Eugene is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest. It is at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about 50 miles (80 km) east of the Oregon Coast.
Otakon is an annual three-day anime convention held during July/August. From 1999 to 2016, it took place at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland's Inner Harbor district; in 2017, it moved to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The convention focuses on East Asian popular culture and its fandom. The name is a portmanteau derived from convention and the Japanese word otaku.
The Portland Rose Festival is an annual civic festival held during the month of June in Portland, Oregon. It is organized by the volunteer non-profit Portland Rose Festival Association with the purpose of promoting the Portland region. It includes three separate parades, along with a number of other activities.
MegaCon, short for Mega Convention, is a large speculative fiction convention that caters to the comic book, sci-fi, anime, fantasy, and gaming communities, often occurring in spring at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.
The Small Press Expo (SPX) is comics festival. A registered 501(c)(3) that was created in 1994, every year since its inception, SPX has put on a festival, known as The Expo, that provides a forum for artists, writers and publishers of comic art in its various forms to present their creations to the public and to expose the public to comic art not normally accessible through normal commercial channels. The annual SPX festival, typically held in the fall in Bethesda, Maryland, rivals the Alternative Press Expo as the premiere convention for alternative comics creators and fans. SPX is unique amongst the various comic conventions as it does not allow retailers to have a formal presence at the convention. Only creators and publishers are allowed to set up at the festival, although retailers can and do attend the show with the general public through paid admissions.
MomoCon is a fan convention held in March or May in Atlanta, Georgia.
Toby Froud is an English-American artist, special effects designer, puppeteer, filmmaker and performer. He rose to prominence for his role as the baby wished away to the goblins in the 1986 Jim Henson film Labyrinth, later becoming a puppeteer, sculptor and fabricator for film, television and theatre. He wrote and directed the 2014 fantasy short film Lessons Learned. He served as the design supervisor of the 2019 streaming television series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.
Kumoricon is an annual three-day anime convention held during October or November at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. The name of the convention comes from the Japanese word Kumori (曇り), meaning cloudy. Kumoricon is run by a volunteer staff and was previously held in Vancouver, Washington at the Hilton Vancouver Washington/Red Lion Vancouver at the Quay.
Wendy Froud is an American doll-artist, sculptor, puppet-maker and writer. She is best known for her work fabricating Yoda for the 1980 film Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, for which she has been referred to as "the mother of Yoda", and creatures for the Jim Henson films The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth.
SacAnime is a semi-annual three day anime convention held at the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center in Sacramento, California. The convention is the sister conventions to the Sacramento Comic, Toy and Anime Show (Sac-Con) and Bak-Anime.
The Baltimore Comic-Con is a comic book-oriented fan convention held annually in Baltimore since 2000.
Phoenix Fan Fusion is a speculative fiction entertainment and comic book convention held annually in Phoenix, Arizona. It was founded as the Phoenix Cactus Comicon in June 2002, and originally consisted of a one-day six-hour event held in Ahwatukee, Arizona. The convention plays host to comic related panels, programming events, art contests, and autograph signings for all ages. It is a four-day event (Thursday-Sunday) held during the summer at the Phoenix Convention Center in downtown Phoenix. On Thursday evening prior to the official opening of the event, there is a preview for professionals, exhibitors, and select guests pre-registered for all four days.
Oregon Brewers Festival (OBF) is a four-day craft beer festival held annually since 1988 at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park in downtown Portland, Oregon, except since 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic caused it to be cancelled. OBF has become the most popular outdoor beer festival in North America, based on attendance. Each brewery brings one beer. The attendance peaked in 2014, then it has been declining since. There is a Root Beer Garden for those who are under 21 or loathe alcohol.
XOXO is an annual festival and conference held in Portland, Oregon, that describes itself as "an experimental festival for independent artists who live and work online". XOXO was founded in 2012 by Andy Baio and Andy McMillan with funding from prepaid tickets and other contributions via Kickstarter. It has been held every year since then except for 2017, 2020 and 2021, the latter two as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2016, technology website The Verge called XOXO "the internet's best festival".
Exxxotica Expo is an annual three-day adult-themed event produced by 3XEvents. First held in 2006, Exxxotica has featured some of the most recognized names in the adult industry, including Jenna Jameson, Tera Patrick and Katie Morgan.
Rose City Comic Con (RCCC) is an annual comic book and pop culture convention that takes place in Portland, Oregon each September.
A comic book convention or comic con is an event with a primary focus on comic books and comic book culture, in which comic book fans gather to meet creators, experts, and each other. Commonly, comic conventions are multi-day events hosted at convention centers, hotels, or college campuses. They feature a wide variety of activities and panels, with a larger number of attendees participating in cosplay than most other types of fan conventions. Comic book conventions are also used as a vehicle for industry, in which publishers, distributors, and retailers represent their comic-related releases. Comic book conventions may be considered derivatives of science-fiction conventions, which began in the late 1930s.
The Pickathon Music Festival is an annual three day music festival located just outside of Portland, Oregon, in Happy Valley on Pendarvis Farm. Occurring every August since 1999, the festival has featured a variety of artists and genres including: Indie, Rock, Rap, Folk, and Bluegrass. Pickathon also offers camping, and food options on site. The festival is well known for promoting more sustainable environmental practices; offering eco-friendly transportation, use of sustainable fuel and solar energy, recycling and composting, and the elimination of plastic tableware. Unlike many other successful music festivals, Pickathon has no corporate sponsors and caps ticket sales. With ticket sales capped the festival founder, Zale Schoenborn, was forced to get creative and set up live streams and cameras to package the edited footage as digital content.
The Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade Ball, shortened to LOJ or simply known as the Labyrinth Masquerade Ball, is an annual masquerade ball and cosplay event in Los Angeles, California. The ball was first held in 1997.
The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon on February 28, 2020.
