Sakura-Con

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Sakura-Con
Status	Active
Venue	Washington State Convention and Trade Center
Location	Seattle, Washington
Country	United States
First held	1998
Organizer	Asia Northwest Cultural Education Association (ANCEA)
Attendance	approx. 10,000 in 2007
Official website

Sakura-Con is an annual three-day anime convention held during March or April at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington. Sakura-Con is sponsored by the Asia Northwest Cultural Education Association (ANCEA).

Attendance has ranged from infants (with parents) to those in their 80s, with the majority as teens and early-twenties.^[1]

Contents 1 Programming 2 History 2.1 Event history 3 Organizational structure 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Programming

The convention features a wide array of activities and programming such as: industry guests, various discussion panels, and anime screenings. It also sports a large and lively Exhibitor's hall where you can buy almost anything related (and not) to anime and Japan in general. Contests include anime music video, cosplay, fan fiction, a fashion show, and karaoke. Multiple J-Pop concerts featuring popular groups, nightly dances, an art show and auction, and a charity auction benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation. A variety of gaming rooms provide console/video, PC/LAN, CCG, RPG, and tabletop gaming. And as with many anime conventions, Cosplay is an integral part of Sakura-Con.

[edit] History

Sakura-Con's roots are from within the local science fiction convention community. A number of anime fans who had decided that there was not enough anime content represented at conventions such as Norwescon, hatched the plan for an anime convention in a Tacoma, Washington anime video rental store.^[2]

Originally named Baka!-Con, (baka or ばか is Japanese for idiot,) the first convention was held at the Double Tree Inn in Tukwila, Washington in 1998. In 2000, Baka!-Con changed its name to Sakura-Con, (sakura or 桜 (alternately: さくら) is Japanese for cherry blossom).

Sakura-Con's rapid growth prompted a search for larger venues. In 2004 and 2005 Sakura-Con had to limit its attendance to 5,100.^[3] Even with the attendance cap, Sakura-Con was ranked the eighth largest anime convention in North America in 2004 by paid attendance figures,^[4] and tenth in 2005.^[5] When Sakura-Con moved to the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington in 2006, it roughly tripled its capacity for attendees.

Since its beginning, starting with 313 anime fans, Sakura-Con has grown to be much more than a local event. In 2006, only about half the attendees were from the area.^[6]

[edit] Event history

Dates	Location	Atten.	Guests
April 24–26, 1998	Double Tree Inn Tukwila, Washington	313	Tony Butler, Bruce Duffy, Dr. Antonia Levi, Stu Levy, Sam Liebowietz, Neil Nadelman, and Ron Scovil.[7]
April 23–25, 1999	Double Tree Inn Tukwila, Washington	553	Yushin Daiko, Tiffany Grant, Tristan MacAvery, and Stan Sakai.[8]
March 31 – April 2, 2000	Double Tree Inn Tukwila, Washington	866	Yushin Daiko, Sandy Fox, Tiffany Grant, Lex Lang, Dr. Antonia Levi, Tristan MacAvery, Doug Smith, and Taka Koto Ensemble.[9]
April 27–29, 2001	Holiday Inn and Convention Center Everett, Washington	1,519	Steve Bennett, Hiroki Hayashi, Mitsutaka Iguchi, Pamela Lauer, Dr. Antonia Levi, Mary Ohno & The Kabuki Academy, Lorraine Reyes, Lia Sargent, and Taka Koto Ensemble.[10]
April 26–28, 2002	Seattle Airport Hilton Seattle, Washington	2,328	Johnny Yong Bosch, Jessica Calvello, Pamela Lauer, Dr. Antonia Levi, Hiroshi Nagahama, Noiro Shioyama, Tsunami Taiko, and Masakazu Yonemura.[11]
April 4–6, 2003	Seattle Airport Hilton & Conference Center Seattle, Washington	3,023	Fred Gallagher, Hilary Haag, Yukio Kikukawa, Hiroshi Nagahama, Michelle Ruff, Susumu Sakurai, Hidakazu Shimamura, and Yoshinobu Yamakawa.[12]
April 23–25, 2004	Seattle Airport Hilton & Sea-Tac Marriott Hotel Seattle, Washington	4,425	yoshitoshi ABe, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Akitaroh Daichi, Michael Dobson, Gabe and Tycho, Fred Gallagher, Hiroki Kikuta, Scott McNeil, Hiroshi Nagahama, Monica Rial, Kaeko Sakamoto, Run Sasaki, Eric Sherman, Hiroko "hiro" Shimabukuro, Yasuyuki Ueda, and Yoshihiko Umakoshi.[13]
April 8–10, 2005	Seattle Airport Hilton & Sea-Tac Marriott Hotel Seattle, Washington	4,745	Angela, Tom Bateman, Greg Dean, Gabe and Tycho, Kumiko Kato, Hiroki Kikuta, Hiroshi Nagahama, Ikue Ohtani, Run Sasaki, Tatsuo Sato, Travis Willingham, and Tommy Yune.[14]
March 24–26, 2006	Washington State Convention & Trade Center Seattle, Washington	7,500	The 404s, Katie Bair, Ippongi Bang, Jessica Boone, Camino, Gabe and Tycho, Fred Gallagher, Takanori Hoshino, Takahiro Kimura, Hideyuki Kurata, Tony Oliver, Piano Squall, Run Sasaki, Stephanie Sheh, Goro Taniguchi, David Vincent, and David Williams.[15]
April 6–8, 2007	Washington State Convention & Trade Center Seattle, Washington	10,500	A-Key-Kyo, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Akitaroh Daichi, Gabe and Tycho, K.T. Gray, Shawn Handyside, Kouta Hirano, Jeph Jacques, Kyle Jones, Jonathan Klein, Hideyuki Kurata, Jason Liebrecht, LiN Clover, Sam Logan, Vic Mignogna, move, Hiroshi Nagahama, Kaori Nazuka, Yasuhiro Nightow, Liam O'Brien, Piano Squall, Monica Rial, Rooster Teeth Productions, Carrie Savage, Sumi Shimamoto, Doug Smith, Spike Spencer, John Swasey, and Toshifumi Yoshida.[16]
March 28–30, 2008	Washington State Convention & Trade Center Seattle, Washington		Ali Project, J.L. Anderson, Robby Bevard, Caitlin Glass, Brandon Graham, Todd Haberkorn, Wes Hartman, Jerry Holkins, Yutaka Izubuchi, Yuna Kagesaki, Toshihiro Kawamoto, Roland Kelts, ketchup mania, Hiroki Kikuta, Mike Krahulik, M. Alice LeGrow, Vic Mignogna, Jake Myler, Hiroshi Nagahama, Joshua Ortega, Brina Palencia, Derek Stephen Prince, The Slants, SCANDAL, Yuji Shiozaki, and Nobuteru Yuuki.[17]

[edit] Organizational structure

The Asia-Northwest Cultural Education Association (ANCEA) is a non-profit organization organized for charitable and educational purposes specifically for furthering the understanding of Asian culture through the use of traditional and contemporary media.

ANCEA is the organization that presents Sakura-Con. Originally a separate board of directors that provided oversight to the Sakura-Con Executive Board, the membership voted on July 30, 2006 to merge the ANCEA and Sakura-Con boards into a single entity. In this structure, the Chair of Sakura-Con is the President of ANCEA.^[18]

Currently, Sakura-Con is the only event presented by ANCEA. ANCEA's structure allows for other events to be organized as sub-committees of the ANCEA board.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Sakura-Con official website