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49 days away

Shakespeare Pub Quiz Night — August 20

Aug 20, 2026 Shakespeare Pub & Grille, 3701 Ind…

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.

Anime Impulse Orange County 2026 — Anaheim, CA

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🌎 Nation's Best 51 days away

Anime Impulse Orange County 2026 — Anaheim, CA

Aug 22 – Aug 23, 2026 Anaheim Convention Center, 800 W K…

One day, one building, the Southern California anime community at full concentration. Anime Impulse OC at the Anaheim Convention Center, August 22–23. What it feels like: OC Anime Impulse has built a reputation for being the convention that actually feels manageable. The Anaheim Convention Center space is large enough to breathe, the crowd is curated by proximity (it draws heavy OC and LA South Bay attendance), and the Artist Alley is consistently one of the best in the SoCal circuit for independent print and goods creators. The production team has been running SoCal conventions long enough to know where the friction points are — registration lines move, programming starts on time, and the floor is laid out to prevent the bottlenecks that plague larger conventions. Worth it? Who it's for: This is the convention for the SoCal fan who wants the full convention experience without the scale anxiety of Anime Expo. If AX feels like navigating LAX during a holiday weekend, OC Anime Impulse feels like a neighborhood market — still substantial, still exciting, but at a scale where you can actually find the creators you're looking for. Late August timing means summer anime finales are wrapping, giving the community something to process together. What to know before you go: Anaheim Convention Center is in walking distance of the Anaheim Resort Transit stops. The parking structures off Harbor fill by 10am; if you're driving, arriving before 9:30am or taking ART from a nearby lot is the move. Saturday is the fuller day; Sunday tends to be more relaxed with better panel access. Bring cash — a significant portion of Artist Alley vendors prefer it, and the independent sellers have the best inventory. The cultural moment: Anime Impulse has built something most convention circuits haven't managed — a regional identity. The OC edition is not a Los Angeles convention that moved to Anaheim. It has its own character, its own regulars, and its own Artist Alley tier of creators who treat it as a homecoming. In the SoCal anime convention landscape, that distinctiveness is earned. This is where the OC community celebrates what it built.

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51 days away

IchibanCon San Diego 2026

Aug 22 – Aug 23, 2026 Sheraton Mission Valley, 1433 Cami…

Sheraton Mission Valley, 1433 Camino Del Rio S. IchibanCon returns to San Diego for 2026 — an anime convention built at the scale where it still feels like a community event: the artist alley is reachable, the panels have real discussion, and the cosplay competition runs in a room where the audience knows the characters. The hotel convention setting is the right format for this. You're not navigating a convention center the size of an airport — you're moving through connected ballrooms and corridors where the density is right, the programming overlaps in ways you can manage, and the event has the feel of a gathering rather than a production. The guests in the signing lines are accessible. The vendor hall covers everything from imported figures to local fan art. IchibanCon has been building a reputation for doing the local convention well, which is harder than it sounds. August 22-23rd. The programming calendar is packed across both days. August in San Diego means the city is at its best outside, and inside the Sheraton the convention runs with air conditioning and the specific warmth of a community that chose to be in this room together. Check IchibanCon's website for badge options and the guest list as the date approaches.

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51 days away

Anime Impulse Orange County 2026

Aug 22 – Aug 23, 2026 Anaheim Convention Center, 800 W K…

Anime Impulse returns to the Anaheim Convention Center August 22-23, 2026 — the West Coast's premier anime pop-culture market, hundreds of artists, importers, and vendors across two full days at 800 West Katella Avenue in Anaheim. Anime Impulse runs differently than a convention. The focus is the market — the buying and selling of anime merch, fan art, imported goods, and limited-edition products that don't exist on Amazon. Artists who sell exclusively at shows like this bring work they made specifically for the weekend. Importers carry products from Japan that circulate at these events and nowhere else. Walking the floor is a discovery process that requires time. The Anaheim Convention Center handles the scale well — a facility used to large-format events, and Anime Impulse fills it properly. Two full days means you can spread the floor across both: Saturday for the main rush, Sunday for the second pass when the lines are shorter and the conversations with artists go longer. Admission at animeimpulse.com. Anaheim is accessible from most of SoCal via the 5 and the 57. The show draws from San Diego to Los Angeles and everything between.

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51 days away

Anime Impulse OC 2026

Aug 22 – Aug 23, 2026 Anaheim Convention Center, 800 W K…

Anime Impulse returns to Anaheim for its Orange County edition on August 22–23, 2026 at the Anaheim Convention Center. Anime Impulse is a fan convention built around the intersection of anime culture, K-pop, cosplay, gaming, and Asian street fashion — one of the fastest-growing conventions in Southern California. The event features an artist alley packed with independent creators selling prints, charms, apparel, and fanart. The vendor hall brings licensed merchandise, import goods, and exclusive convention releases. Programming includes cosplay competitions, panels, dance showcases, and gaming tournaments throughout the weekend. What makes Anime Impulse distinct from larger anime conventions is the emphasis on community over celebrity — the energy on the convention floor comes from attendees who are deeply into the culture rather than casual visitors drawn by headliner guests. The cosplay quality at Anime Impulse OC consistently rivals events three times its size. The Anaheim Convention Center is located at 800 W Katella Ave in Anaheim, directly adjacent to Disneyland Resort. Multiple parking structures on-site and nearby. The event is all-ages. Weekend badges and single-day badges available. Artist alley table applications typically open several months in advance for creators who want to sell.

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51 days away

K-PLAY! FEST Orange County 2026

Aug 22 – Aug 23, 2026 800 W Katella Ave, Anaheim, CA 928…

K-PLAY! FEST was built on the belief that K-pop fandom is not a spectator sport. The fans are the content. The choreography they learned alone in their bedroom, the photocards they have been trading in group chats, the inside references that would take an hour to explain to an outsider — all of it belongs on a stage. Orange County's K-PLAY! comes to the Anaheim Convention Center on August 22 and 23, 2026. Two days built around what K-pop fans actually do: random dance play (the format where a song starts and whoever knows the choreo joins in), photocard trading, fan art alley, creator meet-and-greets, and the particular kind of screaming that only happens when a room full of people all know every word to the same song at the same time. This is not a concert. There is no headline act the crowd watches passively. This is the community running itself — organized, loud, and exactly what the people in that room have been waiting for. Anaheim Convention Center. August 22 and 23. Doors at 10am, runs until 6pm each day. Tickets at kplayfest.com.

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51 days away

K-PLAY! FEST Orange County 2026

Aug 22 – Aug 23, 2026 Tickets available on Eventim Anaheim Convention Center, 800 W K…

The organizers of K-PLAY! FEST believe that K-pop fandom in America has outgrown concerts. Watching from a seat is one thing. Being in a room where everyone speaks the same language - the dances, the photocards, the inside jokes that do not exist in translation - is something else entirely. K-PLAY! FEST Orange County returns to the Anaheim Convention Center on August 22-23, 2026, bringing with it everything that makes K-pop fandom its own world: random play dance sessions where a song plays and you either know the choreography or you do not, photocard trading tables where currency is knowledge as much as money, fan creators who have spent years building communities in comment sections now finally meeting the people in them, and an artist alley that knows exactly who this room is for. This year the event runs alongside ANIME Impulse and Collectors Expo, which means the same weekend draws cosplayers, figure collectors, and fans from adjacent corners of the same cultural universe. People whose social media you have followed for years without knowing what they look like in person. The random play dance stage is the real tell. Casual fans stop at the rope and watch. The people who came here to find their people step in. What to know: the convention floor is a trading floor as much as an entertainment space. Bring extra sleeves for photocards. Know that random play dance is the community oldest and most honest tradition. Come in a shirt that tells someone else in the room exactly who you are. K-PLAY! FEST OC 2026 is one of the only fan-organized K-pop conventions in Southern California that treats fandom itself - not the artists, not the labels - as the main event. August 22-23 at Anaheim Convention Center, 800 W Katella Ave, Anaheim, CA

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51 days away

Collectors Expo Orange County 2026

Aug 22 – Aug 23, 2026 ✨ New Anaheim Convention Center, 800 Wes…

There is a specific kind of person who keeps a separate folder for the cards they will never sell, who can tell you what a binder smells like, who texts one friend the second a set drops. For a long time that person has had to drive to a different little shop for every game they love — Pokemon one weekend, One Piece the next, Lorcana somewhere across town. This is the weekend all of it lands in the same building. Pokemon, One Piece, Riftbound, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Lorcana and Magic: The Gathering share one convention floor in Anaheim — vendors deep enough to find the card you've been hunting for years, tables to trade and play, and the rare overlap where the competitive grinders and the vintage collectors finally walk the same aisles. It is part flea market, part reunion, part the dig you've been putting off. If you are the kind of person who already knows what a "good pull" feels like in your chest, you do not need to be talked into this room — you just need to know it exists. Held Saturday August 22 and Sunday August 23, 2026, 10AM to 6PM, at the Anaheim Convention Center, 800 West Katella Avenue, Anaheim, CA 92802. Tickets and full vendor list at the official site.

Bleach 30th Anniversary Special — San Diego 2026

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51 days away

Bleach 30th Anniversary Special — San Diego 2026

Aug 22, 2026 San Diego, CA

San Diego has a chapter in Bleach's 30th anniversary. The Thousand-Year Blood War arc is back in production, and this is the city's celebration — screening, panel, and the fan community that never stopped watching. This is not a generic anime event. The Bleach anniversary circuit selects cities with deep fan communities, and San Diego has earned its spot. Expect curated screenings of pivotal Thousand-Year Blood War episodes, exclusive merchandise from the 30th anniversary line, character cosplay contests judged by convention veterans, and panel discussions with the San Diego anime community that has been with Bleach since its Shonen Jump debut in 2001. Why this matters now: the TYBW anime is in its most critical arc. The Quincy invasion is nearly complete. The community organizing around this event reflects something real — Bleach fans have been waiting a decade for this arc to finally reach animation. This is the celebration of a promise finally kept. What to know: The event draws mixed crowds — veterans who read the manga from issue one alongside newcomers who discovered Bleach through the 2022 anime revival. The San Diego anime community skews knowledgeable; expect deep-cut discussion and serious cosplay. Limited attendance means intimate access to the experience. San Diego anchor for the bleach-tybw taste node. Ticketmaster affiliate link active — get paid for the discovery handoff.

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51 days away

K-PLAY! FEST Orange County 2026

Aug 22 – Aug 24, 2026 40.00 800 W Katella Ave, Anaheim, CA 928…

K-PLAY! FEST Orange County returns to the Anaheim Convention Center on August 22-23, 2026. GA concert passes start at $40. This two-day K-pop and K-culture festival is the largest dedicated K-pop fan event in SoCal, combining live concerts, fan meetups, K-pop dance competitions, K-beauty booths, and K-drama screenings under one roof. The concert stage features performances from touring K-pop acts across both days. The festival floor runs simultaneously -- featuring official merchandise drops, signed album opportunities, fan photo areas, and artist Q&A sessions. GA gives you access to the full festival floor; separate concert tickets available for the main stage. Co-located with Anime Impulse OC 2026 at the same venue -- your K-PLAY! FEST ticket grants free cross-access to Anime Impulse OC cosplay contests, artist alley, and gaming hall. Two fandom worlds sharing one convention center floor. Anaheim Convention Center is located at 800 W Katella Ave, Anaheim, CA 92802. Walking distance from the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC). Paid parking in surrounding lots. Minutes from Disneyland if extending into a full SoCal weekend. Tickets and lineup at kplayfest.com/orange-county.

Coming Soon

53 days away

RuPaul's Drag Race LIVE! Las Vegas

Aug 24, 2026 3555 Las Vegas Blvd, Flamingo Show…

Flamingo Showroom at Flamingo Las Vegas in Las Vegas on August 24, 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 August 24, 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.

ONE PIECE Fest 2026 — Los Angeles (COSM LA)

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54 days away

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ONE PIECE Fest 2026 — Los Angeles (COSM LA)

Aug 25 – Aug 26, 2026 COSM Los Angeles, Inglewood, CA

If you have been watching One Piece long enough to know what Elbaph means, this event was built for you. ONE PIECE Fest 2026 is the first official Toei Animation production of its kind in North America — two days inside COSM Los Angeles, an 87-foot LED dome in Inglewood that wraps the entire room in continuous animated One Piece visuals. Floor. Ceiling. Walls. All of it moving. The experience is themed around the Elbaph arc — the land of giants at the center of the current manga storyline — which means attending this in 2026 puts you inside the story as it is happening, not in a museum of what already ended. Attendees from the Tokyo edition describe it as the closest thing to actually stepping onto the Grand Line. That is not marketing copy. That is fans trying to explain something a photo cannot capture. The festival runs August 25–26, 2026 at COSM LA (777 Prairie Ave, Inglewood, CA 90301). Doors open at 10:00 AM each day. Day one is the high-demand session — exclusive merchandise goes fast, often before noon on the first day. Day two typically has more breathing room for the dome immersion and interactive installations. If you have access to both days, prioritize merch on the morning of day one and save the dome experience for day two when crowds thin. Capacity is approximately 7,000 across both days and access is lottery-based. Fan communities on Discord have been organizing group registrations since the announcement. The lottery is not a suggestion — register before it closes. After lottery notification, tickets move through Ticketmaster for official purchase. COSM LA is in Inglewood adjacent to SoFi Stadium. Transit: Metro K Line (Crenshaw/LAX line) to Inglewood Station, approximately a 10-minute walk. Parking: SoFi Stadium campus lots are the closest option. Arrive before doors — entry is timed and lines form early. Merch is exclusive to the event and does not ship. Cosplay is strongly encouraged. The crowd spans all ages and all factions of One Piece fandom. One Piece has been running for 27 years. The Elbaph arc is the payoff fans have waited a decade for. ONE PIECE Fest 2026 is where you experience that payoff inside a room engineered specifically for it. Events like this do not happen twice in the same city. This is the one. What to know before you go: tickets are sold in timed entry windows — selecting your session matters more than most events. The dome experience runs approximately 45-60 minutes and is designed for repeat entry across both days if you purchase a weekend pass. COSM is located in Inglewood near SoFi Stadium with parking available on-site and rideshare reliable from the Inglewood transit hub. The event runs August 25 through September 7, giving two full weeks of evening and weekend sessions. Plan around your preferred arc moments — the Elbaph-themed visual sequences hit differently when the dome runs at full darkness. The cultural moment: ONE PIECE Fest at COSM is not a convention and not a screening. It is the first time Toei Animation has built a complete immersive environment around an active manga storyline in the United States. If you have followed the Elbaph arc in real time, this event is a live entry in a story you are already inside. Tickets are sold in pairs at $109 per pair and are non-transferrable — the name on the order stays with the ticket. Sessions run 10am–2pm or 4pm–8pm; book the session that works for your crew before the other fills. If you discovered One Piece through the Netflix live-action adaptation, this is where you understand why 500 million people have followed Luffy across 25 years. Either way, the dome is the room where it becomes three-dimensional.

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🌎 Nation's Best 56 days away

AnimeFest Dallas 2026

Aug 27 – Aug 31, 2026 Sheraton Dallas Hotel, 400 N Olive…

AnimeFest Dallas 2026 returns to the Sheraton Dallas August 27-30 — one of the oldest anime conventions in the South, running since 1992. Japanese guest concerts, AMV competitions, cosplay masquerade, artist alley, and gaming rooms in the heart of downtown Dallas. AnimeFest is a hotel con at its purest — the late-night hallway gatherings are half the reason people come back. Why go: AnimeFest has a legacy that newer conventions can't manufacture. The people who run it have been doing it for 30+ years and it shows. Badges at animefest.org.

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🌎 Nation's Best 56 days away

LAcon V / Worldcon 2026

Aug 27 – Aug 31, 2026 From $125 Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim…

Worldcon 2026 (LAcon V) is the 84th World Science Fiction Convention, running August 27–31 at the Anaheim Convention Center. Science fiction's oldest and most prestigious gathering — founded 1939 — this is where the Hugo Awards are presented, the genre's highest honor, and where the writers, editors, artists, and fans who built speculative fiction gather to shape what it becomes next. Five days of programming dense enough to require a spreadsheet to navigate. Panel discussions with authors whose books shaped how you see the world. An Art Show displaying original science fiction and fantasy illustration available for purchase. A Film Festival. And the Masquerade — one of the world's most ambitious costume competitions, where attendees spend months building elaborate creations for a single stage walk. But the truest texture of Worldcon lives in the hallways: conversations that begin at a panel and continue two hours later in a hotel lobby, between a first-timer and someone who has attended since the 1970s. The community here is multigenerational in a way almost no other genre event is. If science fiction or fantasy has genuinely shaped how you think — not as casual entertainment, but as a frame for understanding the world — Worldcon is worth every dollar. Every attending member votes on the Hugo Awards ballot, which gives you a reason to read widely before the convention even begins. If you have opinions about where the genre is going and want to be in the room where those conversations happen, LAcon V is that room. This is not a pop-culture spectacle. It is a literary gathering with the scale to match. First-time attendees qualify for a $200 membership rate instead of the standard $250 adult price — register explicitly as a first-timer at lacon.org to save fifty dollars. The Hugo Award ceremony is a formal evening event; bring something nicer than a convention T-shirt. Programming is community-generated: attendees propose and vote on panels, so the schedule reflects genuine fan priorities rather than a corporate programming team. Book the Hilton Anaheim or Anaheim Marriott to stay in the convention hotels and maximize hallway conversation time. The Art Show sells original work; budget separately for it. Worldcon returns to Los Angeles for the first time since 2006. LAcon V arrives at a moment when science fiction's cultural reach — through streaming, gaming, and AI — has never been broader, while the literary community that seeded all of it has never been more visible. The Hugo Awards are now watched globally. The writers in those panel rooms are the ones shaping how space travel, artificial intelligence, and social change feel to readers a generation from now. That conversation is happening in Anaheim in August 2026.

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57 days away

Pokémon World Championships 2026

Aug 28 – Aug 30, 2026 Moscone Center, 747 Howard St, San…

The 2026 Pokémon World Championships arrive at Moscone Center in San Francisco August 28-30, alongside the first-ever PokémonXP fan festival — the highest level of competitive Pokémon play in the world, open to spectators. Players who compete at Worlds have qualified through regionals and nationals across a full season. The Masters Division bracket represents the best Pokémon TCG, VGC, and GO players in the world — people who have studied the metagame with the intensity of professional athletes. Watching the tournament floor is watching optimization happen in real time: deck construction decisions made months ago either pay off or they don't, and the margins are sometimes one card, one turn, one choice. The PokémonXP fan festival runs alongside the tournament and is built for the broader community: game demos, merchandise, side events, and the specific atmosphere of tens of thousands of Pokémon fans in one building. Moscone Center is a world-class facility with space to handle this well. Spectator badges at worlds.pokemon.com. San Francisco in late August is excellent — book accommodation early because the city fills during Worlds. The Masters finals run Sunday afternoon. Plan your travel around that session.

Strategicon Gateway 2026 — Labor Day Tabletop Gaming

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57 days away

Strategicon Gateway 2026 — Labor Day Tabletop Gaming

Aug 28 – Aug 31, 2026 LAX Hilton, 5711 W Century Blvd, L…

Strategicon Gateway is the flagship Labor Day weekend tabletop gaming convention at the LAX Hilton — one of three annual Strategicon events that anchor the SoCal tabletop community calendar year after year. If you have not been to a Strategicon event, the format is unlike anything else in the convention circuit: the entire hotel becomes a gaming space for four days, with scheduled tournaments, open gaming tables running 24 hours, wargame tournaments, LARP events, and a dealer room packed with hard-to-find games. Gateway has the prestige of being the Labor Day edition, which draws the biggest crowds and the most ambitious gaming projects. Multi-day campaigns happen here. Pickup games for titles you have been waiting years to play happen here. The hotel room hallway conversations that turn into lifelong gaming groups happen here. The tabletop gaming community in LA has been meeting at Strategicon events since the 1970s. Gateway 2026 is August 28-31 at the LAX Hilton. Pre-registration available at strategicon.net. The event is 4 days — plan to stay the weekend.

Lorcana North American Championship 2026 — Disneyland

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57 days away

Lorcana North American Championship 2026 — Disneyland

Aug 28 – Aug 30, 2026 Registration required; free spectate 1313 Disneyland Dr, Anaheim, CA 92…

Step into the most magical TCG tournament venue ever conceived: the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. From August 28 to 30, 2026, Ravensburger and Disney are co-hosting the Lorcana North American Championship — the defining competitive event of the year for Disney Lorcana players across the continent. This is where months of grinding through qualifiers, mastering ink combinations, and reading the competitive meta has been pointing. The prize pool exceeds $13,000, and the competitor field spans every corner of North America. The venue alone makes this unlike any TCG event you have attended: Disneyland's convention spaces carry the same design DNA as the park itself — immersive, detail-rich, purpose-built for the kind of experience where winning feels like it means something. Side events run throughout all three days, making this accessible even if you have not punched through the qualifier circuit. Local San Diego qualifier rounds preceded this event, meaning competitive players from SoCal have had a direct pathway in. If you play Lorcana seriously — or even casually — this is the event your 2026 calendar was always building toward. Registration through the official Disney Lorcana Championship page. Side event space is limited. August 28-30, Disneyland Resort, Anaheim. Free to spectate during open rounds.

Coming Soon

57 days away

RuPaul's Drag Race LIVE! Las Vegas

Aug 28, 2026 3555 Las Vegas Blvd, Flamingo Show…

Flamingo Showroom at Flamingo Las Vegas in Las Vegas on August 28, 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 August 28, 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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