AVCon Anime and Gaming Festival

The tradition & historical record

AVCon Anime and Gaming Festival is a pop culture festival centred on anime, video games, Tabletop games and other aspects of Japanese pop culture held annually in Adelaide, South Australia. It is the largest combined anime and gaming festival in the Southern Hemisphere and a major attraction for the state. AVCon is organised by the volunteer-based not-for-profit Team AVCon Incorporated. ¹

The festival is divided into multiple sections focusing on individual industries or fandoms. ¹

Anime screening rooms Manga library Industry and community-based panels and workshops Video games free play The 'Indie Games Room' for local game development Retro game museum Esports and video game tournaments Art tutorials and creative competitions Tabletop area including role-playing games, trading card games, board games, and wargaming Cosplay Quiz night Kids learning and activity area Artist Alley and exhibitor halls Community areas and meetups Maid café ¹

AVCon After Dark is the 18+ event that is complementary to AVCon and hosts content such as artist alley, panels and workshops with a mature age ratings, alcohol consumption, a nerd themed burlesque show and mature cosplay competition. ¹

In December 2023, Team AVCon Inc. ran its inaugural 'Games 4 Kids' charity. The charity has since become an annual effort in the South Australian anime and gaming community, using donations as well as proceeds from Team AVCon's Christmas Artist Market to purchase consoles and games for donation to the Adelaide Women's and Children's Hospital. ¹

AVCon began in 2002 as a collaborative effort between volunteers from the University of South Australia's Adelaide Japanese Animation Society (AJAS) and the University of Adelaide Video Gamers Association (AUVGA). Originally named AVConnection (a reference to the AV cables that connect a game console or DVD player to a TV), the event was held at the University of Adelaide in the Union Building. The event featured anime screenings, video game free play, a vendor hall, quiz nights, and cosplay activities. In 2004, the event officially rebranded as AVCon, continuing to grow and expand on the University of Adelaide campus. By 2008, the event had outgrown its university club status. The organizing body, Team AVCon Incorporated, was formally established as an incorporated entity and registered as a not-for-profit organization. ¹

In 2009, AVCon had grown too large to remain at the University of Adelaide campus. Team AVCon Inc. made the decision to relocate the event to the Adelaide Convention Centre. This venue upgrade, along with the introduction of new attractions such as the Indie Game Room, the Ichigo Ke-Ki Maid Cafe, and the Adelaide qualifying leg for the Madman National Cosplay Championship, resulted in a significant increase in attendance, with numbers more than doubling compared to the university years. In 2011, AVCon hosted its first guests, including local celebrities Jade Gatt and Ryan Lappin from Cheez TV, as well as Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series creator Bea "LittleKuriboh" Billany. This marked the beginning of AVCon's ongoing efforts to attract both local and international talent as guests for future events. In 2013, AVCon expanded its offerings by introducing esports to its lineup, featuring community matches and professional competitions in games such as Dota 2 and StarCraft II. 2015 saw a dedicated tabletop gaming section added to the festival, complementing the existing video game offerings. This new addition included tabletop role-playing games, Japanese and Western trading card games, board games, and wargaming. 2015 also saw the debut of the AusSpeedruns speedrunning marathon, further diversifying the event's programming. Over the years, AVCon secured key partnerships with major companies, including principal sponsorship from Australian internet service provider Internode (now part of TPG Telecom) and Nintendo Australia. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “AVCon”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

AVCon Anime and Gaming Festival is Annual anime and gaming festival held in Adelaide, South Australia, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 5 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²