Southern-Fried Gaming Expo 2026
The deets
Where: Atlanta, GA
When: End of July
Table Cost: $275 for 10x10 booth, $150 for artist table**
Attendance: estimated 8,000
The space
This is the third year we’ve attended SFGE. We were given the same spot as last year in Hall D.
Booth spaces are 10x10 with pipe and drape along the back side, and include a 6’ table, two chairs, and two vendor badges. We brought a second 6’ table and a smaller 4’ table which we arranged in a Z formation. Walkways between rows are estimated to be 15’.
The market
This year was strange and we hope that a lot of that strangeness was just growing pains which will be fixed next year.
The first big change this year was they added an extra exhibitor hall (previously they used Hall C and D, this year they added Hall B) and vendors could be found in every hall. Hall D had the most vendors, taking up about half the space, while Hall C had maybe half as much, and Hall B had maybe a few less than Hall C.
Confusingly, Hall B had different hours than the rest of the event. For Halls C, D, and the other spaces in the convention center hours were 3pm to 11:25pm on Friday, 9am to 11:45pm on Saturday, and 9am to 4:00pm on Sunday. Hall B, however, was ‘closed’ at 8:00pm on Friday and Saturday, though we heard varying accounts from other vendors if it was actually enforced.
In Hall C, they also added a row of ‘artist alley’ tables which were cheaper ($150), included an 8’ table and supposedly less space behind the table than a booth. Artists in this row were only allowed to sell Friday and Saturday and they were also supposed to have reduced hours despite being located in a hall that didn’t have posted reduced hours.
A consistent complaint we’ve had with SFGE is that there’s no rhyme or reason as to where vendors are placed. There are even vendors outside the exhibit halls which means there’s a good chance that attendees will miss seeing all the booths if they don’t happen to wander into the other areas of the convention.
Even though there was an artist alley this year, there wasn’t really an effort to take artists who bought booths and put them in the same vicinity as the artist alley. We were part of a stamp rally for this event and only two of the participating booths in it were in the same exhibitor hall.
Something else that I think is a major misstep on the organizers is that booths in Hall B cost the same as the booths in other halls even though that hall had reduced hours. Considering this is an event that people stay late at, being kicked out early can mean you lose a few sales.
We’ve watched there be an increase in artists at this event over the past few years, and while we think it’s a great idea to add an official artist alley with a reduced rate, we’d love to seem some changes to the layout and how things are organized. We’ve been told through the grapevine that they spread vendors out amongst all the different activities to encourage attendees not to skip vendors, which is a commendable sentiment when the convention was smaller. Now that it’s gotten to this size having some more intentional organization feels needed so that it’s clear when booths and tables attendees are visiting are ‘artists’ versus resellers. Hall D is also just very loud, which can be overwhelming for booths in that area.
Our suggestion for next year would be to create a sandwich of sorts. Have all the vendors and artist alley in Hall C, with loud activities in Hall D, and quieter activities in Hall B. In Hall C, try to create two distinct market zones, one for the resellers, and one for artists/craftspeople (preferably left side right side rather than one in front and one in the back of the hall).
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 a little over 3.5x table cost, which was an improvement over SFGE in 2025 and ended up being the first even we’ve broken 4 digits at. The cast majority of our sales were on Saturday, with our sales being about the same on Friday and Sunday.
For this 3-day con our total time investment was 24 hours of active vending, 1.5 hours of combined set-up and break-down time (total of 25.5 hours).
Items that sold the best were large prints, stickers, and totes. We sold one sketch card commission and got one preorder for our highest ticket item. Most people paid with card rather than cash, though there was a good amount of cash mostly from younger attendees.
The rest
You can set your own vending hours at this event, but the con staff do check to make sure you’re around during peak hours. Typically things slow down around 8pm and it’s not a guarantee you’ll get late night sales, though they do happen sometimes. VIPs get access to the hall an hour early on Saturday and Sunday, but there were barely any VIPs this year so it’s not really worth getting there early.
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 this year the green deck isn’t very accessible due to the construction. We had better luck using the blue deck, but there’s no guarantee it’ll be usable next year. Parking is not free and costs $15 per day.
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. The map infographic is a bit better this year. We didn’t end up getting any of our panels accepted this year, so we can’t speak to the panel room set up.
As always, this is a great convention to network at. We’ve met folks we formed business relationships and friendships with and the vibes are just good overall.
Pros
Table cost includes a 6’ table, 2 chairs, and 2 vendor badges
Attendees and event staff are friendly
Food vendors on site
Great con to network at
Promotional tables for indie developers are free
Cons
Vendors are spread out in too many areas currently, they need to consolidate
Inconsistent information provided to vendors/artists in regards to what to expect of hours, table costs, and space
Hall D is loud
Attendance is still pretty small for the size of the event
No free parking