Akaicon 2026 Review

Akaicon has been one of my very favorite conventions I've had the pleasure of selling at. I have been an artist with them for the last 10-ish years, starting all the way at their year 3 convention. I had no helpers, as my boyfriend at the time and one of my closest friends were unable to help me sell. Most of the time, I can do just fine, but I use the bathroom often (staying hydrated has its downsides), and need someone there to watch the table so I can potty. I was completely alone the first year, and the Akaicon staff made sure to check on me, made sure I ate, and watched my table while I went to the bathroom. Over the years, Akaicon has been in a few different venues, and for the last 4-5 years have been at the Farm Bureau Expo Center in Lebanon, Tennessee, generally between June and July.

This year, Akaicon was held during the weekend of June 26th-28th. I was actually made aware partway through the weekend that Nashville Pride was also this weekend, which could have contributed to the slow traffic during the weekend. I set up on Thursday, and unlike other years, I wasn't rushed after 4:30/5pm, which I took as a sign that the convention center was actually being kind to the convention. One of the other vendors told me they left after 7:30 setting up by themself and I thought that was awesome. Friday was fantastic. It was pretty busy and I did better than I have for the last couple years. There were a couple of vendors/"artists" that had AI banners as well as items that had AI on them. (A few items were bags that had "art" on the front and while they had not made that front panel piece themselves, they did sew the bag.) Several attendees came up to me as well as other staff members and complained. Staff did address that vendor and the vendor claims it's not AI, but the specific type of penguin they had on the bag does not have four toes (on that bag, they did.) As far as I know, there were plenty of people that actively avoided that particular booth and I hope that they made even less than I did. Friday was by-far my best selling day, and that hurts, as this is the first year that I didn't at least break even with Akaicon.

I heard that the Burlesque show went fantastic. I myself did not attend as I was exhausted and just wanted to work on typing up my Pokeberry pattern (shameless plug, it's 100 pages for $40, or use the code "BERRYBOI" to take $5 off until August 1st.) I also had to stop by a Michael's that was a bit out of the way to pick up yarn to work on a Stunky commission I've gotten. Nothing to do with the convention, but that specific Michael's I went to has employed some of the rudest people I have ever met. They tried telling me I was in the wrong for expecting my order to be ready (I had placed it at 5:30 p.m., and apparently this store stops pulling their orders at 5, even though the app said it would be ready to pick up same day.) They also gave me the runaround as I asked if I could grab the items I had ordered and they just mark the order as picked up, and when they told me "no" that instead I had to cancel the order and just check out like normal, didn't want to give me the discounts that I had already gotten from the online order. I never raised my voice, gave them attitude, or acted like a Karen. Even the manager said, "Fuck this, we close in half an hour, just do it," and while I have no idea what those folks were going through, I also will not stand by and take disrespect. So tread very lightly if you decide to go to the Charlotte Center location.

I was silly and did not apply for any panels, even though I usually do every year. I really need to remember to do it next year as we'll hopefully be running the ribbon game officially, which means there will be Ribbon Panels, meetups, and games/prizes you can play and win. I also have a Cosplay Posing panel I'll be debuting next year (maybe sooner if I remember to apply lol).

Saturday was so abysmally slow. It was so slow, in fact, that I was able to finish not only Muchomon (red parrot below), I was able to start and finish Frigimon. While it is a simpler Digimon, I was hoping people would be coming and keeping me busy enough that I could just work on it between people. I unfortunately made less than a third of what I made on Friday, which is insane for a Saturday of a three-day convention. What I had found out about two hours into the day was that there was a free Pokemon card show in the building behind us. So instead of browsing the artists and vendors in the convention, a lot of people went to the card show and spent their money on overpriced cards there (I looked and several others confirmed that those sellers cards were wayyyyy more expensive than they needed to be.) While I am frustrated at this situation, I cannot be mad at Akaicon, as they didn't know about it either until about a week or two before the convention. I can be upset with the Convention Center because they booked two "competiting" shows. I also found out that a lot of the vendors and organizers of that show were making fun of the attendees of Akaicon, which is absolutely abhorrent and honestly really grody. We're all nerds here, so being a dick about other people just isn't the move.

I had a wonderful interaction with a customer about my Pokeberries, and I just got to put it down here. The customer and their friend both picked out Pokeberries and the first person went, "I am so sorry, I cannot in good conscience pay only $5 for this. Can I pay $15?" and then proceeded to (in good humor) chastise me for charging so little. While I understand their point of view, I really didn't want to have to price out all 68 berries individually. If anyone were to commission one specifically, I could do that as I now know the amount of time each berry takes. So, keep that in mind if you want to commission me. They were so sweet, and I appreciated their conversation, and I extend the same thing to you: If you crochet, don't charge $5 for something that takes you more than five minutes. You deserve to be paid a decent amount for your skilled labor, because that is exactly what it is.

I wanted to attend the drag show, but again, I was too tired to attend. Everyone I talked to about it said everyone did amazing and that the show was a lot of fun. The photos I saw were incredible. Sunday picked up a little more with sales, but I literally only made two and one of them was a $5 Pokeberry. A silly goober showed up about an hour before close and perused my wares, joking about their size and "would any of these fit a short, fat man?" If you're reading this, please know that you are not fat, you're barely even chubby. But, even if you were, I make kigus for everyone. So please don't ever think you won't be able to fit, because I will make it fit. They ended up purchasing the Fearow premade I had on the rack (this reminds me that I need to make a few more for my upcoming conventions) and while they weren't entirely sure what they were purchasing, they got it anyway and proceeded to spend the last 15-20 minutes of the convention with a pizza, handing out slices to the vendors going "I'm a Spearow and I got a piiiiizza." Please don't ever change.

I also had the honor of hanging out with Coral Koi for a bit this weekend and she keeps trying to get me to join her mermaid pod. Ya'll, I was very tempted, but I may have to wait on that until after I get the gender-affirming care I aim to receive. I would love to do a witchy, tarot and palm reading merman (idk what the gender neutral term for "mermaid" is, so we'll go with what aligns better for me lol.) Someone "accidentally" took a brooch that meant a lot to Coral and I'm so thankful that whoever took the brooch returned it. Stealing is wrong and especially from small businesses/artists. I hope Coral doesn't have to suffer the way she did again. It is really crazy because she got a tarot reading from me and the cards stated that she would be going through something really traumatic. I didn't expect it to happen so soon!

All in all, the convention was a bust sales-wise. I know I'm not the only one who did poorly, and I really hope that we get a better weekend next year. The theme will be "13th Hour" and I love all things spooky. If you went to Akaicon, please fill out the feedback form, because if you don't communicate with them, how are they supposed to know what they can improve on? I did talk with staff to let them know what was going on on my end, because I fully believe that this convention cares about their vendors and artists. I hope that the AI folks never come back, and that we get to have quality artists take their place. I also would like to possibly run the ribbon game next year, so let them know that you want that! (Link can be found here ) Even if I'm not a vendor next year, I want to continue to see Akaicon grow and be a great convention for the Nashville area. Until next year, Pandas.

(I also got a new tattoo started, so definitely check that out and if you have the time, go see Caroline at Against the Grain Tattoo in Smyrna, Tennessee and get your anime tattoos. I need them to do my Mitsuri tattoo eventually)