Breath of Fresh Air: Sakura Con 2023

It's so weird being here. It's funny because this is the first actual piece of editorial that we've done on Lifted Geek for the better part of the pandemic. But as 2023 opened and the landscape of the convention circuit began to revive itself and I was ready to get hit once again by the tsunami of fandom and cosplay I expect from Seattle’s premier anime convention.

This year was a special one because it also marked the first year that Sakura Con breaks in it’s new home at the Seattle Convention Center… well kind of.

The panels and main exhibitor hall that housed the major draws for the con made the Summit Building its new home. This being a major draw for the con, I really enjoyed experiencing this ever familiar con in a new space. Many of the same faces were here again, with some new ones, and it felt like a big upgrade from what we’ve had in the past.

The old WSCC was seriously showing its age, with one main escalator and a convention hall that felt dated even back in 2007, the Summit Building was a breath of fresh air for this convention.

Now I did mention how Sakura “kind of” made a new home… to be honest my biggest criticism of the convention and the main thing that left me scratching my head was the decision to split the convention in two. While the big exhibitor’s hall and many of the panels used the bright and shiny new convention center, Artist’s Alley ended up getting relegated to the old WSCC building, several city blocks away from the Summit Building. This made going around the con a bit inconvenient, with many attendees saying the same thing, that they wished it was all in one building.

The puzzling thing is that it could have easily done that. Badge pickup was moved to the new building, taking up an entire floor… a floor that could have easily been at the old convention center. When I went to Emerald City Comic Con earlier that year, they kept the con largely in that one space.

But at the end of the day, Sakura Con is still a comfy con for me. The atmosphere is always amazing and getting a chance to nerd out with friends I haven’t seen since “the before times” was a breath of fresh air.

I’ve always said that the people are what make Sakura Con great for me, I just hope that the convention itself can work out some of the kinds that made this year a bit awkward.