MomoCon brings fandoms together in Atlanta. Here's what it was like

If you've been walking around Atlanta's entertainment district, you may have noticed costumed fans making their way to the Georgia World Congress Center.

MomoCon 2026 kicked off on Thursday, starting a four-day convention that brings together anime fandoms, animation aficionados, gamers, streamers, live-action role-players and more for events, tournaments, art, celebrity panels, meet-and-greets and community.

More than 60,000 people are expected to attend over the holiday weekend, rivaling events like the Peach Bowl held just across the lawn at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The all-ages event will be busiest on Friday and Saturday, and fans are encouraged to come in cosplay, meaning dressing up as one of their favorite characters from a television show or game.

But what is it really like inside the convention. We attended MomoCon 2026 Day One, and here's what it was like.

Here's what you will see inside MomoCon

As fans walked to the registration desks in GWCC Building B, we noticed characters from Japanese anime "One Piece", "K-Pop Demon Hunters" and "The Amazing Digital Circus" were particularly popular this year.

One convention hall is home to rows and rows of booths, starting on one end with famed voice actors, comic book writers and more signing autographs for fans, and ending on the other side with a car show and wrestling ring.

In between, there are vendors selling art, figurines, cosplay costume material, drinks, jewelry, limited edition comic books and more.

One vendor had a line wrapping around the convention hall as fans hoped to secure a special edition "Invincible" comic signed by the author.

A second massive hall was filled with computers for tournament-style multiplayer games, vintage arcade games, tabletop games, board games, figurine painting, live streaming and virtual reality experiences. Fans could watch gamers compete, or get in on the action.

Tournaments will be held throughout the weekend for games like Warhammer or League of Legends, along with other non-gamer friendly options like MarioKart or Dance Dance Revolution.

What kinds of booths are at MomoCon?

The booths inside MomoCon range from merch sales to mental health awareness and new game launches.

Andrew Heath, a graphic designer from Kentucky, set up his booth for his first-ever MomoCon, showcasing his illustrations with characters from hit comics and television shows.

"When I look at all my pieces, a lot of it's about composition rather than necessarily just drawing Spider-Man or something. I use a lot of muted colors and composition to emphasize that, a lot of it is just stuff that I'm into like movies, television, video games, a little bit of everything," Heath told USA TODAY.

Heath pointed to images from the television show "X-Files," and video games "Hollow Knight" and "BioShock" as some of his favorite pieces. An image from the video game "Pikmin" caught our eye with small, colorful characters surrounding a lime.

Clay artists Brenda Barnes and Leah Saints also like to play with imagery from "Hollow Knight," and depict the characters in various woodland scenarios at their art booth.

"It's really kind of like a whimsical, foresty, and then we've got a couple of different games that we follow, or like Studio Ghibli, some of that. We just kind of do our own thing. It's really just we're natured inspired, and we kind of like kawaii-style, whimsical little happy children," Barnes said.

It's the mother-daughter duo's first time at MomoCon as vendors this year, but the Atlanta locals have attended many years previously as fans. They find conventions like this one a good place to find likeminded artists, as well as those who may want to take a piece of their art home.

It's also a place where attendees can find collaborators, as comic book writer Keith Frady has done in previous MomoCon conventions. Frady was manning a booth exhibiting his first published volume of comics, a project he KickStarted as a passion project.

"That's actually where I got my first artist collaborator was at a MomoCon years ago, and she and I created one short comic and that was my start with writing comics. Over the years I worked with different artists to make different shorts, and it became 'The Usual Choices,'" the name of his comics anthology, Frady said. "I describe it as a kind of 'Black Mirror/Twilight Zone' thing where each story is its own self-contained world and it's own beginning, middle and end, and you've got different artists for each story, so different styles, different varieties."

Some booths are geared toward convention attendees in a different way.

Jewell Gooding, the Executive Director of Silence the Shame, told USA TODAY her organization was attending the convention and operating a booth to speak with attendees about their mental health. The Atlanta-based mobile organization goes to schools, after-school programs and workplaces to provide mental health education.

Project X Hero was also in attendance, offering those interested in cosplay and LARP to integrate fitness and real-world physical training, building stronger and healthier members of the MomoCon community, both physical and in terms of their confidence. Attendees could try a pull-up bar or miniature fitness class at the booth, and learn more information about the project.

Should I attend MomoCon?

If you spend your free time playing handheld video games, building miniature armies or fighting your friends with fake swords, MomoCon is the place for you.

Casual and devout fans alike can find plenty of activities to experience, art to buy and panels to watch during the four-day convention.

Thursday was the least busy day of MomoCon, and there were parts of the convention halls that were absolutely packed, so definitely something to note if you're not big on crowds. That being said, there were lots of spaces available where fans could sit and take a break, find a quiet corner, or work on a solo activity if the hoards became overwhelming.

While many attendees were in cosplay, there were also plenty of fans that donned an anime t-shirt or their regular clothes throughout the convention. You're also able to buy single-day passes or one pass for the entire convention, offering the chance to pick some of your favorite events or try and see it all. Some fans come for a few hours, and others spend all night connecting with their community.

See you there next year!

Irene Wright is the Atlanta Connect reporter with USA Today’s Deep South Connect team. Find her on X @IreneEWright or email her at [email protected].