Status Active Inaugurated 1990 Location Fort Worth | Country United States Attendance 32,639 in 2016 | |
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Venue Fort Worth Convention Center | ||
A-Kon, formerly known as Project: A-Kon, is a three-day anime convention held annually in Fort Worth, Texas usually on the first weekend of June. First held in 1990 with just 380 people in attendance, A-Kon is North America's longest running national anime convention. The convention is the 2nd largest North American anime convention as of 2016.
Contents
Departments
A-Kon consists of several departments, ranging from Kon Patrol to Medical to Children's Programming. Each year, usually in February or March, they post a web page for volunteer sign-up. Volunteers work at least sixteen hours during the weekend and receive a free pass to the convention. Working for 20 hours, volunteers aged over 18 can receive a hotel room, shared with 3 other staff members.
Programming
While the focus of the convention is centered on anime fandom and screenings of films and television series, many other activities take place encompassing various segments of geek and Japanese pop culture. These events include panels with American authors and artists, a console gaming room, tabletop gaming room, cosplay, scavenger hunts, martial arts demonstrations, an art show, and concerts by Japanese and SteamPunk bands. The convention also maintains a vigorous social network presence on Facebook and Twitter, having about 15,000 and 7,000 followers respectively, through which they post information and run contests throughout the year.
History
The name seems to be a play on the early anime series Project A-ko + Convention.