WELCOME TO TSUKICON! 🌙🐇​

In case you didn’t already know, Tsukicon takes place October 16–18, 2026, at the Dayton Convention Center. Join us for three days of anime, cosplay, art, gaming and music, with shopping, guest appearances, live performances and an outdoor gathering on Fifth Street.

Our first Little Tokyo mini-convention took place in June 2025, bringing together the community we’d been building through IZAKAYA and ISEKAIYA. Thank you to the exhibitors, artists, performers, volunteers and attendees helping us bring that community together for a full convention weekend. We’re grateful to everyone who’s been part of it.

Whether you’ve been coming to our events for a while or this is your first, thank you for giving us the chance to build something here. We’re glad you’re part of it.

Get your Tsukicon badge and plan your weekend.

Convention hours and weekend highlights

Dayton Convention Center · 22 E. Fifth Street, Dayton, Ohio

Convention hours

Friday, October 16 Noon–midnight

Saturday, October 17 10 a.m.–midnight

Sunday, October 18 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Friday’s vendor and artist shopping areas open at 1 p.m., with accessible shopping beginning at 12:30 p.m. Halls, signings, panels and activities have their own hours within the overall convention schedule.

Here are a few things to plan around:

Friday: Opening ceremony at noon, featuring Japanese taiko drumming by Wadaiko Gouken; Idol Fest presented by Milkyway Idols, 6–8 p.m.; and Tre Watson’s Jammingway, 10–11 p.m., bringing anime- and game-inspired rock and metal to the theatre.

Saturday: Ohayo Sumo Dayton, 11 a.m.–noon, the cosplay competition, and KYOSAI at Levitt Pavilion, 4–11 p.m.

Sunday: More shopping, panels and gaming, with our cosplay runway planned before the closing ceremony.

The website schedule is preliminary and still being completed. Check it as the weekend approaches for the latest times, room assignments and additions.

Meet our voice actor guests

We’re excited to welcome:

Aaron Dismuke — Senku in Dr. STONE, Alphonse in the original Fullmetal Alchemist, and Tamaki in My Hero Academia.

Drew Breedlove — Bachira in Blue Lock and Mitsuki in WIND BREAKER.

Kyle McCarley — Mob in Mob Psycho 100 and 9S in NieR: Automata.

Morgan Lauré — Rei Todoroki in My Hero Academia, Nadeshiko in Laid-Back Camp, and Aglaea and Guinaifen in Honkai: Star Rail.

Our voice actors will be joining us in the Exhibit Hall for autographs and photo opportunities. Individual signing schedules will be announced; check the guest page for details.

Gaming, panels and cosplay

Psychic Drive is bringing the Tsukicon Arcade to the Junior Ballroom, with Friday’s arcade hours currently listed as 1–11:45 p.m. There’s plenty of time to play between panels and stick around after shopping closes.

Panel programming is being organized across six spaces. We’re also working on the maid café and flea market, with details to come as the schedule is completed.

Saturday’s cosplay competition is hosted in partnership with Carnage Cosplay and Questionably Frosty, with craftsmanship judging and an onstage presentation. Come support the competitors and see the work they’ve put into their costumes. Visit the cosplay contest page for the guidelines and updates.

Saturday night at KYOSAI

Saturday, October 17 · 4–11 p.m.

Levitt Pavilion · 134 S. Main Street, Dayton

KYOSAI brings the ISEKAIYA side of our community outside for a night of music across the street from the convention center. Wadaiko Gouken opens the event, with DV-i, Maozon, Kotori, onumi, Creep-P and TORIENA among the announced artists.

It’s a chance to bring together the music, anime and cosplay communities that have been part of our events from the beginning, on a bigger stage here in Dayton.

KYOSAI is a separately ticketed, 18+ event. Government-issued photo ID is required. Check the KYOSAI ticket page for admission options and the latest lineup and set times. Bring the QR code from your confirmation email for on-site KYOSAI badge pickup.

Food trucks and itasha on Fifth Street

Fifth Street between Main Street and South Jefferson Street will be closed to regular vehicle traffic for our outdoor event area, between the convention center and Levitt Pavilion.

We’re putting together a food truck lineup primarily for Friday and Saturday. We’ll share the confirmed trucks and serving hours with our final weekend information. Grab something to eat between panels, check out the cars and take pictures before heading back inside.

Itasha are vehicles decorated with anime, manga, game and character artwork. Owners will bring their cars to Tsukicon on Friday and Saturday. Our display may be small this year as we grow, but we’re excited to share the builds and the people behind them. We hope Tsukicon becomes a regular gathering place for Ohio’s itasha community, and that seeing these cars up close encourages more people to get involved.

The showcase is supported by Senpai Squad and Bimyou Workshop. Best in Show will receive a complimentary custom itasha wrap design from StyleUP Studio. Installation is not included. Additional awards recognize crowd favorite, detail work and thematic execution. Competition and awards timing will be shared with the final schedule.

New art and merchandise

We’ve been working with local and established artists on new Tsukicon artwork, including special badge art and merchandise. We’re excited to share what they’ve made and give you something to take home from our first full convention weekend.

We don’t support generative AI and will keep it out of Tsukicon. We want artists and creators to be able to share their own work and be valued for it. Read our Art & Content Policy for details.

And maybe a plushie…?​

Thursday badge pickup at IZAKAYA

Thursday, October 15 · 3–8 p.m.

2727 Fairfield Commons, Beavercreek, OH 45431

Pick up your badge at IZAKAYA before the convention opens on Friday. Have your order confirmation ready for pickup.

IZAKAYA is our anime-inspired restaurant and bar at The Mall at Fairfield Commons, where this community began. Stop in for Asian-American comfort food and themed drinks, and meet the team before the weekend gets busy. The restaurant has its own exterior entrance, so you don’t need to walk through the mall.

The restaurant started as a dream, too. The people who came through its doors and kept coming back helped make all of this possible. If you haven’t visited yet, we’d love for you to stop in and say hello.

Getting downtown and parking

The Oregon District Garage is one block east of the convention center and has a covered skywalk into the building.

We’ve arranged a $20 parking pass for the entire convention weekend, available for purchase only by weekend badge holders, with leave-and-return access. Without the weekend pass, the garage’s standard rates apply to each visit. We’ll share purchase and collection instructions with our final weekend information. The garage accepts credit or debit cards only.

The convention center lists a Stone Street entrance between Jefferson Street and Patterson Boulevard. Follow posted detours and event directions when arriving.

The garage has a posted clearance of 6 feet 6 inches. It does not permit vehicles 6 feet 6 inches or taller, full-size vans, or vehicles with a wheelbase over 120 inches. Check the convention center’s parking guide for the full restrictions and nearby parking options.

Hotel options and reservation help

Our original partner hotel, the Dayton Vitality Hotel, unexpectedly closed roughly two months before the event. We know this disrupted travel plans for attendees who had already booked, and we’re sorry for the inconvenience it caused.

Although the closure was outside our control, we worked to arrange replacement blocks at Fairfield Inn & Suites Dayton Downtown and Hotel Ardent Dayton Downtown. Those blocks mostly filled, and our room-block booking window ended September 28. Thank you for your patience while we worked through those changes.

If you still need a room, check these hotels directly for availability and rates on your dates:

Hilton Garden Inn Dayton Downtown at the Dayton Arcade

Hotel Ardent Dayton Downtown

Fairfield Inn & Suites Dayton Downtown

Marriott at the University of Dayton

If you had a reservation at the former Vitality, use the contact information on your reservation confirmation or contact the booking service you used to request a refund.

Join us in Dayton

Our team includes anime fans, artists and musicians. We attend conventions ourselves, and we care about making Tsukicon worth your time and money, from the guests and programming to the artwork and the people helping you through the weekend.

We want this to be the start of something new and exciting in the Midwest, and a place our community can keep coming back to in Dayton. Thank you to the exhibitors setting up their tables, the volunteers giving their time and everyone choosing to spend their weekend with us.

Get your Tsukicon badge and the latest weekend updates. Follow @tsuki.con for announcements.

Thank you for being part of Tsukicon. We look forward to sharing this weekend with you.

All of us at Tsukicon