Metrocon 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 July/August at the

Tampa Convention Center The Tampa Convention Center is a mid-sized convention center located in downtown Tampa, Florida at the mouth of the Hillsborough River. It has both waterfront views of Tampa Bay and views of the city's skyline. Harbour Island is across the epony ...

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough ...

. It is Florida's largest anime convention and organized by Team Dynamite Productions. The convention evolved from meetups of AnimeMetro.com members.

Programming

The convention typically offers an artist alley, autograph sessions, contests, dances/raves, LAN gaming, main events (such as the Anime

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Match, Costume and Cosplay Contests, Fantasy Masquerade, Fire Show, and Professional Wrestling), panels, tabletop game rooms, vendors room, video game rooms, and video rooms screening anime. Metrocon also hosts a

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. The convention brings $3.5 million to the area's economy.

History

Metrocon was first held in 2003 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and after growth moved to the Tampa Convention Center in 2005. The convention had issues in 2008 with rowdy attendees from the

Red Bull Flugtag Red Bull Flugtag (, 'airshow' ) is an event organized by Red Bull in which competitors attempt to fly home-made, human-powered flying machines, size-limited to around and weight-limited to approximately . The flying machines are usually laun ...

event also occurring at the Tampa Convention Center. In 2009, the founder and CEO of Metrocon was arrested in Florida for violating Florida Statute 794.05 (unlawful sexual activity with certain minors) eight days before the convention. The conventions Director of Operations characterized the arrest as "an attack on the convention". The CEO stepped down from his position, with the Director of Operations and Head of Security taking over operations. The convention added a fourth day when unique attendance hit over 10,000, with the first occurring in 2015. Game five of the 2015 Stanley Cup playoff finals was held during Metrocon 2015 at the

Amalie Arena Amalie Arena (officially stylized as AMALIE Arena) is a multipurpose arena in Tampa, Florida, that has been used for ice hockey, basketball, arena football, concerts, and other events. It is mainly used as the home for the Tampa Bay Lightni ...

. Metrocon 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 ...

Event history

Amano's World

In 2006, Metrocon held a second convention known as Metrocon: Amano's World, which featured the works Yoshitaka Amano, who is best known for his ''

Final Fantasy is a Japanese science fantasy anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science fantasy role-playing video games. The ...

'' character designs and ''

Vampire Hunter D is a series of novels written by Japanese author Hideyuki Kikuchi and illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano since 1983. As of April 2022, 40 novels have been published in the main series, with some novels comprising as many as four volumes. They ha ...

'' illustrations.

Event history

References

External links

Metrocon Website
{{coord, 27, 56, 30.12, N, 82, 27, 24.12, W, region:US-FL_type:event, display=title Anime conventions in the United States Recurring events established in 2003 2003 establishments in Florida Annual events in Florida Culture of Tampa, Florida Festivals in Tampa, Florida Conventions in Florida