FFXIV: We’re Going to Fan Fest 2026!
Posted on November 21, 2025 by Aywren
When FFXIV announced that the 2026 Fan Festival was being held in Anaheim, CA this time around – instead of Vegas – my interest in going grew exponentially. This is due to the fact that Syn has family in that area that we both knew would not mind giving us a place to stay for the time that we’d spend out there.
Not to mention, Anaheim in April is a far better choice than Vegas in the middle of summer! I didn’t get drawn for tickets for last Fan Fest, but it felt more like we dodged a bullet that time. I didn’t hear a lot of good things about that experience – from overheating, to lack of space, to folks sharing COVID… yeah. Wasn’t a good choice and I wasn’t too disappointed not to go.
However, despite not being charmed by Dawntrail as the newest story expansion, the thought of being able to hit up Fan Fest without the cost of a hotel room made it very, very tempting. Not to mention, it’s been many years since I’ve been out to CA, and I’m not getting any younger. It would be nice to visit Syn’s old stomping grounds again!
Of course, in order to get tickets, you have to brave the RNG. Folks with an active subscription got first dibs by entering the official raffle. Last time, neither of us won the raffle. This time, both of us won tickets!
I was absolutely beside myself when I saw the email titled:
Yep! So, we had up to 4 tickets at our command. However, after asking around, we couldn’t find friends who wanted to claim our extra two, so we let those go back into general public sales and just picked up the two tickets for ourselves. You do have to put names on the tickets when you buy them, so it’s not as easy as just buying the tickets and passing them off to friends when you get there.
These were fairly pricey tickets, too. I remember back when we attended years ago, it was at least $100 cheaper! But again, since boarding won’t come with a price tag, we thought it was a good deal. Besides, who’s to say how many more chances we’ll have at a Fan Fest in the future?
Now, I just need to organize what kind of creative stuff to do. I absolutely want to create stickers to pass out, as seems to be the standard, and at least buttons that indicate that Amon is my main. I’m not sure if I’ll run across folks from my socials who would recognize Amon, but it would be fun if I did!
Anyhow, I’m pretty excited about the prospect. Will update as I figure more stuff out about this upcoming trip! For now, I just want to make sure that I stay healthy enough to do some travel come April. That’s my main goal!