Overview

This blog details my second time selling in the artist alley of Momocon that took place May 22-25th, 2025 at GWCC in Atlanta, Georgia. I reflect on how this event went compared to my first time in 2024. This includes booth setup, pricing strategies and customer interactions.

Applications, Payments & Planning

So I initially told myself I wouldn't apply again, but I like excuses to go to Georgia that aren't exclusively to see my parents. I applied again (plus I had a great time the last time I went). Momocon apps went up on November 3, 2024, acceptances went out for artist ally on January 15th, 2025. I was shocked (and excited) to see I got back in again. I had to contact Fargo Corecon and Anime Boston to withdraw my applications since neither had sent out any acceptances yet.

Wisparia also got in, so I asked my mom if she could stay as well to save on costs and that was given the green light. Thankfully I also remember how Georgia taxes have to be handled and will once again have my mom print out the paperwork. We also ended up offering to drive some stuff down for Rin, who is also local. So many people from Minnesota got into Momocon! 

I decided I wanted to host a stamp rally for Delicious in Dungeon this year since there would be voice actors for the show in attendance. It also gives me a little excuse to draw some fanart. I created a thread in AANI and ended up with 7 of us total. I found out later that you're only supposed to do like 4-5 people max. The participants (besides myself) were Ryan's Notes, Amaya, Just Dreaming Designs, Emi Sharks, Wanderella and Xlseeno. Anyways, they are all super cool and you should check them out. <3

We just had a rule to buy something from us to get a stamp. My cheapest item is usually stickers while I have no idea what other people had. The prize pack was a bunch of stickers we all designed specifically for this rally. I had originally wanted to make a ribbon too but I just always write down ribbon plans and never make them. Should see the white board. Maybe one day I will actually make some ribbons. 



Parking reservations went up in February and I got lucky. Apparently there was some glitch in the system that gave me 4 days of in and out parking for $11.30 instead of whatever it was supposed to be.

My husband handles the rental vehicle for every event. We tried Sixt this time. Normally we just use Hertz but they don't let you just pick exactly what you want. It's always a risk to get some crappy uncomfortable vehicle. I only like the Volvos and Mazdas when we rent through them, but we rarely get those. 

Before the Event & Setup

Since my family was coming with this year, we decided to rent a vehicle we thought we may want to buy in the future. This also meant we had to juggle this around my daughter's school schedule. We left around 2:30pm. We arrived around 2:30pm on Wednesday afternoon. We had originally planned to pick Rin and Wisparia up from the airport around 11am. Unfortunately traffic, weather and construction zones slowed us down a lot. They ended up sharing an Uber up to my parents house and hanging out there until we arrived. I will say I was impressed that the BMW X5 we rented was able to hold everything in the end. My favorite space was the area under the back floor where I stuffed a bunch of bags of enamel pins and tiny corgi keychain plush. Since we brought extra stuff with us for my friends, we had less space than usual, so this was really an amazing find haha.

Anyways, I confidently drove all of us to GWCC later Wednesday, leaving my daughter with my parents. I remembered where to go to load in when we were in Hall C from 2024. We got in line then saw some people ahead of us get turned around. It was a little confusing since I expected to load in from this side. Apparently load in was in a different area. We didn't hear exactly what was said and drove to the wrong Malcom Street. There are two, but one is under GWCC. If I had bothered to read the email, there was a video attached showing how to get there. We did end up using that video to get to where we needed to go in the end. The people who had been turned around ended up behind us in the end once we figured out where exactly it was. 

Once we got inside the gate, we could finally get in line to drive to our booth. We had to wait our turn, just like the previous year, but this time the guy was like what is your booth? I told him Artist Alley 2324 and he told me to follow the guy directing the white SUV that was ahead of the one in front of us. I ended up losing the guy who was supposed to guide us to our spot.

 
At the time I didn't notice that the ceiling banners ended at 1900, but yeah. We couldn't easily find our spot. After driving around aimlessly for a row or two, we did figure it out and unloaded our stuff. I am so glad Wisparia was a booth away from me. Made it easier to drop everything off at our tables. Rin was diagonal from the end of our row more towards the vendors but in the middle area. She planned to set up that evening, but after we got our stuff put down and cloths on the tables, we tucked our stuff away. 

The table next to me on the left had no name and it ended up being someone from the waitlist they filled it with. We left before we saw what sort of stuff they were bringing in.

We wanted to eat at The Vortex, which is supposed to be some big deal, but I wasn't feeling well. From what I did eat, it was very good. Wisparia was super sweet and paid for our meals though. Unfortunately, I ended up throwing up after the meal. It was definitely a long drive back to my parents trying to hold everything in. I think the drive down from Minnesota without any real stops ended up giving me a bad headache. I usually get migraines if I don't eat properly, drink enough water or sleep enough. Either way, I think The Vortex is pretty neat, especially if you like trying unique burgers.

The Event Itself

Thursday was the first day this year, so I wasn't sure how it was going to pan out. Doors opened at 2pm, so we weren't in any super hurry. We knew we needed to leave early enough to get to the event to finish setup, but that was about it. My mom took me to get donuts and coffee for everyone Thursday morning at Danny's donuts.

Unlike 2024, traffic was terrible making us later to arrive than I had expected. My parents live about 40 minutes from Atlanta without traffic, so it's always a gamble if it will be any longer than an hour. As everyone knows by now, I function on chaos and disorder, so we got the table tossed together rather quickly. I will say that it still takes longer than it used to since adding the new hooks over the spinning rack, but I am okay with that. If I had to set things up a certain way, I would definitely take forever.



Once we finished setting up, we walked around for a little bit to look at things before 2pm then eat lunch. My husband grabbed Chick-Fil-A for the three of us and then the event started. Opening day is always slow, so my husband tried to make some Tiktok reels while I worked on passing out stamp rally cards to anyone who didn't grab them sooner and a sticker prize pack. I believe it was this time we noticed that we didn't have any aisle markers at all. I am hoping it was just an oversight since I know it was Momocon's 20th Anniversary event, so they were really pushing that. 

The booth next to us ended up being a dead animal in a jar vendor. They had some tails which I guess is more artsy, but it was not something I would have ever expected to see in the artist alley. They didn't have a banner or anything. At least they were very nice, but it was just uncomfortable since not everyone wants to be around that sort of thing. I didn't personally find it to be appropriate for artist alley either, but I guess since she made some tails by hand that is how she got in? At least now I know in the future to make a request not to be next to anyone who does taxidermy. They were talking about sourcing most of the items there, which also just made me feel like vendors was probably more of an appropriate place as well. When your booth is mostly rocks and skulls, you're clearly not making any of that.

I want to note that I don't have a problem with this vendor or taxidermy in general, but like, the dead animals in jars were just right next to me on my side and it was just kinda gross to me. I'm a vendor that sells animal themed items and often I have customers come up telling me about recently losing their pets or their friends who have. In this case it just wasn't an appropriate vendor to place next to me specifically. I can't imagine every single person is going to be comfortable looking over and seeing that all the time. Had my daughter not been with my parents all weekend, it would have probably been really upsetting to her to seeing animals she likes floating in jars. I think some of them were even headless. I can't recall anymore since I tried not to look much. Anyways, I've ranted enough about this. Moving on!



Thursday sales were slow for everyone that we spoke with. I was actually a little worried at first that my first return to an event, especially my first convention I ever sold at, was going to be a complete disaster. I made $411.75, which at least covered my table cost plus parking. I had originally set a goal to try and hit $5,000 since that felt like it would be an improvement from the previous year. The previous year we had our first day on a Friday instead of a Thursday. I was told normally it's a Thursday through Sunday event not a Friday through Monday event.

I really liked Atlantic Station, so I picked a restaurant there. A lot of the restaurants were new, and one that looked pretty good was Azotea Cantina. They had a rooftop seating area which made it even better. We got there pretty late since the convention didn't close until 8pm on Thursday. We showed up around 9:30pm, about 30 minutes before it closed. Thankfully they let us in anyways.

The food was not too bad, but I don't think I'd choose to eat here again. The cheese was really good but I decided to try a really weird taco with some french fries on it because why not? Wisparia also got the same thing. My husband got the birria, which compared to what we normally eat in Minneapolis was just not as good. We have so many good options for birria and horchata there. I had a great time, but once we finished eating I was just ready to go back to my moms and crash.





Friday morning we did Starbucks run before heading to Atlanta. The line around the building was crazy, so we walked in. Slowed us down some but not nearly as much as the unexpected extra 20 minutes of traffic. I have no idea why there was so much more traffic this year than last year. Maybe since last year Friday was the first day and things opened later? Either way it really skewed what I was expecting. We arrived with just enough time to get inside and open our booths. A lot of artists were still not there at opening though, so I think we were not the only ones dealing with traffic issues.

Oh and a note if you're from MN and reading this, ez-pass works with peach pass. So if you're doing what I do and driving north, you can use that lane with the pass and not have any problems. We didn't need to, thankfully, but it's a good thing to know.

Friday felt much better than Thursday did, but I still didn't make as much as I would have needed in order to end the event at the amount I was hoping for. I sometimes get really down on myself for sales and forget just getting out there so people know I exist is pretty important too. This was my first repeat event and despite that, I don't even think it was still as comparable to the prior year since so much changed. The layout changed from vendors being across the way from artists to artists being next to gaming and vendors taking up the main portion of Hall B. With that change the signage also ended at 1900 for some reason. I have no idea why they didn't continue on, but artists were basically on their own.



I actually drew up a joke sign, posted it in discord like "hey this is clearly an issue" and was told to take it down. I already had, but yeah that's how frustrating the whole issue was for us and attendees.

On the car ride to the restaurant Friday I just ranted about how I didn't feel like art was sustainable and how I wouldn't even get to what I was making last year. Don't be me! I have no idea why I let it get to me so much when I literally know better! Sales do not mean your art isn't good or people don't want it. People have limited spend anyways.

Red Robin was pretty good though and it felt crazy going back to where I used to hang out as a teenager at the Mall of Georgia. So much has changed. I will also note that while it's inconvenient to drive back and forth 40 minutes every day, it is nice to not have to stay at a hotel and worry about vehicle break ins. My parents told us they were making brisket for us Saturday, so we didn't have to think about dinner plans.

Saturday we opted Dunkin instead of Starbucks since it was a lot closer to my moms. Not nearly as good but whatever. Coffee is coffee. Traffic wasn't as bad Saturday morning, so we got there with time to spare. It was nice to walk around artist alley for once and see what people had to offer.

Also finally got to meet Tiny Kaiju who has been a friend on Facebook since 2019 because we're both pin makers. She's wonderful! Please check out her work! Saturday was really busy and I was finally making enough sales to feel like I wasn't going to end the weekend worse than the year prior. 

A customer who had posted on my social media came by to purchase things and I am always so sad when I hear about their pets dying. Later on another one came by who had also lost their dog. I actually had to step off to the side because I started crying. I really can't handle death at all. I mostly held it together til they left but ahhh!

When we got back to my parents, Momocon was on the news. I guess it had been on earlier as well but we weren't around to see it. The news had been estimating around 60,000 in attendance though (which is close enough if you round up the actual attendance). I should have gotten photos of it, but Momocon definitely grew a nice community and they have billboards all around the city of Atlanta advertising the event. Was hoping to see my brother but at least we got to enjoy some brisket. If I had realized my parents were just going to reheat stuff for us, I would have made us stay a little longer to game though. We really don't get to enjoy the events we're selling at since we're usually very tired.

Sunday we did Starbucks and it was super quick, maybe because it was rainy. Between people probably being away for the weekend, church stuff and the rain, our drive to Atlanta was super fast. We parked near floor 7 so we could make sure that the vehicle was close to the doors for load out. So glad we did since it ended up being a pain in the butt in the end. We were able to wander the game hall before everything opened at 10am.




Befish swung by my booth and we chatted a bit. She's super sweet and it was nice to hear she was doing really well at the event.  Also met Abysmalkaiju. I had to ping them on discord though to even find the booth. There were just so many artists. I wanted to go say hi to Kino as well but they were busy the WHOLE event. I also did a trade with Wanderella for a cute hat. She wanted a corgi keychain for her sister if I recall. Either way, totally worth. Her stuff is very cute and good quality!

Load out was around 5pm. They were telling us that no one could bring their vehicles in to unload until all the attendees were out of the room. I have no idea what time that ended up being, but we broke down my display and packed it all into the wagon fairly quickly. We were not going to wait in the line, which was probably a great idea given several people ended up stuck in it for hours in the end. 

We went to the first exit and waited at the elevator. We got off on the second floor and it was about that time we realized that waiting for the elevators were also going to take a long time. While it wasn't nearly as terrible as 2024 from what I could tell, the lines were slow still. You also had people in wheelchairs waiting with vendors. There are seriously just not enough elevators at GWCC. Anyways, we decided to carry everything up the escalators over and over until we got to the top. I'm so thankful my husband is strong and could carry so many things up. If I had to do this alone, I would have probably just sat in the car line for hours on end. I carried some of the lighter boxes up, but the grid cube box is wildly heavy. There seriously has to be a lighter solution than those! 

We loaded up the car and went back for Wisparia and to grab the box from Rin to drive back. We actually ended up with more things going back home just because I had originally sent two boxes with plush and hair claws with my parents back from Washington DC. It was definitely a tight squeeze, but we made it work.

My parents had made us ribs, so it was nice to arrive and get some tasty food. Sunday traffic was the lightest of all the days. Not super shocking since Sundays are pretty lazy days for most people.

We drove back to Minnesota on Memorial Day but were so beat we just didn't get much done that Tuesday since we really hadn't gotten much sleep. We mailed off the check to pay Georgia taxes on May 28th, like basically last minute. Overall, it was a pretty good experience though. I'm a little sad we won't be returning for 2026, but I would like to reapply in 2027.

What Worked & What Did Not

Load in and out was significantly more difficult than in the past. You would get stuck in the line if you got in it and there was no way to get out of it.

No numbered banners in artist alley was terrible. People constantly told us that they couldn't find us or were worried they wouldn't be able to find us again to complete the stamp rally, make their purchases, etc.

Getting to and from B Hall from parking was substantially better than going to C Hall, so I will say I did prefer this change.

Food choices were limited. Chick-fil-a was basically the only consistently good food option and who wants to eat the same thing every day. I love food so this will never stop being my biggest pain point for this event, even with us bringing snacks. I feel like we're sort of a captive audience since we can't just leave to eat all the time.

Conclusion

I really do love Momocon, so it was really cool to see what they did for their 20th anniversary. It definitely highlighted how it was an event that was constantly evolving though, so I guess there is no way to guess how it will be year to year.

I would go again for 2026, but I have to make a decision between a Memorial weekend convention or finally going to licensing expo to get a feel for that. I really want to get my products in stores in the end, so licensing expo is going to win out there. The dates overlapped this year and 2026, so I will not be able to come back to Momocon until 2027. At least it gives me time to get a larger vehicle and have my new plush.

I do feel like because Momocon's audience trends a lot younger than Dragoncon, they have less spending money and prefer looking for fandom items here. My sales were basically the same from 2024 to 2025 (I was like $100 less for 2025). I have no plans to make fanart items despite people requesting them, so I will need to figure out how to improve these numbers for 2027 in other ways. I do have time at least.

The Details (TLDR)

Event	Momocon 2025
Date	May 22-25th, 2025
Location	Georgia World Congress Center, 285 Andrew Young International Blvd NW, Atlanta, GA 30313
Hours	Thursday 2pm-8pm, Friday 10am-7pm, Saturday 10am-7pm & Sunday 10am-5pm EST
Total Vendors	~555 (369 artists, 186 vendors)
Attendance	59,222
Travelworthy	Yes, but only if you can keep your expenses very low or know you normally make over $5k at other events.
Booth Cost	$398.84
Total Sales	$3,163.70 (this is before all costs are taken out)
Transaction Fees	$76.76
Taxes	$249.68
Total Profit	$2,438.42