If you are looking for a place to find people with similar interests to you, if you want to meet and get autographs from your favorite celebrities or if you just want a fun weekend out with your friends a fan convention might be the place for you. This January, I attended Fan Expo 2026 in New Orleans, a convention based mainly around sci-fi, horror, anime and gaming, although fans of other things will find something for them as well.
My friends and I have been going to Fan Expo for the past three years, and my boyfriend likes to go all three days, so I bought my tickets and began to plan how I would cosplay.
Cosplaying, dressing up as characters, is one of my favorite parts of conventions. I love any chance to dress up and seeing other people’s costumes delights me to no end. This year, I wore a different outfit everyday: Friday I was Shadow from the “Sonic” franchise, Saturday I was Kanaya from “Homestuck” and Sunday I was Ralsei from “Deltarune.”
Conventions typically have lots of different panels of a variety of topics for con-goers to attend. The ones I went to were a Muppet drawing panel, a cosplay Q&A game and an informational panel about the furry fandom.
My boyfriend and I attended the Muppet panel with our friend who was very excited about it. It was hosted by children’s book creator and Muppet comic artist, Guy Gilchrist. I pulled out my notebook and drew along as he spoke about how he became a cartoonist and expertly drew cartoon characters and Muppets.
The next panel was the cosplay Q&A, a game where you were called up and had to answer questions in character as whoever you were dressed as. Both my boyfriend and I got to go up and play: he spoke as zero_one from “The Living Tombstone” and I as Kanaya from “Homestuck.” Neither of us won the main award, which went to a very charismatic anime fan, but it was fun to try to figure out how to accurately respond to the panelists.
The last panel we attended was Furries 101. Most people in my age range know what furries are, although many think they are strange. I, however, see nothing wrong with dressing up as fun colorful characters and every furry I have met has been incredibly kind. The panel spoke about things I mostly already knew, but it was a good chance to sit down for a bit and chat with some very nice “Homestuck” cosplayers,
Shopping in Artist’s Alley is one of my favorite parts of going to conventions. The size of this area varies by convention, but typically a good amount of artists pay for tables to be able to sell their works to a large audience. My Artist’s Alley white whale was merchandise of the video game “Disco Elysium,” as I am playing it for the first time and love it. I was determined to find stickers, a print, anything “Disco Elysium” themed.
While searching, I went a little overboard buying other things. My haul included a sweater, a notebook, a poster, an art print, keychains and stickers.
I also participated in a video game art rally. If you purchased from four specific sellers, you received a goodie bag of video game themed art. Out of all of the things I bought from this rally, my favorite was a very nice smelling hand lotion made by the vendor. The goodie bag was a bit anticlimactic in my opinion, but I still enjoyed the hunt involved with searching for all of the vendors.
In the end, I did not find the beautiful “Disco Elysium” print of my dreams, but it was probably for the best as I already spent more money than I had planned.
The final event we went to was the Cosplay Craftsmanship Cup, a competition for cosplayers to show off their hand made costumes and potentially win awards. It was very fun to see all of the beautiful cosplays by passionate fans.
My personal favorite was a cosplay of someone’s jester character. The costume was beautiful, it had layers and layers of brightly colored fabric and they jingled when they walked. I believe they won the announcer’s award.
The most fun I had all weekend was not at a panel or shopping. On the last day, my friends and I found a corner no one else had taken and set down our stuff. We spent maybe two hours taking pictures and dance videos of all of us in our cosplays. I am not a very coordinated person, but it was still super fun to try my hand at popular dances. Overall, I really just enjoyed hanging out with my friends, reveling in our silly interests and enjoying each other’s company.