A new 18+ convention happened here in Denver, CO, Seijin Otaku Fest. Seijin frequently means Adult in Japanese. This happened at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel DTC off Orchard & I-25 from July 31st to August 2nd, 2026.

Set-up was on Friday at 10am, with an open time of 3pm that day. I got there right at 10, had to wander around to find people in charge, which didn't take long since there were already vendors setting up, so they tended to be in that area. Got my spot and unloaded. Gotta say again, it is much easier to set up an artist table than a 10x10 or 10x20 booth. Only took three trips to handcarry everything. Artist tables ended up being right next to the air conditioning vents, which ended up being both a blessing & a curse.

Set-up didn't take too long and I noticed I had space to fill. Fortunately, the parking privileges were in-and-out. Bad side was how much it cost to park - $22 for the day. More expensive than downtown. The con did get a discount code for attendees so they only had to pay $6, but I didn't find out about it until well after the con was opened. At least I only had to pay $6 per day for Saturday & Sunday. But $22 for both the van & Rini's car that first night didn't help the expenses.

Anyway, I got my extra products & some lunch, fiddled around with set-up and looked around. I was getting a little worried because it originally looked like I was the only adult artist there. Turned out a few more set up later, but I was worried I was going to be too 'adult' for this con. It didn't help that an actual child, like 9-10 years old, handed me my badges as I was setting up. Saw the same little girl fastwalk through the artist alley later and I overheard a staffer tell her that she can't be in the NSFW section. But it was indicative of the level of security at the con.

The artist alley, literally the hallway around the vendor room, was divided into NSFW & SFW. The SFW section was out over the atrium, with the NSFW alley & vendor room blocked off by some curtains that the con set up. The downstairs area where the main events, panel room, and some featured artist guests & sponsor vendors was also blocked off.

Rini showed up after she got off work and we hung around until close. We left our fixtures, but took most of our product with us since there were at least three ways to get into the hallway and it wasn't a locked room like the vendor room. They did offer to let us put our stuff in the vendor hall, but we decided it was just easier to take everything out.

Not much to report otherwise. Sales were slow, but that seemed to be the case for everyone.
There were a fair amount of people for a first year niche con with only 6 months of advertising, just not a lot of buying.

We didn't stick around for the con after artist alley closed either night, instead we just went home for the evening. To be honest, we didn't make booth cost, let alone the added cost of parking, so staying at the hotel was out of the question anyway.

So, pro's.

- They gave Daku-Con, the established 18+ con, a promo table, which was nice of them. I don't like it when fan organizations fight. And there were some people online who thought Seijin was trying to compete with Daku. So they get points for that.

- I like the hotel, all in all, outside of the ridiculous parking costs. It's smaller, but I think it is a nice con venue for small to medium sized cons. The atrium with the balconies off the hotel rooms has potential and they didn't even do anything with the smaller panel rooms on the third floor, so there is room to grow.

- The convention staffers were friendly, nice, and accommodating. I didn't hear of any drama. But I also don't have inside ears into this con like I do at some other events.

- I don't feel like they overstretched themselves like some first time cons do. They didn't take over the whole hotel, nor did it feel like they were planning on massive attendance. This was generally a very low-key event and this gives them room to figure out what they need to do going forward.

Cons:

- Security was lax. One thing I like is about adult cons is that they don't need a lot of security because you're not dealing with kids & parents all the time, but what security they need needs to be a lot tighter. Rini was not challenged when she went into the con space to get to my table. She also didn't wear her badge all the time. The staffer's kid running around, seeing my artwork & the artwork of other NSFW artists, wasn't a ringing endorsement either. Neither was the pre-teen boy who I saw in the vendor room as the vendors were putting away their boobie & penis artwork*.

- Only roughly 6 months to promote their con is not enough time, no matter how much you spam Facebook & Instagram with content. I'm sure that ended up being reflected in the amount and types of vendors & artists that they got, with the vendor room only filling up at the last minute. Also doesn't help that Nan Desu Kan is only a month away. As some people commented, people might go, but they'll be saving their money for NDK.

- Needs more programming. If things work out, I might help that by doing a panel idea I've been working on to make available to conventions I vend at.

- Needs to not put so much on just Facebook & Instagram, which can bury information in it's algorithm. I almost didn't put it on my Adult Convention list because the only information was on FB & IG and I've had too many bad experience with cons that only put their events there. I was heartened when they finally got their website to have information rather than just a placeholder.

Looking at the Cons, you'd think I had a bad experience. I didn't. It was, overall, a positive experience and I'm looking forward to next year to see what lessons they learned. I'm very happy to have more adults-only conventions around and want them to do well.

* This is reminding me of when we did our Adult Video Games panel at CONvergence last year, when a staffer came in to do a head-count and just see what the panel was up to... with their child in tow. This kinda threw us off. I saw a feedback that said the staffer was annoyed that we acknowledged a child was in the room and had changed up our conversation accordingly, saying they wouldn't have taken them in to check on an 18+ panel if they didn't think their child could handle it. Well, look, I'm the last one to say that children hearing spicy words or seeing a female nipple is going to lead them to a life of crime & hard drugs. But we have adult spaces for reasons and we also don't know what an adult in charge of a child is going to find offensive. Plus, young kids like to tell people about things they saw and heard, so even if the parent doesn't care, someone else might. It's just safer for all of us if kids are kept far away from adult spaces.