General Overview

Tora-Con is Rochester’s premiere anime convention run annually by student volunteers from the RIT Anime Club over the course of two days. We provide many different events aimed at showcasing anime, manga, cosplay, gaming, and more. Some of our programming includes (but is not limited to): panels, meetups, vendors, artists, and performances.

2025 Event Dates and Times

Friday Badge Pickup (Mar 21st, 2025): 7 PM - 10 PM

Saturday (Mar 22nd, 2025): 8 AM - 11 PM

Sunday (Mar 23rd, 2025): 8 AM - 6 PM

Location

Rochester Institute of Technology

We utilize multiple buildings around the RIT campus which are subject to change from year to year

Attendance

Tora-Con 2025 has an attendee cap of 2800 weekend badges, 200 Saturday badges, and 200 Sunday badges. We typically see around 2800 - 3000 attendees each year. Our staff and volunteer numbers are usually around 200 people annually. In 2024, we saw about 250 other badgeholders (ex: artists, vendors, interpreters, etc).

Target Demographics

Our event is open to the general public, however, most of those who attend are fans of anime, manga, cosplay, and gaming. We offer family-friendly programming as well as events geared towards an 18+ audience. There are attendees every year who come from out-of-state, however, most are those local to Western New York and the Finger Lakes Region.

Attendance Costs

(CLOSED) Full Weekend Early Bird Discount - $35

Full Weekend - $40

Saturday Only - $35

Sunday Only - $30

Our day-of deals are typically food discounts that attendees can receive during the weekend of Tora-Con by showing their badge (for proof of attendance). We are open to day-of deals other than food deals. These deals and freebies encourages our attendees to visit your business in their off-time during the convention. In exchange for listing your business and the day-of deal that you are offering, we ask for your business lets us put up our poster and some flyers in your storefront. Please note that while we are open to working with businesses that are further out, our preference is with businesses within a 15-minute driving range of the RIT campus.

For more information, please review the rest of our Day-Of Deals page or email: info(at)toracon.org

While anime fans make up Tora-Con’s biggest demographic, your business does not have to be anime-related to work with Tora-Con. People from all walks of life attend Tora-Con each year, allowing you to showcase your business to many.

Businesses that are part of our day-of deals will receive a spot on our website letting people know a bit about what you have to offer and what discount and/or freebie you are offering to badged attendees that weekend.

Tora-Con has not set expectation for the discount of freebie that your business will provide to our badged attendees. In 2025, we saw businesses providing our attendees with either a 10% or 15% food discount when dining-in.

One set expectation that we do have is that you allow us to leave our poster and some flyers in your business’s storefront.

For more information or to join our day-of deals, please contact: info(at)toracon.org

For any questions or more information, please contact: info(at)toracon.org