Anime Weekend Atlanta Outgrows Its Longtime Home

By Jordan Jackson and Nico Bauguss | November 21, 2023 | 3:18pm

Photos courtesy of Anime Weekend Atlanta

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Anime Weekend Atlanta Outgrows Its Longtime Home

With another Anime Weekend Atlanta behind us, we put a bookend on the city’s convention season. This year AWA was once again held at the Cobb Galleria, its loving host for the last two decades.

One of the biggest draws of AWA is undeniably its cosplay culture. From Naruto and Bleach to Critical Role, from Jujitsu Kasisen and My Hero to Star Wars, fandoms both anime and not were very well represented throughout AWA. We got to attend the phenomenal cosplay competition this year, which was for sure the highlight of the weekend. We also saw some cosplays from One Piece as the show gained even more fans from the Netflix live-action series.

Anime and manga have seemed to grow in popularity post-Covid, and that’s been reflected in the increased attendance in our two Atlanta conventions for the genre, AWA and MomoCon. Attendance at this year’s Anime Weekend Atlanta certainly felt like it was at an all-time high, evident in the packed dealer’s hall to the winding lines for different events. So, it comes to no surprise that AWA has officially outgrown the Cobb Galleria and will be moving to the Georgia World Congress Center for 2024. It’s certainly a big change but one I think will be welcomed by the community.

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It will be interesting to see how AWA utilizes the new space come fall 2024. One of the first things that comes to my mind is how they’ll distinguish themselves from MomoCon which uses the same space during the summer. Now that two of the big anime conventions are in the same place (the only two depending on how you classify DragonCon), will they continue to feel like different events or will they start to blend together? They both go 24/7 from Thursday afternoon to Sunday evening—with concerts, events and panels, there’s something happening all day and all night.

The AWA nighttime panels are far raunchier in theme, for example “Would it even fit?” (a time-honored tradition) and “Only-fans 101.” These panels, along with many others are 18+ exclusive with ID checked at the door. AWA definitely feels like it’s for adults, and it’s kind of awesome. A lot of people assume anime is for kids because of the cartoon medium, but there are many anime/manga that are absolutely geared more towards adults. (Can you imagine a child watching Attack on Titan?!). Having an anime space tailored to adults creates a cool sense of community. Already there’s a lot of excitement and anticipation about what AWA will look like in 2024.