The Pacific Northwest's premiere comic + pop culture show Emerald City Comic Con returns soon - March 6 through 9 to be exact. Stay tuned to Popverse for all the ECCC 2025 news, our recs for what to do at ECCC 2025, where to find Popverse, and buy tickets now to find your place at the Seattle staple.

“The thing that you’ve got to understand about ECCC,” I’ve said multiple times already this show, “is that it’s not like other comic cons. This one isn’t just about the panels and the guests and the booths. Every single year, ECCC is a show that you get to do things at.” And then, for emphasis, I add, “It’s experiential.”

Putting aside the unnecessarily pretentious last part, I’m not actually wrong. While Emerald City Comic Con is as filled with celebrity guests, big panels (and, for that matter, small panels), and interesting and unexpected vendors and booths as any major con in the United States, it’s arguable that what people remember more from attending the show each year is what they actually got to do there.

This year is no exception; if anything, ECCC 2025 is leaning into this heavier than ever before. The number of workshops has more than doubled from 2024, with everything from introductions to using rotary tools, airbrushes, and crochet needles to guides to phone photography, foam-prop-making, and creating your own plushy on the agenda. (Classes run through the entire weekend, although many filled up soon after being announced; spots are limited and demand is high, after all.) The Tavern, a social space that combines gaming, performances, and (of course, it’s a tavern) drinking for the over-21s, has massively upgraded, stepping into the former main stage area — more than twice the size of its 2024 footprint — and still looking as if it’s bustling as soon as the show opened on its first day.

Everywhere you look at ECCC, there’s something to do; the fourth floor features a free-to-play video game arcade which could easily eat up an entire afternoon of anyone’s time without trying hard, and a floor below, there’s a collection of LARPers who are ready to teach you how to work out your frustration with the world using foam weapons and your imagination. (Highly recommended, not for nothing.) Family HQ sees librarians from the wonderful King County Library System offer up not just recommended reading, but also cryptid-themed crafts and story time, and Side Quest and other similar opportunities open up multiple chances to settle down into as much tabletop or card gaming as you could possibly want.

All of this is to say nothing of the chance to hang out with Star Wars droids, take photos with cosplayers who somehow managed to recreate your favorite characters, or simply just meet and hang out with a bunch of people who happen to be into the same things that you are. Or, for that matter, the opportunity to attend not one but two nighttime dances — a fantasy ball on Friday, a grunge prom on Saturday — as well as a burlesque show, if that’s your thing.

That is the thing, you see — Emerald City Comic Con is a show that, with laser-like precision, will meet you exactly where you want to be. If you want to learn new skills, you can; if you want to dance and drink and be merry, you can do that too. If you want to fake-fight or really game, that’s all here, just as the reading and the socializing and the everything else is. It’s a show that allows you to actively participate, if that’s what you want to do… while also making sure that it has everything you need to passively participate, as well. (The quiet rooms are a joy, it has to be said — and I’ve already talked about the panels and guests you can sit back and enjoy, as well.)

There’s almost too much to do every year, but that’s why the show runs four days. (And even then, I always lament the time I didn’t spend back issue bin-diving with comic dealers. Alas.) For a show that feels as laid back as ECCC always does — that’s the Pacific Northwest vibe for you — Emerald City Comic Con is as vibrant and active and full a convention as you could imagine. This year more than ever.

Seattle's ECCC 2025 is coming up faster than you think! Keep up to date with our guide to all the Artist's Alley & Writer's Block celebrities, all the major panels, a grunge-themed playlist for the grunge-themed con, our personal recs for the key things to do at ECCC, where to find us at ECCC, and even what to do while you're in Seattle for the event. Reserve your passes as soon as you can!