WasabiCon PDX 2025 Canceled as Convention Goes on Hiatus

The WasabiCon PDX pop culture convention announced on X/Twitter on October 27 that this year’s event has been canceled and that the convention is going on hiatus. The statement came from organizer Green Mustard Entertainment.

Earlier this year, the event’s original dates were shifted to overlap with Portland Pride, which the staff described as challenging in ways they were not prepared for. That scheduling change was reportedly not made at their discretion. Hoping conditions would improve, the team postponed WasabiCon PDX from its original July 19 to 20 dates to a new window of November 29 to 30. However, things did not improve as hoped.

Green Mustard Entertainment has since parted ways with the Hilton Portland Downtown and officially called off the 2025 event. The organization says it has no plans to run a WasabiCon PDX in 2026 either, and that the team is taking time to evaluate what has and has not worked in Portland before making any decisions about the future. Refunds will go out to ticketholders over the coming weeks.

Green Mustard Entertainment took over Anime PDX and Newcon PDX in 2018. The convention started at the Sheraton Portland Airport Hotel before outgrowing that space, and the transition to the Hilton Portland Downtown happened to coincide with the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020. The company also runs WasabiCon in Florida and is currently planning a WasabiCon NOLA event in Louisiana for May 2026.

My take: It is genuinely sad to see a regional anime and pop culture convention put on hold, especially one with roots going back to Anime PDX. Smaller conventions really do matter to local fan communities, and I hope the team finds a path forward in Portland someday.