Convention & Expo Events

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Coming Soon

37 Gathering

26 days away

Lowrider Super Show Los Angeles 2026

Sep 12, 2026 Varies Los Angeles Convention Center, 120…

Ask the man standing next to the car who started the build and you will get an uncle, a garage, and a decade. That is what outsiders miss walking this floor: every candy panel, every airbrushed hood, every set of wire wheels is a household's worth of patience handed down through a neighborhood. Hundreds of them come here to be seen, indoors, so weather never gets a vote. It is not a static show either. The hoppers bounce on a schedule, the systems hit hard enough to feel in your sternum, and the culture is switched on from open to close. Custom trucks, motorcycles, bicycles built to the same obsessive standard. Trophies handed out all day for everything from paint to hydraulics. Downtown at the convention center, a full day, parking in the structures on Pico and Figueroa. Come early. The floor is deep, and the best conversations happen standing next to the cars.

Coming Soon

26 days away

Idyllwild Renaissance Faire

Sep 12, 2026 $15+ Hurkey Creek Park, 56375 CA-74, Mo…

Two hours up a winding mountain road, in a pine-forested park a mile above the desert, a whole village of people in doublets and corsets gathers each fall to pretend it is 16th-century Spain, and it is absolutely delightful. The Idyllwild Renaissance Faire is the charming, homemade, mountain-air antidote to the giant corporate faires: jousting knights, wandering minstrels, artisans hammering real steel, turkey legs the size of your forearm, and a crowd of gleeful anachronists who take their make-believe joyfully seriously. Saturday and Sunday, September 12 and 13, 2026, at Hurkey Creek Park near Idyllwild. Come in costume or come in shorts, drink from a horn, heckle the joust, and let the cool pines and earnest weirdness win you over. Bring the friend who secretly wants to be a bard. Huzzah, up in the clouds.

BlizzCon 2026 — Anaheim Convention Center

Daily

26 days away

BlizzCon 2026 — Anaheim Convention Center

Every day · Next Sep 12 Anaheim Convention Center, 800 W K…

You have friends whose real names you do not know. You have played with them for years, you would notice within a day if they went quiet, and you have never seen their face. That is a real relationship, and the world keeps insisting it is not. This is the weekend it becomes physical. World premieres, developers who actually wrote the code walking through what they built, esports played live in a room that shakes, hands-on demos of games that will not ship for months, and an opening ceremony that gets you even when you knew it was coming. The floor fills with playable stations, artist signings, cosplay contests, and meetups where a guild finally stands in one place at one time. Anaheim Convention Center, doors at 10 AM both days, passes through Tixr, cosplay encouraged. Send it to the guild. Watch how fast that channel lights up, and how quickly somebody starts pricing flights.

Anime Night Mart — Free Anime Market at Moreno Valley Mall (September 2026)

Daily

27 days away

Anime Night Mart — Free Anime Market at Moreno Valley Mall (September 2026)

Every day · Next Sep 12 Moreno Valley Mall, 22500 Town Cir…

The artist alley table has prints of your exact comfort character. The vendor next to it is selling enamel pins you didn't know existed but now can't leave without. This isn't a mall event — it's a gathering. Anime Night Mart takes over Moreno Valley Mall for two days of vendor booths, cosplay meetups, gaming stations, live performances, and raffles — all free, all ages. This is the Inland Empire's own anime night market, built for the crowd that knows their way around a convention floor but doesn't need one to have a good time. The vendors bring fan art, plushies, wall scrolls, and treasures from corners of fandom you forgot you loved. The cosplay corner fills with people who spent weeks building something they'll wear for six hours and cherish every second of it. The energy is warm and nerdy and specific. You'll recognize people by their shirts before you know their names. You'll leave with a bag full of things you'll never explain to anyone who wasn't there — and that's exactly how it's supposed to work. September 12-13, 2026. Moreno Valley Mall. Free admission. All ages.

Coming Soon

🌎 Nation's Best 31 days away

Fantastic Fest 2026 — Austin, TX

Sep 17 – Sep 24, 2026 Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar, 1120…

Winning Best Film here means your movie is genuinely, get-under-your-skin frightening -- because the whole point of this place is the horror, science fiction, and genre film that would never survive a studio committee. For eight days the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin turns into the strangest week of the year in a city that specializes in strange. The Drafthouse means dinner and drinks arrive at your seat during the film. The selection spans international premieres and US debuts under a curatorial ethos that prizes the weird over the safe and refuses to be rigid about genre -- the umbrella covers anything that warrants the word. Secret screenings are the festival's signature: you sit down not knowing what you are about to watch, and the audience often does not learn the title until moments before it starts. Between films there are trivia nights, drag shows, karaoke, live bands, and stunts that have included burying audience members alive and staging sideshow performances. If your opinions about horror and cult cinema run ahead of the mainstream, this is your event -- and this is the 21st edition, a scrappy Austin experiment that became the definitive American destination for genre film, the place where the most adventurous versions of these genres get their first real audience. Films that premiere here regularly go on to win awards and pull strong box office months later. Sitting in that auditorium surrounded by people who drove in from five states for this one week is the feeling that makes the badge worth every dollar. Send this to the friend who has watched everything and is still hunting for something that scares them. Fantastic Fest runs September 17 to 24. Fan Badges cover the full eight days; Second-Half Badges run September 21 to 24 and include parties and Highball access at the venue adjacent to the Drafthouse; Industry Badges cover daily press and industry screenings. The Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar runs multiple simultaneous screenings across several auditoriums, which gives you real choices when your schedule collides with itself. Badge categories sell out early and secret-screening seats fill fastest, so arrive early if you want one. Check fantasticfest.com for current availability.

Coming Soon

20 Gathering

33 days away

Golden State Tattoo Expo

Sep 18 – Sep 20, 2026 Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E …

Somewhere in your phone is a screenshot of an artist whose books close the hour they open, whose waitlist runs past next year, and who you have never once been in a room with. For three days they are standing at a booth with an open notebook, taking consultations. Several hundred of them come in from across the country. Flash and custom, traditional and neo-traditional, realism, Japanese, and work that refuses a category outright. The floor rewards the slow walk, because the artist you have not discovered yet is two aisles over, mid-piece, happy to talk about what they are chasing right now. Even if you are not getting tattooed, sitting in on the competition judging hands you the vocabulary for what separates technically clean from genuinely rare. Pasadena Convention Center, three days in September. If you have been sitting on a piece for years, this is the weekend it stops being a screenshot.

The Sixties Show — A Tribute to the Music That Changed Everything at The Rady Shell

Coming Soon

33 days away

The Sixties Show — A Tribute to the Music That Changed Everything at The Rady Shell

Sep 18, 2026 The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, 222…

Every member of The Sixties Show was hand-picked to perform and record with the artists they're celebrating — The Who, Paul McCartney, The Beach Boys, The Bee Gees, Steely Dan, Bruce Springsteen. This isn't karaoke in wigs. This is the session musicians who were in the room when those records were made, playing the songs the way they were meant to sound, on a waterfront stage with the San Diego skyline behind them. The Rady Shell in September is the kind of venue that turns a good concert into a memory. The harbor catches the last of the light. The breeze comes in around the second set. By the time they get to the Beatles medley the crowd has stopped pretending they're too cool to sing along. Friday, September 18, 2026. 7:30 PM. The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, San Diego.

Weekly

33 days away

Big Bear Lake Oktoberfest 2026

Every Saturday · Next Sep 19 Big Bear Lake Convention Center, 4…

Up at 6,750 feet the beer comes with a mountain view and absolutely no chill whatsoever. Big Bear's Oktoberfest has been running for over fifty years, which means the whole thing operates like a well-oiled Bavarian machine: the log-sawing contests, the stein-holding endurance battles, oompah bands flown in from actual Germany, and a hall full of flatlanders discovering that yes, they will in fact do the chicken dance in front of three hundred strangers. It runs weekend after weekend all through the fall, so it becomes the excuse to finally make the mountain trip you keep putting off, alpine air and a giant soft pretzel and a designated driver who is being a very good sport about all of this. The lake sits right there for a cold, gold-lit walk between rounds when the beer hall finally gets too warm and loud. Bring a group and lederhosen you're not afraid to fully commit to. It fills the Convention Center in Big Bear Lake across nine weekends of autumn.

Coming Soon

🌎 Nation's Best 47 days away

ComplexCon 2026 — Long Beach, CA

Oct 3 – Oct 4, 2026 Los Angeles Convention Center, 120…

Some people can tell you why one colorway of one shoe matters — why a brand's choice of collaborator says something real about where culture is heading. For two days every November in Long Beach, all of them are finally in the same room, reading each other's choices with the fluency of a language they all speak. ComplexCon is what happens when hype culture and art culture occupy the same floor at once. Brands unveil exclusive collaboration drops available only to attendees, in quantities controlled tightly enough that real lines form before doors open and sell-out timelines run in minutes. Sneaker collectors arrive with curated grails to trade or sell at tables throughout the show. Artists install work commissioned to exist here and nowhere else - not promotional material, actual originals. Musicians perform on the ComplexCon stage across both days. Both things happening simultaneously is the tension that has made this one of the most documented cultural events in streetwear media since its first edition. 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. The product is secondary anyway - the community is the event, and the answer to what it looks like when the internet's most culturally aware community occupies physical space together is exactly as recognizable as you'd hope. ComplexCon is at the Long Beach Convention Center, about 30 minutes from downtown LA by Metro A Line (Blue) to the Long Beach Transit Hub, then a short rideshare. Parking is available but both days bring significant traffic. Wristband systems vary by brand and some require advance registration; follow brand announcements for specific release info before the event. General admission is the standard ticket; VIP adds early access and lounge areas. The ComplexCon app provides real-time stage schedules, exhibitor maps, and drop alerts. November in Long Beach.

Coming Soon

47 days away

Reptile Super Show

Oct 3, 2026 $27+ Anaheim Convention Center, 800 W K…

Walk into a convention hall that has been taken over, wall to wall, by thousands of snakes, lizards, tortoises, tarantulas, geckos, and creatures you didn't know were legal to own, and you understand instantly why the reptile community calls this the mothership. Reptile Super Show, billed as the world's largest reptile expo, is a genuinely surreal, gloriously nerdy scene: hardcore breeders, wide-eyed kids, ball pythons in every color nature never intended, and enough feeder crickets to fill a nightmare. Saturday and Sunday, October 3 and 4, 2026, at the Anaheim Convention Center. Come to gawk, come to learn, come to accidentally fall in love with a bearded dragon. Bring the friend who's secretly always wanted a snake, and the one who'll scream. It is equal parts petting zoo, marketplace, and fever dream. Cold-blooded, and completely fascinating.

Coming Soon

47 days away

ComplexCon 2026

Oct 3, 2026 $100+ Long Beach Convention & Entertainm…

For anyone who grew up treating a sneaker release like a holiday and a hoodie drop like a lottery, ComplexCon is the mothership: two days where streetwear, hip-hop, art, and hype culture collapse into one roaring convention floor of limited drops, exclusive collabs, surprise performances, and lines you will happily stand in. The tenth-anniversary edition lands in Long Beach with artistic direction from Playboi Carti and Hiroshi Fujiwara, which tells you exactly how seriously the culture takes it. October 3 and 4, 2026, at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center. Come with a plan for the drops you want and comfortable shoes, or just come to people-watch the best-dressed crowd in Southern California. This is where the streetwear world gathers in person, once a year, to see and be seen. If it's cool, it's here first.

Coming Soon

46 Gathering

47 days away

Big Bear Lake Oktoberfest 2026

Oct 3 – Oct 25, 2026 42900 Big Bear Blvd, Big Bear Lake…

At 6,752 feet, the mountain air turns crisp enough in October that a full beer hall in the forest starts to feel less like a party and more like the reason the season exists. Every October weekend, Big Bear throws its Oktoberfest at the Big Bear Convention Center, and the fall foliage and the elevation do the work that no lowland festival can fake. German beer on draft, brats, pretzels, sauerkraut, Bavarian desserts. Live oompah bands play through the day. Stein-holding contests, chicken-dance competitions, and a full dance floor run from early afternoon into the night, and there are no reservations to make - you show up, grab a stein, and join in. It runs Friday evenings, Saturdays, and Sundays across all four October weekends. One warning: mountain traffic on the 18 and 138 stacks up on Saturday afternoons, so arrive early or late. Big Bear Village and the surrounding forest hit peak fall color in October, which makes this an easy excuse to turn one afternoon into a full weekend in the mountains.

We Touch Grass: Los Angeles Anime Rave 2026

Coming Soon

30 Gathering

48 days away

We Touch Grass: Los Angeles Anime Rave 2026

Oct 3 – Oct 4, 2026 TBA Catch One, 4067 West Pico Boulevar…

Somewhere around the second hour, a room full of adults in cosplay screams the opening of a show they once cried at, and nobody is embarrassed, and that is the whole product. This is not a convention panel with a speaker in the corner. It is a full-tilt dance floor — breakdowns built off anime openings, EDM edits, bass drops, remixes, and a sea of glowsticks going up the second the right song lands. The crew has run this circuit across North America and Europe, and the San Diego night they threw sold out months ahead, which tells you what the door will look like here. Cosplay is strongly encouraged. Catch One has the rooms and the sound system to hold it. On Pico in Los Angeles, twenty-one and over, and tickets move fast. Send it to the friend who owns the wig and has never once had anywhere to wear it.

Coming Soon

21 Gathering

🌎 Nation's Best 52 days away

New York Comic Con 2026 — New York, NY

Oct 8 – Oct 11, 2026 From $45 (1-day) Jacob K. Javits Convention Center,…

The Javits Center in October, a hundred thousand people in four days, every niche of pop culture in one building — and the streets of Hell's Kitchen turning into something you've never seen on a regular Tuesday. The Javits Center fills with a programmatic density that rewards strategic planning. Main stage panels feature talent from the year's biggest genre properties. The show floor covers hundreds of thousands of square feet of publishers, studios, collectibles vendors, and artist booths. Artist Alley at NYCC skews heavily toward comics — the original fanbase — alongside anime, gaming, and TV, giving it a different character than conventions that have shifted more entirely toward film and streaming. The autograph and photo op schedule is extensive; tickets for specific sessions go on sale in advance and sell out. New York Comic Con in 2026 is celebrating twenty years, and the Coney Island theme suggests organizers are going big on identity and atmosphere. The anniversary edition will likely bring programming and exclusives designed for the occasion. If you have been considering NYCC as a destination event, this is the year to go. The East Coast advantage: NYCC is adjacent to one of the world's great cities. The convention ends at 7pm and New York starts. Restaurants, bars, and attractions are all accessible from the Javits Center. Hotel inventory near the venue is limited; book early and consider Hudson Yards or Hell's Kitchen options within walking distance. Tickets go on sale in June with a Superfan Presale for Popverse members opening before general on-sale. Javits Center, New York City. October 8–11, 2026. New York Comic Con was founded in 2006 and reached 250,000 attendance within its first decade. The 20th anniversary edition in 2026 with the Coney Island theme signals that the organizers are treating this as a milestone year — expect expanded programming, anniversary exclusives, and a level of production that reflects two decades of iteration. If you have been waiting for the right year to make NYCC a destination trip, the 20th anniversary is the obvious choice.

RISE of the Jack O'Lanterns — Los Angeles

Coming Soon

58 days away

RISE of the Jack O'Lanterns — Los Angeles

Oct 13, 2026 Los Angeles Convention Center, 120…

Somewhere between the pumpkin you carved as a kid and actual sculpture sits this thing, and it lands much closer to sculpture than you are ready for. More than five thousand hand-carved, illuminated pumpkins line a timed walking path — not triangle faces but full portraits, scenes and figures glowing in the dark, set to an ambient score. Nothing jumps out at you. No roaming monsters. It is Halloween for people who love the craft and the glow more than the fear: couples on a date, families with small kids, anyone who wants October to feel like wonder instead of adrenaline. Entry runs in fifteen-minute intervals so the path never bunches up. Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S Figueroa St. October 13. It is gone in four nights, and it is the rare seasonal thing that is genuinely worth the drive.

SD Who Con 2026 — San Diego's Doctor Who Convention

Coming Soon

60 days away

SD Who Con 2026 — San Diego's Doctor Who Convention

Oct 16, 2026 Handlery Hotel, 950 Hotel Circle N…

Somewhere in your memory, a blue box is still spinning. You heard the sound once — that impossible grinding wheeze — and something in your chest shifted. You never fully came back from it. SD Who Con returns to San Diego for a weekend built by the people who understand what that sound means. This is not a corporate franchise activation. It is a volunteer-run gathering at the Handlery Hotel, October 16–18, where the hallways fill with cosplayers who sewed their own scarves, collectors who can date a Dalek by its bumps, and first-timers who just discovered that their obsession has a name and a room. Panels, vendors, an Artist and Author Alley, and guest appearances fill the programming. But the real draw is the recognition — sitting in a room where nobody needs the reference explained. Where someone can say 'reverse the polarity' and fifty people laugh without thinking. If you've ever paused a conversation to explain regeneration to someone who didn't ask, your people are already here. Badges available at sdwhocon.com.

Scream Diego 2026 — Halloween & Horror Convention

Coming Soon

56 Gathering

61 days away

Scream Diego 2026 — Halloween & Horror Convention

Oct 17, 2026 DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel San Die…

A horror panel tucked inside somebody else's general convention always feels like being let in through a side door. This is the other thing entirely — a whole weekend built by people who wanted to be in a horror room and stopped waiting for permission to have one. You can tell from the guest list. The names here come from the films themselves, not from adjacent franchises with a horror-shaped marketing angle, and that single detail tells you exactly who the weekend is for. The floor runs both days: vendors, artists, and an artist alley carrying original work, prop replicas, and merch that never surfaces at the mainstream shows. The people filling it pre-order the special editions, know the director's full filmography, and hold real opinions about the best practical effect of the last decade. Two days in October, in a Mission Valley hotel with real function rooms, in the one month the whole city is finally in the right season for it. If you take horror seriously, you already know who you are texting about this.

GameAcon Coachella Valley Gaming Convention

Coming Soon

15 Gathering

61 days away

GameAcon Coachella Valley Gaming Convention

Oct 17 – Oct 18, 2026 $29/day or $39 weekend 72840 CA-111, The Shops at Palm De…

If you live out past the pass, every convention you have ever loved cost you a long drive each way and a hotel room you could not really justify. You went anyway. You have been going anyway for years. This is the one that came to you instead. Two days of tabletop, console, and video games with the infrastructure to take all three seriously — real tournament setups instead of a folding table in a corner, a dealer's room running from retro consoles to current card games, and panels about how games actually get made. The energy is specific to a convention that belongs to the people who built it rather than one that toured through and left. Mid-October in the desert is the good window: warm without punishing, cool once the sun drops, and reachable from anywhere in the Valley. Send it to the friend who has been driving you over the pass for a decade. Tell them it is their turn to ride.

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