FAQ
General Questions
Due to Renasant Convention Center policy – Outside food / drinks are not allowed on convention center premises.
For any questions on the Renasant Convention Center food policy please reach out to them directly.
Your ID is only necessary if you plan to pick up your pre-registration badge by showing your ID OR if you plan to attend any 18+ events. It must be a government-issued ID for all 18+ events. You do not have to show your ID in order to purchase a badge at the convention. The electronic dance is an all-ages event and does not require ID to enter. All events will require a convention badge which will be checked at all events.
We will ONLY accept Government Issued ID with picture ID such as a driver’s license, Tennesee State ID or Passport. We will NOT accept school IDs, birth certificates, or social security card. If you plan to attend any 18+ events, it is imperative that you have an ID. We will not make any exceptions if you do not have a government-issued picture ID and attempt to enter an 18+ as we check everyone’s ID upon allowing entry. An expired ID is okay as long as the birth date and photo is recent. We will not allow an underage person, even with parent or guardian permission, into an 18+ panel.
Address:
Memphis Cook Convention Center
255 North Main Street
Memphis, TN 38103
Who:
Anime Blues Con is a 3-Day Anime Convention located in Downtown Memphis, TN. Now in its 9th year beginning in 2011, we have quickly grown into the largest Anime convention in West Tennessee with our most recent year welcoming over 5000 fans.
What:
Anime Blues Con is a 501c(3) Non-Profit Organization dedicated to the Arts & Culture of Japan.
Anime Blues has three goals in hosting its events:
Provide a venue for fans of Animation and Manga to come together in a festive environment.
Educate people about the history and culture surrounding anime and manga, by hosting guests from the industry.
Learn about Japanese culture through animation and comics.
Why:
Why attend? It’s a lot of fun, we promise.*
Registration Questions
You are not required to purchase a pass on the Anime Blues Con website as you may purchase a badge at the convention location. We have convention badges for sale at the convention. Don’t worry, we will not be sold out as our facilities can comfortably fit over 10,000 people and we anticipate around half that size in attendance.
No. You do not have to show up at the convention on Thursday or Friday. You can pick up your convention badge at any time during the duration of the convention when Registration is open during the convention. Your convention badge is valid for the duration of the weekend.
Mailing out badges are not being considered this year.
Pre-Registration will cost the following amount (up until 11:59 PM Central Time):
- $30 Early Pre-Registration Tier 1 from February 17th, 2019 7:00 PM through March 31st, 2019 11:59 PM
- $99 VIP Badge from February 17, 2019 7:00 PM through March 31st, 2019 11:59 PM – Or until Sold Out.
For Pre-Registration, we will accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, and Debit cards if you purchase the pass online. To purchase a pass now, go to our Pre-Registration page. We do not accept Mail-in Pre-Registrations.
Anime Blues Con badges are non-refundable and all sales are final.
In the event, you are unable to attend Anime Blues Con we can offer you two options so your badge won’t go to ‘waste’.
- Transfer to another person – Choosing this method you could technically ‘sell’ your badge or give your badge to another person.
- Transfer to the following year – Choosing this method will transfer your badge to be used towards the following year. In this case, it would be transferred to Anime Blues Con 2024.
To get started with the process please contact us at Support@animeblues.com with the following information.
- Buyer Name:
- Buyer E-mail:
- Additional names: (If you purchased additional badges under the same transaction)
- Confirmation/Receipt #: (If possible)
Please be sure to include as much information as possible to expedite the process and of course what option you choose to go with.
Example:
- 1-Day Friday Only badge can only be purchased on Friday – July 12th, 2019
- 1-Day Saturday Only Badge can only be purchased on Saturday – July 13th, 2019
- 1-Day Sunday Only Badge can only be purchased on Sunday – July 14h, 2019
Walk-In Registration price:
- $30, Friday – 1-Day Badge (Age 8 & Up)
- $30, Saturday – 1-Day Badge (Age 8 & Up)
- $20, Sunday – 1-Day Badge (Age 8 & Up)
- $50, Regular 3-Day Pass (Age 8 & Up)
- FREE for anyone 7 years old and under (With paid adult badge)
Regular 1-Day and 3-Day passes will be available for purchase on-site.
Once you have entered your badge information through Eventbrite.
- Choose “Checkout with PayPal”
- Once redirected you will be given the option to sign into PayPal or Check out with Debit/Credit Cards and continue as a guest
- Continue as a guest and enter all necessary information it requires
- Check out
- Congratulations! You’ve finished registration and you should receive a confirmation email from Eventbrite confirming your ticket!
Eventbrite (Our ticketing platform) is powered by PayPal and accepts Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express and Debit Cards.
- Should you encounter any problems with Registering please contact Support@animeblues.com with as much information as possible with the error and we will try to assist you the best we can.
E-mail Support@animeblues.com. Be sure to include your full contact information to verify yourself. We ask to please format your email with the following:
- Ticket Buyer Name:
- Ticket Buyer E-mail:
- Additional Names: (If purchased multiple badges under the same transaction)
- Confirmation # (If possible)
As much information given will greatly expedite your inquiry. You can also bring your Valid Government-issued ID (Drivers License, State ID, Passport) as your confirmation too.
E-mail Support@animeblues.com about your issue. Be sure to state what device and browser you are using.
Be as thorough as possible when describing your issue.
Parents of attendees over 12 years old may wait nearby in the lobby/pre-function area located on the convention floor of the Memphis Cook Convention Center (Exhibit Hall/Ballroom Level 3) before entering our badge checkpoint stations.
- QR Coded Confirmation within the Eventbrite App
- Barcoded Confirmation email from Eventbrite/Anime Blues Con (ID is not required in order to pick up your badge IF you have the confirmation email)
- A Valid, government-issued photo ID is only required if you do not have the barcode confirmation email printed out or shown on your phone.
- You have the Paypal confirmation e-mail printed out or shown on your phone.
In most cases, displaying your Barcoded Confirmation email on your smartphone will allow us to scan the barcode directly from your smartphone.
To answer an extremely commonly asked questions, Yes, you can pick for your friend if you have their barcode confirmation email. An ID is not required in order to pick up a friends or family badge if you have the barcode confirmation. We will not accept your family/friend Paypal confirmation.
Just your smiling self and some money or credit card. IDs are not required to register at the door if you’re paying for a normal pass/badge. We are strongly encouraging as many people as possible to Pre-Register to get the guaranteed lowest convention member badge rate. Payment for sure accepted at the door will be accepted in the form of Cash, Visa, Discover, Mastercard or American Express. We will not accept checks.
In this case, please bring your Pre-Registration Payment Confirmation email/page to claim your badge. However, State IDs are very easy to obtain for all ages. We will accept pre-registrations if you have the Anime Blues Con Pre-Registration Confirmation E-mail displayed on your smartphones, tablet or other electronic devices.
We do accept drivers licenses (all kinds, expired ID is okay), military ID and passports. We do not accept birth certificates, School IDs or temporary paper ID without a picture on it. The government-issued ID must have a picture ID on it in some fashion. No exceptions are made.
Attendee’s who purchase the ‘VIP Badge’ will get the following benefits:
- Access to all 3-Days of the convention
- Exclusive VIP Badge
- Exclusive VIP T-Shirt, VIP Lanyard & Tote Bag
- One free (attendee provided) item autographed [Subject to Guest Contract terms]
- Priority VIP Access (Autograph Signings, Main Events, Exhibit Hall)
- Exclusive VIP Meet & Greet with Convention Guests [Subject to Guest Availability]
Pre-Registration badge pickup is available on:
- Thursday 07/11/2019 at 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Walk-In Registration/Pre-Registration badge pickup will open at the following times:
- Friday 07/12/19 at 9:00AM – 8:00PM
- Saturday 07/13/19 at 9:00AM – 8:00PM
- Sunday 07/14/19 at 9:00AM – 2:00PM
Please note that all times are when Registration will be open but we might be open later if there are a lot of people still wanting badges when we’re scheduled to close.
Registration will be located in the Memphis Cook Convention Center (Exhibit Hall/Ballroom Level 3) in the Lobby/Pre-Function area near the Exhibit Hall.
Pre-Registration badge pickup is available on:
- Thursday 07/11/2019 at 6:00PM – 9:00PM.
Walk-In Registration/Pre-Registration badge pickup will open at the following times:
- Friday 07/12/19 at 9:00AM – 8:00PM
- Saturday 07/13/19 at 9:00AM – 8:00PM
- Sunday 07/14/19 at 9:00AM – 2:00PM
Please note that all times are when Registration will be open but we might be open later if there are a lot of people still wanting badges when we’re scheduled to close.
Guest Relations
We do receive a large plethora of inquiries asking to be guests. It is a lot more that we could possibly afford or manage to have at the convention. Please do not be offended if we turn you down or do not reply back even if you offer to attend for free. We hope you understand that our guest list has a limit. However, you are still welcome to attend the convention and host panel.
Soon after, if a guest accepts our offer, we’ll announce then added to the Guests section of the website. Until a guest is announced Anime Blues Con can neither confirm nor deny if someone has been invited as a guest.
We are switching over to INVITE ONLY on all DJ music acts as we only want to offer the best for our attendees. Regional DJs will be contacted if they offer an opening slot by our DJ department. We will no longer allow DJs to apply for future Anime Blues conventions.
We welcome our guests to submit programming content such as teaching or demonstration panels, booths or tables, or fan meetups. Guests will be in touch with a member of cosplay staff to coordinate any programming they are interested in submitting.
We highly recommend keeping inquiries to one or two submission per year. Multiple guest inquiries beyond once a 12 month period will push down any of potential consideration ever. Submitting your inquiry to multiple departments will have all future e-mails marked as spam. This can not be stressed due to guests who will tell their fan base to send us multiple inquiries.
Another tip: please do not shill yourself in our request threads or have your agent do it. It is really obvious to us and will push down future consideration. Also, do not put on a Twitter/Facebook/IG rally to get yourself booked. It doesn’t work on us.
We also implore you to not track down Anime Blues Con staff personal social profiles to ask/pitch to be a guest. If do so you will never be considered, ever. Please respect our personal privacy as we ensure that you will be contacted by Anime Blues Con official channels if you’re being offered a guest slot.
We do not send out rejection emails due to prior inquiries who will grief, spam, or go as far as stalking us for being turned down. Yes, it’d be nice to know if the answer is no but a quite few bad apples had to make it so that we can’t let people know on our decisions.
If you really want to see a guest who has been announced elsewhere nearby then we encourage that you take a road trip to that city to meet your favorite guest.
You may submit to host a panel at Anime Blues Con, but be sure to read our Panelists Knowledge base as you will see that we do not issue compensation beyond complimentary badges if they are approved for 2 or more hours of panels.
The reputation of an agent does have a big factor too. Anime convention organizers do talk to each other and share info.
DO NOT ADD OUR GENERAL CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS TO YOUR MAILING LIST! DOING SO WILL REMOVE ANY CHANCES OF US CONTACTING YOU.
Panelist Questions
You certainly can, but make sure it is prominent in your write up so that the programming committee knows, along with the attendees.
Anime Blues Con will not be responsible for collecting the fee for your workshop event.
There can be up to 4 panelists for each panel. Events that require larger groups (such as performances) will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Please arrive no later than 15 minutes before the start of your panel to check-in so that the staff has ample time to get you situated and or take care of any last minute needs. Failure to check-in with the Staff member on duty or arriving late to your scheduled panel will have their panel forfeited and the panelist blacklisted to host future panels at Anime Blues Con events.
- Yes. We, unfortunately, have to mention that dates are NOT to be used as prizes.
E-mail Panels@animeblues.com to let the Panels/Programming Team know, or find a staff member with a radio to get in contact with the Panels/Programming Team. The earlier you can let us know the better. Being a no-call/no-show at Anime Blues Con will greatly affect on being approved for any future panels. We do keep track of canceled panels.
We like proposals for panels that:
- Directly involve anime, manga or other Japanese culture. For example, a well-planned proposal that features an anime will take priority over an equally well-planned proposal that features an outside fandom, such as American comics or movies. Having said that, we do have a certain amount of leniency, especially if the fandom is large (in other words, we’ve received a lot of proposals for it) or overlaps Anime Blues Con’s main fandoms in some way.
- Are well-planned and have supporting materials. The proposal is our first glimpse of how you communicate and what you want to do at ABC. Make sure it’s well-written and try to include evidence that the panel will be successful. If you can’t include something in the online form (such as a picture) or a something changes after you submit, email it to Panels@animeblues.com (make sure to include your name and the panel name for reference).
- Are engaging and interactive. We like lectures, too, but a proposal that introduces a creative way to communicate with the audience really catches our eyes.
- Are more than dressing in character and showing up. You can certainly submit “in-character” panels, but we’d like to see more than, “come ask your favorite character a question” in the description. If you have support for your panel going well in the past, such as videos, we’d like to see that, too.
- Don’t involve physicality. We know that “battle chess” and other such games are super fun, but we don’t have the room or oversight to make sure they run safely, unfortunately.
- Aren’t speed or blind dates. You can definitely submit a proposal, but please know that we’re pretty strict with planning these sorts of events. We have to make sure that all our guests are comfortable and safe, after all. That being said, ABC is a huge gathering of people with interests just like yours – any event could be the place you meet your new best friend!
- Panels for all audience age groups are welcome. Just make sure to let us know your panel is 18+ if it is for more adult audiences!
- Grammar and spelling are very important if you are going to be addressing a crowd during a panel. It also helps to make a good first impression on those evaluating panel submissions.
If you have any other questions about this information or the panelist proposal form, please send an email to Panels@animeblues.com.
- If you have any Videos for the screens, you must be able to give us HDMI signal. (Not VGA, DisplayPort, Mini DisplayPort, etc.).
- If you have Audio Only on a computer, smartphone, tablet, other devices, we can work with 3.5mm headphone jack.
- If you have the new Apple phones or computers with no headphone jack… Bring that adapter, please!
The ABC A/V Team does our best to assist panel hosts before each panel to set up with sound and video when needed. This advice is based on our experience to keep things moving as smoothly and timely as possible.
We make sure to include a projector, speakers, and equipment to connect a laptop and/or smartphone (3.5mm Headset jack for music playback)
Unless otherwise requested, we will also provide a table, 2 chairs, and 2 microphones. Please assume that if it is not listed here you will need to provide it yourself. Please email us at, Panels@animeblues.com if you have any further questions.
When you receive your panel acceptance email it will indicate what room your panel will be in and we will be glad to assist you to let you know the max capacity your room can fit.
Programming Questions
We will have multiple ‘dances’ during Anime Blues Con on both Friday & Saturday nights. On Friday we host our elegant ABC Formal Ball in the evening and later on in the night we will also have a Friday night ‘dance’ with electronic dance music. Saturday night we host our ever-popular Club Blues – Saturday Night Dance with more electronic dance music. (We can’t answer the question on what type of music that will be played there, that is up to the DJ). The EDM Dances are all-ages shows.
On Friday evening will be the ABC Formal Ball hosted by Anime Blues Con Event Staff. This event will have a strict dress code. The rules for the formal dance are on the Anime Blues Con website.
General Information
- Email: Support@animeblues.com
Convention: Anime Blues Con 13
Theme: Horror
Date: June 6th – 8th, 2025
- Location: Renasant Convention Center – Downtown Memphis, TN
Don’t Miss out!
Anime Blues Con
Anime Blues Con is the largest Anime Convention in West Tennessee held annually in Memphis, TN. Now in its 13th year, it has quickly grown in size to welcome hundreds of hours of programming and events.