A-Kon is an annual three-day

anime convention An anime convention is an event or gathering with a primary focus on anime, manga and Japanese culture. Commonly, anime conventions are multi-day events hosted at convention centers, hotels or college campuses. They feature a wide variety of activ ...

held during June at the

Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas The Irving Convention Center is a facility on a tract in Las Colinas Urban Center in Irving, Texas. Opened in January 2011, the convention center and the adjoining mixed use entertainment district are bordered on the west by Highway 114, on the ...

and

Toyota Music Factory The Toyota Music Factory (originally known as Irving Music Factory) is an entertainment complex located in the Las Colinas neighborhood of Irving, Texas. Developed by the ARK Group, City of Irving and designed by architecture firm Gensler, ...

Irving, Texas Irving is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. Located in Dallas County, it is also an inner ring suburb of Dallas. The city of Irving is part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. According to a 2019 estimate from the United States Census Bureau ...

. First held in 1990 with just 380 people in attendance, A-Kon is North America's longest running convention primarily focused on anime.

Departments

A-Kon consists of many volunteer managed teams each dedicated to operating a portion of this large convention. 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 was originally centered on

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

fandom A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant ...

and screenings of films and television series, many other activities take place encompassing various segments of

geek The word ''geek'' is a slang term originally used to describe eccentric or non-mainstream people; in current use, the word typically connotes an expert or enthusiast obsessed with a hobby or intellectual pursuit. In the past, it had a general ...

and

Japanese pop culture Japanese popular culture includes Japanese cinema, cuisine, television programs, anime, manga, video games, music, and doujinshi, all of which retain older artistic and literary traditions; many of their themes and styles of presentation can be tra ...

. These events include panels with American authors and artists, a console gaming room, tabletop gaming room,

cosplay Cosplay, a portmanteau of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture ...

, 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. A-Kon 2020 was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. A-Kon 2021 was also cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Event history

References

External links

Project: A-Kon web site
{{coord, 32.8779653, -96.9431448, region:US-TX_type:event, display=title Anime conventions in the United States Recurring events established in 1990 1990 establishments in Texas Annual events in Texas Conventions in Texas Festivals in Texas Japanese-American culture in Texas Tourist attractions in Texas