Convention & Expo Events

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The Transformers: The Movie 40th Anniversary Celebration of Life Concert — SDCC 2026

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21 days away

The Transformers: The Movie 40th Anniversary Celebration of Life Concert — SDCC 2026

Jul 23, 2026 House of Blues San Diego, 1055 Fif…

Hasbro's tongue-in-cheek Apology Tour arrives at House of Blues San Diego during SDCC week — and if you grew up with the 1986 Transformers movie, you already know what they're apologizing for. Forty years after the animated film that traumatized a generation (yes, THAT scene), this is the live concert celebration that turns grief into guitar solos. Stan Bush performs The Touch — the anthem that has outlived the movie, the toys, and every live-action sequel since. Vince DiCola, who scored the original film, returns with the synth-heavy compositions that defined an era. Britta Phillips, the original singing voice of Jem from Jem and the Holograms, brings an unexpected crossover that 80s kids didn't know they needed. Knights of Unicron and Cold Slither round out a lineup built for people who know that 1986 was the year animation got serious. This is not a nostalgia act. This is the room where people who cried at a cartoon robot's death — and never fully recovered — gather to hear the music that made it hit so hard. The kind of night where a stranger next to you mouths every word to Dare and you realize you've known each other your whole life. Doors open at 7 PM. Show starts at 8 PM. General admission is 50 dollars. VIP is 100 dollars and includes early entry, exclusive merch, private viewing area, and a gift bag of curated items. House of Blues San Diego is at 1055 Fifth Ave — walking distance from the Convention Center. Part of Hasbro's year-long 40th anniversary celebration of The Transformers: The Movie.

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13 Gathering

22 days away

San Diego Comic-Con 2026 — Friday

Jul 24, 2026 From $65 San Diego Convention Center, 111 W…

San Diego Convention Center, July 24th. From $65. Friday at SDCC — the day the convention hits full stride, when Hall H has fired its first reveals and the exhibit hall is running at capacity and the cosplay density on the convention floor is at its visible best. Friday is the day Comic-Con becomes what it actually is. The opening-day energy of Thursday has settled into the focused momentum of a convention that knows it has limited time. The panels running Friday morning and afternoon are the ones the studios scheduled for maximum audience — Friday's Hall H is the crowd that has been planning this since last year. The exhibit hall on Friday is the floor as designed. From $65 at comic-con.org. Friday badges are the most in-demand single-day tickets at SDCC — they sell fastest and for good reason. If you're attending with a specific Hall H target, Friday is the day you line up for it. If you're there for the floor and the artist alley and the Gaslamp energy that builds through the day, Friday is when all of that is operating simultaneously. The day doesn't stop until the lights go down.

2026 Los Angeles Jiu-Jitsu Open — NABJJF at Cerritos College

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23 days away

2026 Los Angeles Jiu-Jitsu Open — NABJJF at Cerritos College

Jul 25, 2026 11110 Alondra Blvd, Norwalk, CA 90…

NABJJF believes that competitive jiu-jitsu should be accessible enough that gym teammates travel together — not just solo competitors chasing rankings. The 2026 Los Angeles Jiu-Jitsu Open brings the North American Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation format to Cerritos College for a one-day Gi and No-Gi competition across all divisions and experience levels. The NABJJF model differs from IBJJF in price point and in the community it draws: smaller entry fees, a regional rather than international registration pool, and a room where white belts compete in the same building as brown belts. Cerritos College provides a particular advantage: real bleacher seating and gymnasium space that lets spectators actually see multiple mats at once, rather than navigating the convention center floor plan and losing sight of the match you came to watch. If you are supporting a teammate, you will be able to find them and follow their bracket. All divisions: Gi and No-Gi. All belts. All ages and weight classes. Competitors register through NABJJF at nabjjf.com. Spectators welcome. Cerritos College, 11110 Alondra Blvd, Norwalk, CA 90650. Saturday July 25, 2026.

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12 Gathering

23 days away

San Diego Comic-Con 2026 — Saturday

Jul 25, 2026 From $65 San Diego Convention Center, 111 W…

San Diego Convention Center, July 25th. From $65. Saturday at SDCC — the peak of the convention, the day the floor is at full density, the cosplay is at maximum intensity, and Hall H has the rooms that were worth camping for. This is San Diego Comic-Con at its most completely itself. Saturday is when Comic-Con hits the register it was designed for. The exhibit hall is the fullest it will be all week — every booth running, every exclusive available (or gone), every aisle moving at the speed of 130,000 people who have made plans. The cosplay density on Saturday afternoon is the specific reason photographers travel from other cities. The evening programming is where the Gaslamp reaches its fullest energy. From $65 at comic-con.org. Saturday badges are the hardest to secure and the most in-demand because Saturday is the day. If you have one, you know what to do: have a plan, get to the halls you care about early, and leave room for the things you couldn't have planned. The convention finds you on Saturday. Show up and let it.

Crunchyroll Anime FanFest 2026 — San Diego

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325 Gathering

23 days away

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Crunchyroll Anime FanFest 2026 — San Diego

Jul 25 – Jul 27, 2026 222 Marina Park Way, San Diego, CA…

This is what it sounds like when 10,000 anime fans hear the opening notes of something they have been listening to alone for years. Crunchyroll Anime FanFest returns to San Diego Comic-Con, taking over the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park for a two-day music festival built entirely around the genres that anime made famous. The venue sits on San Diego Bay, directly behind the Convention Center, free and open to anyone — no badge, no wristband, no cost. The format: two days, multiple stages, a lineup mixing Japanese artists with Western producers shaped by anime culture. The inaugural 2025 edition featured SPYAIR, yama, ASH DA HERO, and Denzel Curry sharing the same stage — not as a novelty but as a coherent playlist. The 2026 lineup will be announced closer to the event. Gates open Saturday July 25 at 1 PM. Sunday July 26 continues the format. The convention badge crowd mixes with fans who came specifically for this and nothing else. Two days at one of San Diego's best outdoor amphitheaters, surrounded by the bay, and it costs nothing. The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, 222 Marina Park Way, San Diego. Free admission.

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23 days away

Crunchyroll Anime FanFest 2026 — San Diego

Jul 25 – Jul 27, 2026 222 Marina Park Way, San Diego, CA…

Thrilljoy Block Party: Rock the Block — SDCC 2026

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23 days away

Thrilljoy Block Party: Rock the Block — SDCC 2026

Jul 25, 2026 InterContinental San Diego, 901 Ba…

The collectibles community has its own SDCC — and this is it. Thrilljoy's Rock the Block takes over the InterContinental San Diego on Saturday night of Comic-Con week with exclusive PIX Packs, carnival games, giveaways, and the kind of energy that only happens when people who obsess over the same things end up in the same room. When tickets launched, bots crashed the site. Thrilljoy had to manually cancel suspicious purchases and restore spots for real collectors. That is not a marketing story — that is the community telling you how badly they wanted in. The demand is the signal. Every attendee gets two drink tickets, food, and an exclusive Block Party PIX Pack with event-only items you cannot get anywhere else. This is the party where your shelf gets something nobody else's shelf has. The games and giveaways run all night. The venue is steps from the Convention Center — close enough to still feel the SDCC energy, far enough to breathe. Ages 5 and up. Doors at 6 PM, runs until 11 PM. Tickets are 165 dollars and limited to 2 per person — this is intentionally small. The InterContinental San Diego is at 901 Bayfront Ct, right on the waterfront. If you collect, this is your Saturday night.

We Touch Grass: Anime Rave Convention After Party — San Diego

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23 days away

We Touch Grass: Anime Rave Convention After Party — San Diego

Jul 25 – Jul 26, 2026 Spin Night Club, 2028 Hancock St, …

We Touch Grass brings the anime rave to San Diego during Comic-Con weekend. Spin Night Club becomes the room where the convention crowd goes to let the cosplay breathe and the bass hit different. Touch Grass Entertainment has been running anime raves across the country, building a circuit where the soundtrack is J-pop remixes, anime OSTs turned club bangers, and the energy of a crowd that spent all day at panels and needs the night to match. This is the after-party the anime community shares in group chats before the official schedule drops. Saturday night of SDCC week. 9 PM until late. Spin Night Club, 2028 Hancock St, San Diego, CA 92110.

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23 days away

Comic Tron - Comic Con After Party

Jul 25 – Jul 26, 2026 ✨ New 1337 India Street, San Diego, CA 9…

The convention center goes dark at six, but the people inside it don't power down — they just need somewhere to put the charge. That's the whole reason a tribute act spent years building replica chromed helmets, a full-scale pyramid stage, and electro-luminescent suits that glow like the inside of a game grid. They believe the best hours of Comic-Con week aren't on the floor at all — they're after, when the badge comes off and the costume stays on and a room full of strangers turns out to be exactly your people. Little Italy's Music Box becomes a Tron sequence for one night: futuristic beats, glowing everything, an "Alive 2007"-style spectacle that treats Daft Punk like scripture. Cosplayers, ravers, and the SDCC crowd who refuse to call it a night all end up under the same lights. You do not need a Comic-Con badge to walk in. Doors at 8PM, the night ignites at 9PM, Saturday, July 25, 2026, at Music Box, 1337 India Street, San Diego, CA 92101. Tickets through Belly Up.

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25 Gathering

24 days away

San Diego Comic-Con 2026 — Sunday

Jul 26, 2026 From $50 San Diego Convention Center, 111 W…

San Diego Convention Center, July 26th. Sunday at Comic-Con International — from $50 for a badge on the final day, the day when the floor has been walked and the big Hall H panels have fired and the convention finds the version of itself that keeps people coming back year after year. Sunday at SDCC is the day the cosplay is at full intensity because it's the last chance. The Exhibit Hall has deals that didn't exist Thursday — publishers moving stock, creators selling what's left of their limited prints. The energy is exhausted and alive at the same time: four days of maximum input produces a loose, generous, overstimulated crowd that is genuinely fun to be inside. The announcements have already happened; what's left is the experience. The Convention Center floor in late July with the harbor visible through the glass and fifty thousand people who flew in from everywhere — nothing replicates it. Badges at this level don't linger. If Sunday is your entry point into SDCC, take it. It is a real day.

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25 days away

RuPaul's Drag Race LIVE! Las Vegas

Jul 27, 2026 3555 Las Vegas Blvd, Flamingo Show…

Flamingo Showroom at Flamingo Las Vegas in Las Vegas on July 27, 2026: the kind of drag show where the performance is shaped by the audience response in real time, which means it exists exactly once. RuPaul's Drag Race LIVE! Las Vegas performs at Flamingo Showroom at Flamingo Las Vegas in Las Vegas on July 27, 2026. Drag performance is one of the few art forms that requires a live room to work — the energy between performer and crowd is the performance.

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🌎 Nation's Best 28 days away

Gen Con 2026 — Indianapolis, IN

Jul 30 – Aug 2, 2026 Indianapolis Convention Center, 10…

The world's largest tabletop gaming convention fills the Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium for four days in Indianapolis. If it's played on a table, it's here. Gen Con has been running since 1967. Walking into Gen Con for the first time is a sensory overload in the best possible way. Thousands of people carry bags of dice, rulebooks, and game boxes. Strangers sit down together at open gaming tables to learn games from creators who flew in from Germany or Japan. The exhibit hall stretches so far it takes twenty minutes to walk corner to corner. Publishers debut their most anticipated releases here. Announcements land at Gen Con before they land anywhere else. First-timers routinely describe the first afternoon as having their mind melted by the scale. Veterans who have attended for fifteen years still find things they have never seen. If you own more than three board games and have ever stood in front of a shelf in a game store feeling the pull to try something new, Gen Con is worth the flight to Indianapolis. This is not for casual gamers who play Monopoly at Christmas. This is for people for whom games are a world, not a hobby. It is worth attending if you have ever wanted to sit across from a game designer and learn what they were trying to say. It is worth attending if discovering a game before it launches feels like finding something no one else knows yet. If none of that resonates, skip it. Register early. The 17,000-plus ticketed events open for registration months in advance and popular sessions sell out within minutes. Saturday is the largest single day and if crowds are difficult for you, Thursday or Sunday move at a more human pace. Wear the most comfortable shoes you own and expect to walk ten or more miles per day. Buy a four-day badge even if you plan only two days, as single-day badges are limited. Book downtown Indianapolis hotels the moment badges go on sale. Bring a large tote bag and loose plans. The best moments at Gen Con are the ones you did not schedule. Gen Con is on Falkor Nation Best list because it is a pilgrimage. People do not attend Gen Con. They go to Gen Con, the way you go somewhere that requires intention. The tabletop renaissance of the last decade produced a global community of people who take games seriously as an art form and a social infrastructure. Gen Con is where that community assembles in full. The convention floor holds the entire history of the medium, the present state of the art, and the first glimpses of what comes next under one roof for four days every summer in Indianapolis. Dates and badges at gencon.com.

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28 days away

Costume College 2026 — Los Angeles, CA

Jul 30 – Aug 4, 2026 6101 W Century Blvd, Los Angeles, …

Most people learn to sew a costume from YouTube tutorials and sheer stubbornness. The people who run Costume College decided that costuming deserved something more: an actual school. Costume College is an annual four-day educational convention produced by the Costumer's Guild West, dedicated to the craft of historical costuming, fantasy construction, and theatrical wear. Not a competition. Not a vendor hall. A conference where the sessions are taught by master costumers, the curriculum runs from corset-making to Regency silhouettes to full armor builds, and the attendees wear their finest work to a formal Gala on Saturday night. The Gala is the heart of it: hundreds of people in period and fantasy costumes, assembled in a hotel ballroom, celebrating what they have built with their hands. There is no red carpet. The craftsmanship is the event. Costume College draws serious makers — people who treat costuming as a discipline, not a hobby. If you have ever wanted to understand why a Victorian sleeve hangs the way it does, or how screen-accurate armor is fabricated from thermoplastics, this is the four days that will change how you make things. July 30 – August 3, 2026 · Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles Hotel, 6101 W Century Blvd, Los Angeles · Registration required

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🌎 Nation's Best 29 days away

Otakon 2026 — Washington, DC

Jul 31 – Aug 2, 2026 Walter E. Washington Convention Ce…

It started as 300 fans in a Baltimore hotel in 1994. The 30th anniversary in 2024 drew 46,000 to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC. Otakon has been running the whole time without interruption — which is why it feels less like a convention and more like a reunion. What it feels like to be there: Otakon has a specific character that separates it from other major anime conventions. The DC location draws a concentrated East Coast fan base — people who follow seasonal anime, collect physical media, and can place any character in their franchise context. The programming depth reflects this: panels get into the craft of animation, voice acting, and manga creation at a level that assumes genuine expertise from the audience. The Friday night concert is typically a highlight that attendees plan their entire weekend around. The cosplay photography in the convention center's modern glass architecture, with DC landmarks nearby, creates a specific aesthetic that does not exist anywhere else on the convention circuit. Is it worth it? Otakon is for anime fans who want more than a dealers hall and autograph lines — who want to understand how the work they love gets made and to be in a room with tens of thousands of people who love it as specifically as they do. The programming depth rewards multiple days of attendance. Single-day attendance is worthwhile if you are targeting a specific guest or concert, but the experience compounds over the full weekend. What to know before you go: Washington DC hotels near the convention center fill quickly after the convention is announced. Book early, or look at Metro-accessible neighborhoods like Shaw or Mount Vernon Triangle. The Walter E. Washington Convention Center is enormous — the map is essential. Many attendees arrive in cosplay; the building photographs extremely well. Badge pickup lines move fastest early Friday morning. Otakon earns its Nation's Best designation because it represents the East Coast's measure of what anime fandom has built over 30 years in America. A convention that started with 300 people and now draws 30,000 is measuring something real — a community that self-organized, refused to be dismissed as niche, and built institutions that outlasted the people who started them. This is what cultural longevity looks like from the inside. 2026 specifics: The theme this year is Swords and Sorcery -- programming skews toward fantasy genre anime and epic storytelling, timed well with current mainstream anime momentum (Dungeon Meshi, Frieren, Witch Hat Atelier). Otakon is operated by Otakorp Inc., a registered non-profit -- By Fans, For Fans is legally true, not marketing copy. Weekend badges run approximately 110 dollars and include concerts (Anime Expo upcharges these separately). This is one of the most substantive values in the convention circuit.

Metrocon 2026 — Florida Anime Convention, Tampa

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🌎 Nation's Best 29 days away

Metrocon 2026 — Florida Anime Convention, Tampa

Jul 31 – Aug 2, 2026 Tampa Convention Center, 333 S Fra…

Florida's anime community has been meeting at Metrocon every summer since 2002. Three days at the Tampa Convention Center — the event that built anime fandom in this state. What it feels like: Metrocon runs hot on cosplay. Florida's anime community has produced some of the country's most technically impressive costume builds, and the convention center floor is a working gallery of that craft. The programming is community-forward — panels run by fans who actually know the material, not PR-approved talking points. The Artist Alley features Southeast creators who rarely appear at national conventions, making Metrocon a genuine discovery venue for independent anime art and merchandise. Worth it? Who it is for: Metrocon is for the Florida anime fan who has been told that the real conventions are all in California. They are not. Metrocon draws 20,000 attendees to Tampa every summer and has been doing so for over 20 years. It is also worth the flight for East Coast fans looking for a convention that combines quality programming with the natural draw of Tampa in late July — the city has invested heavily in its Riverwalk and Ybor City nightlife, making the convention weekend an actual trip. What to know before you go: Badge pickup moves quickly for pre-registered attendees. The Artist Alley opens a half-hour before the main floor — use this window if you want first access to independent vendors. The cosplay contest runs Saturday evening and draws the highest-production builds; arrive early for seating. Tampa in late July is genuinely hot — plan accordingly if you are wearing anything elaborate. The cultural moment: Metrocon has been running for over two decades, which means it has watched the anime fandom transform from a niche community to the mainstream cultural force it is today. It carries that history without being precious about it — the convention feels alive in a way that older events sometimes lose. Florida has an anime community that rivals California's at the neighborhood level. Metrocon is the annual proof.

EVO 2026 — Fighting Game World Championship

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32 Gathering

29 days away

EVO 2026 — Fighting Game World Championship

Jul 31 – Aug 2, 2026 Mandalay Bay Convention Center, La…

The Mandalay Bay Convention Center turns into the most electric building in Las Vegas for three days every summer when EVO comes to town. This is the Fighting Game World Championship — the oldest and largest competitive fighting game tournament on earth, where thousands of players from over sixty countries compete across the genre's biggest titles for world titles, prize money, and bragging rights that last a year. EVO 2026 runs July 31 through August 2 at Mandalay Bay. The main stage lineup typically includes Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, Mortal Kombat 1, Guilty Gear Strive, and Dragon Ball FighterZ — though the final game list is announced in spring. Players compete in open brackets that anyone can enter. You do not need to qualify to register. Show up, pay the entry fee, and play against the best in the world. What to expect as a spectator: the main stage is standing room and free with convention access. Top 8 finals each night pull thousands into the arena. The crowd has seen it all and loses its mind at comebacks that should be impossible. Side events, vendors, and community tournaments fill the convention hall all day. Tickets for convention entry go on sale in spring. Players register separately through start.gg. If you play fighting games at any level — casually or competitively — EVO is the pilgrimage.

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35 Gathering

29 days away

Otakon 2026

Jul 31 – Aug 2, 2026 Walter E. Washington Convention Ct…

Otakon returns to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center July 31 through August 2, 2026 — more than three decades as one of the East Coast's defining anime conventions and one of the oldest fan-run cons in the United States. Since 1994, Otakon has been the summer gathering for the anime community's most devoted: the fans who plan year-round, cosplay with detail that rivals museum exhibits, and travel from every state for exclusive English-language premieres, Japanese musical performances, and direct conversations with the voice actors and directors behind the series they love. Three days of programming spans the full convention center: panels, screenings, an artist's alley, dealer's hall, gaming tournaments, and evening concerts featuring Japanese musicians who often perform exclusively at Otakon and nowhere else on the American tour. Between 25,000 and 30,000 attendees make the pilgrimage each year — large enough to feel monumental, small enough that the community still recognizes itself. The fans attending their first con and the ones who have made the trip since the Clinton administration move through the same halls. That continuity is what no streaming service replicates.

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29 days away

MondoCon SoCal 2026

Jul 31 – Aug 2, 2026 0.0 Channel Islands Masonic Lodge, 482…

MondoCon SoCal returns for its seventh year, July 31 through August 2, 2026, at the Channel Islands Masonic Lodge in Ventura, California. Organized by PacifiConQuest, this is Southern California's premier tabletop gaming convention for dedicated hobbyists who prefer depth over spectacle. The three-day event covers the full breadth of tabletop culture: board game open play, RPG campaigns, miniature wargaming tournaments, historical wargame demos, and pick-up games across every genre. Structured tournaments run Friday through Sunday with prizes across multiple systems. Open game library checkout is available all weekend. Bring nothing and still play everything. What makes MondoCon SoCal distinct is its scale: small enough to know the person across the table, large enough to field a full tournament bracket in three different game systems simultaneously. This is not a trade show or a vendor hall. It is a gaming convention built by players, for players. The Channel Islands Masonic Lodge provides multiple dedicated play rooms with tables purpose-set for miniature gaming terrain, RPG sessions, and high-stakes board game finals. Badge includes access to all event programming. Single-day and weekend passes available. Families welcome; junior gaming events scheduled for Saturday afternoon. Ventura is 60 miles north of Los Angeles via US-101.

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