Southern-Fried Gaming Expo 2025
The deets
Where: Atlanta, GA
When: Mid June
Table Cost: $310 (including power)
Attendance: estimated 10,000
The space
This is the second year we’ve attended SFGE. We were given the opportunity to claim the same space we had last year, but due to our schedule at the time we missed the deadline to claim it. This wasn’t a huge issue as we were put in a more interior row anyway.
Booths at this event are very large, so we were able to bring a second table which gave us even more table space to work with. Alleys are separated by tall black backdrops which helps keep attendees from wandering behind tables.
We paid for power so we could play a stream of our visual novel on a TV screen on our second table. The staff provided a power bar, extension cord, and plugged us into the power. It was nice to have as people did stop and watch it or ask questions about what they were seeing, though we probably will not get power again unless we adjust our set-up to make better use of it.
The market
There is no dedicated artist alley, so expect to be mixed in with folks selling things besides art. Lots of game resellers, though there were more artists than previous years and they did make an effort to lump us all in the same area which was nice.
The audience
The attendees of this con sways a bit older since it focuses on pinball and retro games, but there are some families and kids around since there’s a good number of activities they can do aside from vendors hall. Game or ttrpg fanart seems to do better at this event compared to anime fanart or original artwork.
The sales
We made just under 2x table cost, which was an improvement over SFGE in 2024, though we were nowhere near what we hoped to make.
For this 3-day con our total time investment was 23 hours of active vending, 1 hour of panels, and 1.5 hours of combined set-up and break-down time (total of 25.5 hours).
Items that sold the best were fanart prints and stickers. We also sold two custom commissions at this event. Most people paid with cash rather than card.
The rest
This con is a bit weird in the hours. You can actually stay and vend so long as activities are going on, and the con staff are pretty transparent about wanting most vendors to stay for their peak hours. Typically things slow down around 8 pm though, so while you could stay later, I wouldn’t recommend it. VIPs get access to the hall half an hour early each day.
Load-in and load-out can be a bit challenging to navigate if you have a huge set-up as the loading dock will be crowded with big trucks carrying pinball machines and other oversized set-ups. If you can fit all your stuff in a pair of hand-pulled wagons, it’s not too hard to just haul your stuff from the parking deck, though the access to the parking deck is on a lower floor so you will have to navigate either the escalator or a trip on the single central elevator.
The panel rooms are not anywhere near vendor hall, and the TTRPG section is also in a completely different wing, so the event feels pretty disjointed and spread out. This benefits thinning the crowd a bit and preventing congestion, but the map infographic is a bit hard to understand making finding the correct panel room a bit of a shot in the dark. Set-up for our panel was easy and the room size was more than sufficient.
One of the things we like about this con is the other vendors. We’ve met folks we formed business relationships and friendships with, so as far as networking is concerned, it’s a great opportunity.
Pros
Table cost includes a 6’ table, 2 chairs, and 2 vendor badges
Huge booth space for additional tables
Attendees and event staff are friendly
Food vendors on site
Great con to network at
Promotional tables for indie developers are free (you are not allowed to sell anything at these tables)
Cons
Vendor hall is in the same huge space that the pinball machines are in, so there is a consistent level of noise
No separation between resellers and artists
Attendance is still pretty small for the size of the event, would love to see it get bigger