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History

Kumoricon began in 2003 in Springfield, Oregon for two days on Thanksgiving weekend. From 2004 to 2015, it was located in the Portland, Oregon metro area and held all three days (and in some years four days) of Labor Day weekend. In 2016, it moved to the Oregon Convention Center and changed to Halloween weekend. Kumoricon is the largest anime convention in the Portland metro area and in Oregon. Kumoricon's staff are all volunteers.

Year Dates Attendance Staff Location
2003 Nov 29-30 400 22 Springfield, OR – Clarion Hotel
2004 Sep 4-6 1250 34 Portland, OR – Portland Marriott Downtown
2005 Sep 3-5 1750 40 Portland, OR – DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Portland
2006 Sep 2-4 2257 70 Portland, OR – Red Lion on the River
2007 Sep 1-3 3003 130 Vancouver, WA – Hilton Vancouver Washington
2008 Aug 30-Sep 1 4470 140 Portland, OR – DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Portland
2009 Sep 5-7 4558 203 Portland, OR – Hilton Portland and Executive Tower
2010 Sep 4-6 4055 216 Portland, OR – Hilton Portland and Executive Tower
2011 Sep 3-5 3956 226 Vancouver, WA – Hilton Vancouver Washington / Red Lion Hotel Vancouver at the Quay
2012 Sep 1-3 4574 311 Vancouver, WA – Hilton Vancouver Washington / Red Lion Hotel Vancouver at the Quay
2013 Aug 31-Sep 2 5836 360 Vancouver, WA – Hilton Vancouver Washington / Red Lion Hotel Vancouver at the Quay
2014 Aug 29-Sep 1 6361 437 Vancouver, WA – Hilton Vancouver Washington / Red Lion Hotel Vancouver at the Quay
2015 Sep 4-7 5949 497 Vancouver, WA – Hilton Vancouver Washington / Red Lion Hotel Vancouver at the Quay
2016 Oct 28-30 6880 517 Portland, OR – Oregon Convention Center
2017 Oct 27-29 7263 561 Portland, OR – Oregon Convention Center
2018 Oct 26-28 7924 Portland, OR – Oregon Convention Center
2019 Nov 15-17 Portland, OR – Oregon Convention Center

*Estimated figure

More information about how we report attendance

For increased transparency, we report attendance in three ways:
(1) Paid regular attendees

This method counts paid regular attendees, and also VIP members.

All paid attendees are counted, whether or not the person picked up their badge.

(2) Total paid members

This method counts all paid regular attendees (method #1 above), and also adds exhibitors and artists, who pay for their spot in the Exhibits Hall, Artist Alley, or Small Press.

(3) Total badgeholders (a.k.a. "warm body count")

This method counts all of the above, and all other badge types, including staff (all staff are volunteers), panelists, guests of honor, industry, and press.

However, this differs from methods #1 and #2, in that for all membership types, it only includes people who actually picked up their badges.

Did Kumoricon change how it reports attendance?

For most of Kumoricon's history, we only reported numbers using method #1 (paid regular attendees). To provide additional information, we updated our website in August 2018 to report numbers using all three methods. At this time, we did not change our policy for how we count paid regular attendees.

When we started reporting using these additional counting methods, we were able to recompute exact numbers for the previous two convention years (back to 2016) based on our membership database. Numbers for years prior to 2016 are estimates based on information in our publication materials. Estimates are rounded to the nearest 50 and marked with the * symbol.

Based on recomputation from our membership database, some of the "paid regular attendees" numbers from 2012 to 2016 varied slightly due to greater precision in our record-keeping and counting programming—however, our policy for this counting method did not change. You can compare our most up-to-date, accurate numbers reported above with previous numbers we reported using our website archive's snapshot of the 2017 page.

Are these numbers "turnstile" numbers?

No. For all three counting methods we report, we count unique individuals. This means that each person is counted no more than once, even if they attended more than one day (or all days) of the convention.

Some types of conferences or events report "turnstile" attendance numbers, which means that if a person buys a full-event badge for a three-day conference, they count three times in the attendance figures. Kumoricon, like almost all other anime conventions, does not report using "turnstile" numbers in its primary attendance reports.

(Prior to 2012, there is a rare exception to this, which we believe has only a negligible impact on the reported numbers: In the rare case that a person buys two separate single-day badges, they may have been double-counted, due to not being tracked under the same badge. Almost all of our attendees who attend for more than one day buy a weekend membership, in which this double-counting does not occur. Our newer software avoids duplicate counting for years 2012 and later because it identifies repeat single-day badge purchases as the same person.)

Staff are listed in a separate column. Does this mean that staff are not counted in the attendance number?

Staff are not counted in the attendance number for the "paid regular attendees" or "total paid members" counting methods. Staff are only counted in the "total badgeholders" counting method (a.k.a. "warm body count").

Mini-Events

Kumoricon has produced several one-day mini-events, including dances and "mini-cons".

This list only includes events which were hosted or co-hosted by Kumoricon. It does not include events hosted only by other organizations at which Kumoricon provided activities or content.

Date Title Description Location
Aug 11, 2007 Mini-con Miniature version of Kumoricon Hilton Vancouver Washington
Feb 2, 2008 Winter Formal Masquerade Ball Formal masquerade ball Milwaukie Community Club
May 10, 2008 Kumoricon Lite Miniature version of Kumoricon Portland State University
July 19, 2008 Summer Swing Dance Informal swing dance Norse Hall
Nov 1, 2008 Kumoricon Lite Miniature version of Kumoricon Portland State University
Feb 7, 2009 (Please Don’t Let It) Snow Ball Anime-themed dance Milwaukie Community Club
July 18, 2009 Dance Dance Kumoricon Gaming-themed dance Norse Hall
Apr 24, 2010 Kumori-Cat Ball Cosplay-themed dance Multnomah Arts Center
Oct 30, 2010 GameDay/MiniCon Miniature version of Kumoricon Hilton Vancouver Washington
June 27, 2015 Kumoricon Lite Miniature version of Kumoricon DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Portland
August 21, 2016 Kumoricon Lite Miniature version of Kumoricon Ambridge Event Center
July 28, 2018 Kumoricon Lite Miniature version of Kumoricon DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Portland

Website History

Publications History

Mascot and cover contest galleries

Program book and pocket guide downloads

Newsletters