The wait is finally over! On Thursday, September 3, 2026, tens of thousands of pop culture enthusiasts descended upon downtown Atlanta to launch the 40th anniversary of Dragon Con. The event spans five major host hotels, the Hyatt Regency, Marriott Marquis, Hilton, Westin Peachtree Plaza, and Courtland Grand, and fills countless others.
A core centerpiece of the whole event is the opening of the Robert A. Heinlein “Pay It Forward” Blood Drive, hosted by LifeSouth Community Blood Centers. Con-goers lined up to roll up their sleeves and continue a long-standing Dragon Con tradition of giving back to the local Atlanta community.
Our past Dragon Con cosplay coverage can be found here: 2016, 2017,2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
Gaming at the AmericasMart opened at 4:00 PM. Gamers piled in to play their favorites whether it was tabletop, retro arcade or PC/console free-play zones. Meanwhile, early programming track panels began, offering everything from urban fantasy literature to sci-fi filmmaking.
Dragon Con 2026 Cosplay Coverage
T’was the Night Before Dragon Con
Blood Drive
Thursday Pt. 1
…More to Come
Day One at Dragon Con has a distinct, electric energy, and is the calm before the weekend storm, The event officially kicks off at 5PM but the lines start long before that as fans wait to collect their badges. Even before then there are cosplayers debuting their first looks of the weekend, from intricate armor to hilarious memes. Thanks to Leo Nocedo of Nocedo Photo Media Group we get to a fantastic look at some of the Thursday Cosplay, you can find the rest of their Dragon Con photos in their FaceBook Album.
Nocedo Photo Media Group is a long-running event photography and media team best known in the convention circuit for covering pop culture events, comic cons, anime conventions, and cosplay showcases. Be sure to to keep an eye on their work, they are running loose around Dragon Con and have a LOT more photos than just the ones I share. You find all them on Facebook, Flikr, Instagram and many other places.
About Dragon Con
Dragon Con is the internationally known pop culture convention held each Labor Day Weekend (Sept. 3 – 7, 2026) in Atlanta. Organized for fans, Dragon Con features more than 3,500 hours of comics, film, television, costuming, art, music, and gaming over four days. For more information, please visit www.dragoncon.org and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X.
To see what cosplay conventions are coming up
be sure to check out our Cosplay Convention List!
