Fan Expo Portland Artist Alley Review

Table/Space Size: 6ft

Cost: $280

Attendance: 25,000 turnstile attendees

Sales: $750

Staff: Nice but changed how artists had to enter each day

Venue: Oregon Convention Center

More Info:

Prior to this convention I had never been to Oregon. Once I got accepted into this convention, I planned a trip with my girlfriend to spend the week in Portland prior to the convention. So overall, this trip wasn’t specifically about the convention but it was nice to have a vacation that was paid for by the convention.

But about the con; there was good attendance and flow of people throughout all 3 days. Fan Expo events are definitely worth traveling for (at least within driving distance). However a huge part of the event’s draw is the celebrity guests which could affect your profit slightly because of how expensive celebrity photos and autographs are. But with the amount of attendance, you are bound to make up booth and travel costs without having to worry.

The hours for the artist alley are also super manageable, from 9:30 - 7. There’s food in the convention center and a lot of food options within walking distance of the convention center since it is downtown. There wasn’t any service and I had forgotten to rent out wifi from my library (a neat life hack I learned from someone on TikTok) but my neighbors were very kind to let me borrow theirs. I definitely recommend if you’re able to provide/rent your own wifi, I’ve heard a lot of stories that Fan Expo has unreliable internet access at best and there is not much you can do to fix it.

Overall, I won’t be back just because it’s so far away, but if you are within 5/6 hours of this convention, I definitely recommend selling in the artist alley.

Fan Expo Portland Score: 7.5/10