DTL CON-Quest 2026
The deets
Where: Lawrenceville, GA
When: May
Table Cost: $0 (we received our table space for free due to running a panel, indoor spaces are regularly $45)
Attendance: estimated 12,500
The venue
This is a bring your own table and chairs con, which explains why the price for a space is so low. You will have to invest in and haul your own table and chairs (and tent if you are outside), but luckily the parking deck is not that far from the access doors to the theater building. There is lots of space between tables and if you’re inside you’ll be backed against a wall which means attendees won’t mistakenly get behind your table. Outdoor booths were set up on a blocked off street and the grass on the opposite lawn from the theater.
The market
This is a great entry-level event for artists who might not have a lot of things to sell yet. The size of the event is very accessible, and the number of table spaces is pretty limited, lessening the chance of you having much competition or overlap in types of merch or fandoms. We saw some booths that only had stickers and nothing else, so it’s not unusual to have a very small inventory or selection of goods.
The audience
Since this event is free to attend, the audience is pretty mixed, though does attract a lot of parents with kids. Something to keep in mind is that since this is a free comic book event, you will likely have kids come up to your table asking if you do have anything free. If you can manage it, it wouldn’t hurt to have some small freebie items just to fit within the spirit of the event.
The sales
This is always a good show for us, we made over 6.5x what our table expense would have been if we hadn’t gotten our space for free. We had a total of 16 sales with an average purchase of $19.19.
For this 1-day event our total time investment was 4 hours of active vending. The reason for this is that we were actually evacuated from the building due to a burst pipe, so we lost a few hours of vending time because of that. We had 1.5 hours of combined set-up and break-down time (total of 5.5 hours).
Items that sold the best were small prints and blankets. Purchases were predominately made using card instead of cash.
The rest
One of the nicest treats about this event was that panels were permitted to use the theater space yet again. It’s a gorgeous raised stage with overhead projection screen, audio technicians to help you set up, and plenty of seating. It’s a panelist’s dream. This year our panel was an hour after the start of the event, so we had over double the attendance compared to the last one. Still nowhere near filling up the seats, but it’s still nice to have more folks popping their heads in.
Pros
Lots of food options within walkable distance
Extremely affordable
Free reserved parking in the parking deck for vendors
Friendly and helpful event staff, they even followed up with vendors via email after the event to apologize for the impact the burst pipe had on the vendors inside the theater space and issues partial refunds for those who paid for their spaces
Beautiful space for panels with incredible technical support
Cons
Limited set-up time, so if you have a massive set-up you might have trouble being ready in time for the event’s start
No table or chairs provided
This isn’t the event’s fault, but we were evacuated in the middle of the afternoon due to a burst pipe and by the time we were let back in there was only 1 hour of the event left and they were only letting us back in to get our stuff out. Some folks did move their tables outside, but we decided it wasn’t worth it at that point