Awesome-Con: A Full Weekend of Fandom and Fun in Washington D.C.
Awesome-Con is one of Washington, D.C.'s biggest celebrations of pop culture, uniting fans of comics, gaming, sci-fi, anime, and more at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. After a five-year hiatus from our home convention, we finally made it back this year! While our focus this time around wasn’t on celebrity guests, we immersed ourselves in the atmosphere, exhibitors, cosplay, and everything else that makes Awesome-Con an unforgettable experience. If you're thinking about attending Awesome-Con in 2025, here’s everything you need to know about what to expect!
Exhibitors
The exhibitor floor is a sprawling marketplace of fandom, showcasing local artists, small business vendors, and major geek culture brands. You can find everything from vintage collectibles and designer backpacks to indie board games and handcrafted jewelry. Among our favorites at 2024’s event were:
Bricker Builds, which offered LEGO sculpture kits of iconic characters like Pokémon and Mario. They even use a micro-welding technique to ensure their large builds stay intact.
Game of HAM, a hilarious and dark-humored party game similar to Cards Against Humanity - but even edgier.
Loungefly, featuring high-end geeky backpacks, including a Rainbow Connection Kermit and an Emperor’s New Groove poison-themed bag(s).
True Honey Teas, offering handcrafted honey-based drinks that were so good we may have betrayed our previous favorites.
One thing is certain: if you’re into niche or custom fandom merch, Awesome-Con delivers. But a word of warning to the thriftier geeks in the audience - if you’re going to meander through all of these exhibitor displays, be ready to spend some money! We lasted all of 10 minutes before dropping our first $50 of the day.
Above: What rational human being wouldn't scramble in the opposite direction if they saw this terrifyingly screen-accurate portrayal of Samara by cosplayer Becky Taka crawling straight towards them?
Cosplay
One of the highlights of any convention is cosplay, and Awesome-Con had plenty of it. Destination Cosplay provided a space for cosplayers to showcase their creations, although the informal cosplay catwalk never quite materialized. Despite that, we met some fantastic cosplayers, including Becky Taka, an independent artist who happened to be cosplaying as Samara from The Ring, and Laney Feni, best known as D.C.’s Supergirl. We also stopped by Syren Symposium, a group dedicated to merfolk culture, where we learned that professional mermaid tails can weigh up to 40 lbs! Who knew that “mermaiding” was both an art and a fairly intense sport?
Not all cosplayers onsite were invited guests, either. The halls were full of hundreds - if not thousands - of incredibly talented cosplayers all sporting their own unique costumes. Everything from Star Wars to Marvel to Fortnite to Silent Hill was represented - the lattermost also being a fun, geek-facing exercise in monster makeup for some of our dear friends and fellow haunters at Laurel’s House of Horror. It was a major highlight of our convention getting to explore the show floor as official escorts for “Fem Pyramid Head” and her entourage of monsters.
Celebrity Guests & Panels
Awesome-Con typically boasts an impressive guest lineup, and 2024 leaned heavily into Star Wars and Breaking Bad fandoms. While those weren’t our personal must-sees, there were plenty of opportunities for fans to meet their favorite stars. Like most conventions, Awesome-Con typically offers both autographs and professional photo ops for fans to get up close and semi-personal with the celebrity guests. While it’s important to remember that the guests are people, too, and that they may have rules and/or preferences about how they’re comfortable interacting with attendees, we’ve found that most of the stars we’ve wanted to meet over the years have been very fan-friendly and excited to engage with us. Beyond actors, the convention also hosted a range of fan panels, creator interviews, and Q&A sessions across multiple genres. While we didn’t attend as many panels this year, past experience tells us that Awesome-Con does a solid job catering to a variety of interests.
Food & Drinks
Convention food is rarely a highlight, but Awesome-Con did have a number of quick service options available to attendees via not one, not two but three separate, distinct food courts in various locations across the whole of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Pepsi-only venues remain a crime, in our opinion, but we made up for it by stopping at Wild Bill’s Olde Fashion Soda for refills in our five-year-old reusable cup! We grabbed chicken tenders from the Burger Kitchen, and had neither complaints nor rave reviews to offer. The thing is, the food courts aren’t the only place to find food and drink on the show floor…exhibitors like Copper Coast Confections will always have your back with a tasty treat that also supports a small business! For a unique drink experience, we also visited Gamer Supps, which specializes in zero-sugar energy drinks. The creamy peach mango flavor was a winner, and they even offer caffeine-free versions.
Droids, Replicas & Interactive Experiences
Awesome-Con offers more than just shopping—there are plenty of interactive exhibits and fan-built replicas to explore. Our personal highlights from the 2024 show included:
Jurassic Park Explorer Jeep - complete with themed props and “Dino DNA” signage.
Free-Roaming, Custom-built Star Wars Droids - patrolling the convention floor like a mini-parade.
“Little Shop of Horrors” Audrey II Replica - which was somehow both menacing and adorable.
It’s small touches like these that make the Awesome-Con atmosphere immersive and memorable, even if you’re not engaging in celebrity meet-and-greets. Where else but a pop culture convention would you find all of these fandoms seamlessly interwoven in the same space?
Above: Slimer, no sliming! Katie is getting dangerously close to a replica of one of the messiest ghosts from the 'Ghostbusters' franchise!
Artist Alley
One of our favorite parts of any convention is Artist Alley, and Awesome-Con’s selection of independent creators was as strong as ever. We made a point to respect each artist’s request regarding filming, but some standout booths included:
Florals & Feathers - which sold, among other things, the cutest little handmade turtles - there was even one shaped like an ice cream cone!
Imperfectionz Art - offering stunning miniature Pokémon and pop culture paintings no larger than a (human) thumbnail.
Arcadian Chain - which featured satisfying fidget-like chainmail accessories that were impossible to put down.
Stunspore Studios - whom we’ve now seen at several different comic and pop culture conventions up and down the east coast, always rocking some of the most amazing handmade Pokemon terrariums we’ve ever laid eyes on!
Supporting independent artists is one of the best parts of conventions like this, and Awesome-Con 2025 will surely be another great opportunity to grab one-of-a-kind pieces.
Final Thoughts
Awesome-Con is a fantastic all-around convention, perfect for fans of comics, sci-fi, anime, gaming, and geek culture in general. While celebrity guests vary by year, the consistent highlights are the cosplay, artist alley, exhibitor floor, and fan community. If you plan to attend in 2025, here are a few pro tips:
Buy tickets early - sometimes a three-day pass is cheaper than just a Saturday-Sunday combo!
Arrive early but not too early - rope drop crowds can be overwhelming.
Budget for nerd merch - you will be tempted.
Check out Artist Alley - you’ll find unique pieces you can’t get anywhere else.
Bring your own reusable cup - especially if you have a Wild Bill’s mug from a past con.
After a five-year gap, it was great to be back at Awesome-Con, reconnecting with the D.C. geek scene and celebrating everything we love about conventions. We’ll definitely be headed back to our “home con” for 2025—and if you’re considering it, we highly recommend making the trip! Tickets for Awesome-Con typically go on sale shortly after the previous year’s event has concluded, and all relevant event details will be posted on the official Awesome-Con website. If you need any more convincing, take a look at our vlog from 2024’s event to see our firsthand, realtime account of what we experienced over the course of the two days we visited!
