Bak-Anime

Bak-Anime is an annual two-day anime convention held during May/June at the Kern County Fairgrounds in Bakersfield, California by the staff of SacAnime.^[3] The convention is the sister conventions to the Bakersfield Comic Con, Sacramento Comic, Toy and Anime Show (Sac-Con), and SacAnime.

Bak-Anime
Status	Active
Genre	Anime, Manga, Video Games[1][2]
Venue	Kern County Fairgrounds
Location(s)	Bakersfield, California
Country	United States
Inaugurated	2010
Website	http://www.bak-anime.com/

Programming

The convention typically offers an artists’ alley, card game tournaments, cosplay contest, dealer's room, and a swap meet.^[4][5][6]

History

The convention began due to the requests of fans from the Bakersfield Comic Con.^[7][8] Bak-Anime in winter 2013 moved to the Bakersfield Marriott due to growth and for the fall 2013 event expanded to two days.^[1][7][8] The expansion in the fall was considered a risk due to the increased costs of events run at that time of the year.^[1] The convention returned to one day in June 2014, and re-expanded to two days in January 2015.^[9][10] The 2019 event occupied two of the Kern County Fairgrounds buildings.^[6] Bak-Anime 2020 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[11][12] Bak-Anime 2021 was also cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[13][14]

Event history

Dates	Location	Atten.	Guests
May 2, 2010	Doubletree Hotel Bakersfield Bakersfield, California		Katie Bair and Liam O'Brien.[3]
January 23, 2011	Doubletree Hotel Bakersfield Bakersfield, California		Stephanie Lesniak, Billy Martinez, and Vic Mignogna.[15]
April 22, 2012	Doubletree Hotel Bakersfield Bakersfield, California	1,100[7]	Laura Bailey, Billy Martinez, and Travis Willingham.[16]
January 20, 2013	Bakersfield Marriott at the Convention Center Bakersfield, California	1,400 (est)[17]	Ivy Doomkitty, Billy Martinez, Roger Craig Smith, and Nate Watson.[18]
November 2–3, 2013	Bakersfield Marriott at the Convention Center Bakersfield, California		Akai SKY, Jennifer Hale, Liam O'Brien, and Sam Riegel.[19]
June 22, 2014	Bakersfield Marriott at the Convention Center Bakersfield, California		Trina Nishimura and Brina Palencia.[20]
January 24–25, 2015	Bakersfield Marriott at the Convention Center Bakersfield, California	around 1,400 (est)[21]	Christine Marie Cabanos, Kyle Hebert, and Cristina Vee.[22][23]
February 6–7, 2016	Bakersfield Marriott at the Convention Center Bakersfield, California		Johnny Yong Bosch, Eyeshine, Tony Fleecs, Ali Hillis,[24] and Kyle Hebert, Roger Jackson.[21]
February 25–26, 2017	Kern County Fairgrounds Bakersfield, California	around 3,500 (est)[25][26]	Karan Ashley, Walter E. Jones, Cherami Leigh Danielle McRae, Vic Mignogna, and David Yost.[26]
February 3–4, 2018	Kern County Fairgrounds Bakersfield, California		Feodor Chin, Liam O'Brien, Josh Petersdorf, and David Yost.[27]
February 2–3, 2019	Kern County Fairgrounds Bakersfield, California		Kellen Goff, Kenny James, Neil Kaplan, Vic Mignogna, and Tara Sands.[28]
May 21-22, 2022	Kern County Fairgrounds Bakersfield, California		Mela Lee, Vic Mignogna, Sarah Natochenny, Alicyn Packard, Nate Watson, Ezra Weisz, Joe Zieja,[29] and James Mathis III.[30]
May 20-21, 2023	Kern County Fairgrounds Bakersfield, California		Laila Berzins, Brook Chalmers, Ian James Corlett, Tony Fleecs, Josey McCoy, Patrick Pedraza, and Dina Sherman.[31]
June 1-2, 2024	Kern County Fairgrounds Bakersfield, California		A.J. Beckles, Griffin Burns, Sean Chiplock, Doug Erholtz, Chris Hackney, Anairis Quiñones, Christopher Corey Smith, Karen Strassman, and Dan Woren.[32]
May 31 - June 1, 2025	Kern County Fairgrounds Bakersfield, California		JB Blanc, Catero Colbert, Dorothy Fahn, Tom Fahn, Mara Junot, Anjali Kunapaneni, Erica Luttrell, Kayleigh McKee, Jonah Scott, Nate Watson,[33] Natasha Craig, and Scott Joseph.[34]