Chibi Chibi Con (CCC) is the largest one-day anime convention in the pacific northwest, held annually at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. It’s produced and staffed by students from the Chibi Chibi Con Committee, (an Evergreen RSO) We also happen to be one of the college’s longest-running student groups. We changed our club name to Chibi Chibi Con Committee during the 2019-2020 school year. Previously we were called the GReener Anime Society. But Chibi Chibi Con has grown and demands more attention!
Chibi Chibi Con Committee isn’t the only group involved with running Chibi Chibi Con, many other Evergreen RSOs help us! The video game room is run by the Evergreen Gaming Guild. The tabletop game room is run by the Evergreen Tabletop Guild. The Evergreen Way of Tea Club is a huge part of the Chibi Cafe, they have the expert knowledge on your favourite tea! You can find our friends, the Graphic Novel Union, in our community row, part of the Artist Alley.
Chibi Chibi Con is free to attend and family-friendly. We aim to create an low-barrier convention that allows Olympia locals and fans from across the PNW the chance to celebrate anime, games, comics, Japanese fashion, fan culture, and other geeky pursuits in a welcoming environment!
Check out this video of Chibi Chibi Con 2019, by ArtTheKid!
**Winner of the Evergreen Golden Geoduck Award in 2018 and 2019!**
Convention History
In 1992, Evergreen’s tabletop gaming club decided to host a 3-day gaming and science fiction convention on campus. They named it GeoCon, after Evergreen’s mascot, the geoduck. GRAS (then known as Evergreen Students for Anime–we’ve had a lot of names!) hosted a room at that convention devoted to anime. GeoCon continued annually until 2000, when the student-run event grew so big it became too difficult for student coordinators to manage and fell apart.
In 2001, GRAS decided to host the anime room again, Geocon or not, and made it the foundation of their own convention. This event took on a new name: Chibi Chibi Con, a play on the Japanese word チビ (chibi) meaning ‘short person’ or ‘small child’ and a reminder to always stay small…
Though it’s possible we’ve lost the lesson there (you just can’t control word of mouth advertising!), the name remains, and we like it that way. The convention is not-for-profit, and now sustains itself from event revenue, without funds from Evergreen. Run by a handful of students, staffed by dozens of volunteers, it is truly a labor of love.
CCC 2017 saw the move to the CRC instead of the library, since more space was needed for the con. It’s a good thing we moved as CCC 2018 saw well over 4,000 attendees.
CCC 2019 saw, in preparation for the 20th anniversary, over 4,500 estimated attendees, and over 70 artists/vendors in our Artist Alley/Vendor Row. For events we had the lip sync contest, cosplay contest, and dance rooms in the CRC still. In Purce Hall we had the Chibi Cafe, two showings of Summer Wars, an anime screening room, tabletop games room, video games room, panels, and an 18+ lip sync battle.
[photo by duck.paint, cosplay are @_amosity_cosplay on the left and @buffguppycosplay on the right]
Chibi Chibi Con 