the headliners. Andre 3000's live appearances remain rare enough to justify the trip from anywhere in the country.
Camp Flog Gnaw is on Falkor's Nation's Best list because it is the rare festival where the curator's artistic vision is fully legible in every decision. Tyler the Creator built a world — Golf Wang, Odd Future, Igor, Call Me If You Get Lost, Cherry Bomb — and Flog Gnaw is where that world becomes a place you can stand in for two days. The music industry produces thousands of festivals. Very few of them feel like they could only exist because one specific person willed them into being. Flog Gnaw is one of them. Tickets at Ticketmaster. November 16-17, 2026, Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles.
Nov 19 – Nov 22, 2026
Georgia World Congress Center Buil…
Anime Weekend Atlanta 2026 (AWA) is one of the American South's most beloved anime conventions, running November 19–22 at the Georgia World Congress Center Building C in Atlanta. Founded in 1994, AWA draws over 25,000 attendees annually to one of the longest-running anime conventions in North America — a four-day event that has served as the Southeast's entry point to anime culture for over thirty years.
Four full days of programming — panels, screenings, gaming, cosplay, dances, and the Anime Music Video competition that AWA is particularly known for. The convention runs multiple simultaneous programming tracks, meaning there is always a reason to be in the building regardless of your specific anime preferences. The Masquerade competition draws elaborate cosplay entries from across the Southeast and beyond. The AMV contest is nationally competitive — winning an AWA AMV award carries real weight in that community. The dealer floor and artist alley together span tens of thousands of square feet of licensed merchandise, independent art, and convention exclusives.
AWA is the Southeast's definitive anime convention. For out-of-region attendees, it competes directly with Anime Expo, Anime Boston, and Katsucon as one of the events worth cross-country travel. The four-day structure gives it depth that weekend-only cons cannot match: you have time to see everything, run into people multiple times, and build the social fabric that makes anime conventions more than a market. Multi-day memberships can be purchased at awa-con.com and mailed to you ahead of time.
Wednesday evening offers multi-day badge pickup from 4 to 8 PM, worth doing to skip Thursday morning lines. On-site membership purchases are cash only. Thursday programming begins the full convention schedule. The Georgia World Congress Center is expansive — wear comfortable shoes and plan for significant walking between halls. Atlanta hotel prices spike during AWA weekend; book accommodations early, ideally at the adjacent Marriott Marquis or Hilton Atlanta.
AWA in 2026 will be its 32nd consecutive year — making it older than most of the mainstream media properties that now dominate convention floor merchandise. The convention predates streaming anime in the US, the American manga boom, and the global explosion of interest that followed Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer, and Jujutsu Kaisen. It was here, building community, long before any of that was mainstream. That tenure is the event's identity: not a trend convention, but the convention that built the trend.
Nov 19 – Nov 22, 2026
Georgia World Congress Center, Bui…
The American South's longest-running anime convention has been meeting in Atlanta every September since 1997. Anime Weekend Atlanta is where the Southeast's anime fandom comes to recognize itself.
Walk the AWA floor on a Thursday night and the energy hits immediately: cosplayers in elaborate handmade builds line the escalators, artist alley tables overflow with original prints and fan art, and the programming halls pulse with AMVs, panel debates, and late-night gaming tournaments that run until 3 AM. The dealers room is legitimately staggering — vintage merchandise, imports, rare figures, and indie creators all packed into a space where you could spend a full day and still miss things. The masquerade on Saturday night is one of the most theatrical cosplay competitions in the country, drawing contestants who have spent months on a single build. AWA moves differently than the mega-cons: it feels less like a trade show and more like a reunion — because for thousands of attendees, it genuinely is.
If you grew up watching anime in the South and never found your people, AWA is the answer. This is not for casual fans who think anime is just Naruto and Dragon Ball. It is for people who obsess over seasonal charts, debate subculture lore, and have a hard drive full of unfinished cosplay plans. First-timers frequently describe AWA as the con that finally felt like home. If you are that person — the one who learned Japanese from subtitles and named a pet after a character — this is worth every flight mile.
Book your hotel at the World Congress Center Marriott before August or it will sell out — AWA attendees treat the hotel block as sacred and it fills months in advance. Badge pickup lines on Thursday afternoon are brutal; opt for pre-registration and arrive before noon. The dealers room has no ATMs inside — bring cash, bring more than you think you need, and budget for at least one impulse figure you did not plan for. The programming schedule releases about six weeks before the event and fills fast; panel rooms cap out, so plan your must-see events 30 minutes early. The loading dock area outside Building C is where the best spontaneous cosplay photo shoots happen after dark.
Anime Weekend Atlanta earns its place on Falkor Nation's Best list because it represents something the large coastal cons cannot replicate: a community that built itself from the ground up, in a region where anime culture had no institutional support, through three decades of showing up. It is the convention that proved the South has always had its own vibrant fan culture — it just needed a room big enough to hold it. AWA 2026 runs November 19-22 at the Georgia World Congress Center, Building C, Atlanta. Tickets available at eventeny.com.
The Los Angeles Auto Show returns to the Los Angeles Convention Center in November 2026 for one of the most important automotive events in the world. Running for over a century, the LA Auto Show is where global automakers make major announcements and unveil vehicles that define the next model year. More than a car show, it is the event where electric vehicle makers debut new platforms, concept cars go on public display, and enthusiasts get their first look at what is coming to market. The show spans hundreds of thousands of square feet of convention center floor, with every major manufacturer represented. Interactive driving experiences, technology demonstrations, and in-car previews let visitors engage with vehicles they cannot yet buy. Performance vehicles, luxury brands, trucks, and electric platforms all have dedicated sections. AutoMobility LA, the industry-facing media and trade days, precedes the public show and is where the biggest reveals typically happen. Public show days follow with family-friendly programming and ride-along demonstrations. The LA Convention Center is located at 1201 S Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles, accessible via Metro Rail (Pico Station on the A and E Lines) and with parking on-site. Tickets available at laautoshow.com. The show runs daily for approximately two weeks. For anyone passionate about cars, design, or technology, this is the SoCal event of the fall season.
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