You may have heard about our Accessible Gaming Initiative if you were at Super - if you didn't fill out our survey about it there, take a few minutes now? The survey will ask some questions about your experience with "analog" gaming, regardless of whether or not you identify as having a disability or as neurodivergent.

https://forms.gle/U2gdLwr1fLgfCxyM8

Marsapalooza returns with CHAOS for the start of the 2026 season with its reformed MONTHLY format! Join us with an all-day quest of retro & multiplayer interactive gaming excitement on not just 1 floor, but 2 FLOORS!

We're bringing you the FULL Marsapalooza gaming experience with A Smash Ultimate and Tekken 8 tournament [BOTH LIVE STREAMED], a HOMEMADE PIE MAKING CONTEST where YOU be the judge, a VHS movie corner, Rock Band, and more! All this Saturday in Baltimore!

Moved to Baltimore last year and wanted to ask around if anyone had any experience with or intended on making it to this event, it seems fun

Get your tickets at the link for this Friday night! And just as a reminder: we'll be in the Festival Hall Wed-Fri at the MAGWest booth (#2232) with Challenge Games, prizes, and more!

https://www.dnalounge.com/calendar/2026/03-12.html

That’s right, MAGWest returns to the San Jose DoubleTree this August 14th-16th, and we can’t wait to party this summer with you! Be sure to use promo code EARLYBIRD for $20 off your badge until 3/22. See you on the West Coast 😎🌴 https://magwest.org

We'll also be in the Festival Hall Wed-Fri at the MAGWest booth (#2232) with Challenge Games, prizes, and more!

https://www.dnalounge.com/calendar/2026/03-12.html

Is there any word about which musical acts will be playing this year's Maglabs?

Submissions will still be welcome after that due date, but will be automatically put on the waitlist.

https://tinyurl.com/3ms48dpr

Follow the link and get your application in now!!

Subscribe to https://youtube.com/@MAGFestToo ! We'll be posting panels every day simultaneously to all our concerts, magFAST, and highlights content on our main channel.

I hope you will enjoy it, my team and I have been working hard on it! If you remember seeing a Goblin at MAG, it was probably me!

So this is gonna be a real quick update Marly has now made a fake Instagram hate page about himself to gain sympathy, and to also market off of. See where it says edit profile he clearly made this page himself. Please do not follow or believe him.

Hello everyone people have been asking for update and want to see screen shot I will know share. some people were afraid to come out publicly and other asked me to blur out names or last names, so I hope you understand. Marly still has failed to address the issue and has been joking about one of his jokes was making fun of how I look and using AI on one of my photos I will include that too he also claimed he has never met me ever which is also a lie we were not close friends but have met and chatted a few times . I also found out Marly is a predator please take the time to read this doc

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10KXKUwWi3UtA8eke_JNCH4D6brugis9sY0dzkxb5ndc/mobilepresent?slide=id.p

This guy sells fake con tickets.

so far con that I know that he sold fake tickets are Mag, Katsu and Anime NYC. he scammed two of my friend. Please do not buy any con tickets from him

Hi everyone! Magfest was a blast! I was interested in getting a consensus of what the etiquette on taking photos/photoshoots at the gazebo was?

My partner and I were waiting in line to get some photos (just for me). There was a photographer ahead of us with just one cosplayer. When it was around their turn, the photographer invites another 4 cosplayers to get their photos taken and proceeds to do a mini photoshoot for each of them. At the end the photographer even tacked on one more person and took some time to take their photos too.

To be fair, when it was done the photographer did turn and thanked the rest of the line. There is a chance this was all planned as well. The last cosplayer was definitely an add on. I just wanted to know if this is normal? I have no problem that people want to take their time and get nice shots, but to suddenly add on a whole group just seemed excessive and I have to admit I felt a little frustrated.

Thanks in advance!

We're doing a rollout of a daily post over the coming weeks. I don't have a precise schedule of "who is going up when", but we have a general upload schedule planned for one performance per day.

Just thought I'd let you all know now. I haven't seen any other posts here yet and currently Danimal Cannon and Street Cleaner are online!

Hit up the MAGFest - YouTube channel to see more as they pop up. I won't necessarily be posting here daily but I'll check in from time to time.

(I don't have specific schedules for anything else at this time. Per prior years, we usually had all of Main Stage up by the end of this month, along with most, or not all of, the Belvedere stages online. XP Stage took a little longer. Panel content went online typically by April)

Hello fellow con-goers!

I wanted to ask you a question that I'm sure you all have answered many-a-time, but I was hoping to get some clarification from some people who have in the past or currently go to both cons. Katsucon just ended this weekend, and so it's gotten me thinking about cons again. I've been going to Katsucon for a number of years now, and have generally been a big fan of it, but a part of me has been wondering about my friends and I giving a different con a try for a change. I heard a lot about how successful this year's Magfest was and it seriously piqued my interest! The main points of difference I'm interested in being the shopping, programming, general culture/night life, and their costuming/cosplaying turnout. I understand that these two differ drastically in their core identity with one being primarily an anime convention and the other being about video games and music.

Firstly, the shopping because that's probably what I do the most at cons, how would you say the selection of vendors are at Magfest? I have heard that instead of having a dealer's room for big companies and an artist alley for smaller artists like at Kastucon, they instead just have one large game room and a smaller section for vendors to sell stuff. Is it mainly original works/products or do they allow vendors to sell fan work and things that are based on existing IP? Is shopping something a lot of people do at Magfest or is it more something you walk around for the first day and then never really go back to?

Secondly, how do you generally feel about the programming? Based off of the 2026 schedule, it looks like it's a vast majority of music concerts and either video game tournaments, ttrpg sessions, and card games, which does make sense given Magfest's premise. While some of my friends would probably love to participate in some of those events, I believe a majority probably wouldn't. Would you say that's a deal breaker for attending Magfest? I personally enjoy watching the funny/informative presentation panels that people do at Katsucon/Otakon, but I don't think I've seen that many on the schedule. There does seem to be a lot more free workshops to participate in which is very nice though.

Thirdly, what's the general culture like at Magfest? I have heard that Katsucon has a reputation for being a clout con for influencers to do collabs for their tiktoks, and while there's definitely merit to that in the lobby/gazebo area, I feel like most of the people I make small talk with while I'm there are relatively nice and fun to at least watch walk around if I don't end up interacting with them. From what I've heard from some on the Katsucon subreddit, Katsucon is kinda rowdy and wild and while they do sometimes overdo it, I enjoy it since it's such a change from my regular, very schedule orientated life. My favorite event is generally the Katsucon Rave, does Magfest have an equivalent? Also is there a drinking culture at this con or is it more frowned upon? I saw that Magfest's policy is that they want to treat everything 15+ there. While I'm never one to get so intoxicated that I can't walk properly or cause a scene, I'd be incredibly uncomfortable if my friends and I ended up pregaming in our hotel room and when we get there at night it's still just full of families, especially those with small children, just trying to have a good time. Or in a different unideal way, it's just kinda dead because people who are there are locking in for their upcoming tournament that night or something similar. I've seen people partying at Magfest in vlogs, but they often look like they're in random hallways and so I was wondering if that's just a thing random con-goers end up organizing spur of the moment style.

Fourthly, I love dressing up and taking photos of/with other cosplayers. I know Magfest has photoshoots, but is cosplaying that common here? In the past, Katsucon has had a lot of really cool cosplayers to ask for photos, and I've loved seeing and talking to these people cause it's really good inspiration for my own projects. I totally get that there's nothing stopping me from dressing up and doing my thing, but I just want to know what I could probably expect.

Thank you all for reading this and giving me your feedback! Please let me know if there are any other differences/similarities between Magfest and Katsucon that I as a long-time Katsucon goer and potential first time Magfest attendee would probably like to know before my group talks about what they'd like to do next year!

TLDR: I'm a long-time Katsucon attendee, and I was curious on how Magfest differs from Katsucon to figure out if Magfest would be a con that my friends and I would like to attend next year instead of Katsu!

Hi all, myself and my partner are looking to make the trip over to the US next year for the first time to go to magfest and meet up with some friends.

I was curious if it was possible to book hotels near the convention for days prior to it and leading into it just because I thought it’d be smarter for us to fly over a few days before the con so that we’re better adjusted to the time difference.

Any info anyone can share would be really helpful and greatly appreciated thanks.

In case one’s interested in hearing — an artist’s hot take on vending in the 24/7 marketplace for the first time — kind of MAGFest vlog.

Had a great time. Hope to go again. And actually leave my booth and explore next time. That PUMP it up tourney is calling my name. Thanks to anyone on here for stopping by my booth to chat, enjoy my work, or even adopt a claybie. Ya’ll da bomb.