A-Kon 30 Moves to Fair Park
Hey guys, it’s been a long wait, but we’re finally here! A-Kon 2019’s new venue will be Fair Park in Dallas, Texas on June 27-30, 2019.
Here are some fun facts about our new venue:
A-Kon 2019 will have over 350,000 sq. ft. of air-conditioned indoor programming space (This is more space than our prior venue had in the entire building)
We also have over 330,000 sq. ft. of outdoor programming space to spread out!
Amazing photo opportunities with access to Fountains, a Children’s Aquarium, a Butterfly Garden, a Lagoon, Art Sculptures and tons more areas perfect for cosplayers and photo enthusiasts.
Here’s some additional information for you guys as well:
Parking & Transportation: Fair Park has over 14,000 parking spaces on-site, and is also directly connected to a DART station for those of you who prefer not to drive.
Food & Drinks: We will be bringing the food to you this year! Water stations and a variety of food trucks will be provided on-site in addition to Fair Park’s own restaurant and food options.
Safety: We have heard some concerns about moving back to Dallas, and we take your safety very seriously. We are working closely with the city, the police, private security, volunteers, and consultants to do everything we can to make A-Kon a safe and accessible place for everyone.
Hotels: Access to the Hotels for Hope portal has been opened privately for 24-hours to those who pre-booked rooms through Hotels for Hope and pre-registered as well. Check your emails for this access link!
Once the 24-hour priority period has ended, we will put the portal up on the website and make an announcement letting you guys know it is open for business!
Guests: We have some up for you and quite a bit more waiting to be announced! We have some wonderful guests listed on the new website who we will announce here in the coming weeks with a proper A-Kon welcome. We have more on the way, so stay tuned!
Artist Alley, Panelist, and Art Show applications will all be opened to submissions on March 4th!!!! We’ll announce more details on that soon, and you will find on our website more info on how to prepare and what the rules are!
Over the next month we’ll be sharing our plans with you which include more details on safety, parking, transportation, heat, food, cosplay management, after hours programming and tons more. We want 2019 to be a safe and fun experience for everyone!
As an added bonus, we wanted you guys to get a chance to see a little of the new venue, so check out this video we took at Fair Park and check out our new website for more updates!
UPDATE:
Hey everyone! We're back with another information dump for you!
- - FAIR PARK - -
We've had a lot of questions about how access will work! We will not be requiring a badge for people to enter Fair Park, but everyone will have to pass through security and weapon’s check at the gate as they come in. There will be a security fence that surrounds the area of Fair Park where the con will be held to restrict access to these points of entry and badges will be required to enter all of the buildings.
We have dedicated the entire Tower Building to Cosplay. This includes dressing rooms, lockers, and Cosplay HQ all in one convenient location! More information will be posted to the website about rules and access over the next few weeks!
Fair Park will be open each day from 9:00am - 12:00am. A closing time is something new for A-Kon, but we love late night programming so we’ve connected with some late night venues to keep the party alive!
- - A-KON AFTER HOURS - -
We are very excited to announce that South Side Ballroom and the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema will be hosting A-Kon After Hours programming from 10:00pm - 4:00am.
Concerts and dances will be held at South Side Ballroom Friday & Saturday, and Alamo Drafthouse Cinema will host the rest of the A-Kon late night activities Thursday-Saturday! These two venues are about a 2 minute walk from each other.
- - TRANSPORTATION - -
But what about transportation, you ask? Parking at Fair Park is available on-site, and will cost $10 a day for the dedicated A-Kon lots.
The DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) rail will be under construction A-Kon weekend, but will still be open to transport people around the city.
A full guide of how to navigate each of the DART lines for A-Kon will be posted on the website soon, as well as information about some supplemental transportation we are arranging to help you get around!
For A-Kon After Hours we will also be providing supplemental transportation from Fair Park, full schedule and stop details will be published on the website soon.
We can't wait to see you at the con! Stay tuned for more information and announcements on their way!
