{"id":357647,"date":"2026-07-30T15:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T15:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/357647\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T15:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T15:10:09","slug":"metrocon-kicks-off-friday-at-tampa-convention-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/357647\/","title":{"rendered":"Metrocon kicks off Friday at Tampa Convention Center"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-perfmatters-preload=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"520\" data-attachment-id=\"365478\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/20230917215105suzie_yeung_53193763217\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/20230917215105Suzie_Yeung_53193763217-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"2560,1707\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;2.8&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;NIKON Z 8&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1690566161&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;200&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;500&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.002&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"20230917215105!Suzie_Yeung_(53193763217)\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Suzie Yeung at the Raleigh Convention Center in Raleigh, North Carolina on July 28, 2023.&lt;\/p&gt;&#10;\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/20230917215105Suzie_Yeung_53193763217-scaled.jpg?fit=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/20230917215105Suzie_Yeung_53193763217.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-365478\"  \/>Suzie Yeung at the Raleigh Convention Center in Raleigh, North Carolina on July 28, 2023. Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/2\/23\/Suzie_Yeung_53193763217.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pedro Heshike for Galaxy Con, CC BY 2.0 \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Don\u2019t worry, you did not have too many THC drinks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Downtown Tampa will be crawling with people cosplaying as their favorite anime, gaming and comic characters this weekend for Metrocon at the <a href=\"https:\/\/community.cltampa.com\/location\/tampa-convention-center-12775805\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tampa Convention Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The three-day festival sort of has it all, from shows and activations (sword fights, fire breathing, comedy) to the arcade and LARP dungeon, to panels and appearances by cosplayers and voice actors like Suzie Yeung (pictured), it\u2019s nerd heaven.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/metroconventions.com\/get-tickets\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Passes for Metrocon 2026 happening Friday-Sunday, July 31-Aug. 2 at the Tampa Convention Center are still available and start at $75.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785424209_292_hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Youtube video\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\" nopin=\"nopin\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/altnewsfoundation.org\/cl-tampa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pitch in to help make the Tampa Bay Journalism Project a success.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/tampa-newslettersignup-page\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow us:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAiECLjru3gB6BLYKOKFLfkVZsqFAgKIhAi467t4AegS2CjihS35FWb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbreak.com\/@c\/1599764?s=01\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/CreativeLoafingTampa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/cltampabay\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cltampabay\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook\u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/cltampabay.bsky.social\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BlueSky<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"collection-link has-small-font-size\">This article appears in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/collections\/jul-30-aug-05-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jul 30 \u2013 Aug 05, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead his 2016 intro letter\u00a0and disclosures from 2022 and 2021.\u00a0Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief&#8230;\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"author-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/author\/rroa\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Ray Roa\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Suzie Yeung at the Raleigh Convention Center in Raleigh, North Carolina on July 28, 2023. Credit: Pedro Heshike&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,40926,137,136,72020],"class_list":["post-357647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-convention-center","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-things-to-do-in-tampa-bay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}