Awesome Con

Up in the sky: It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Awesome Con! The D.C. pop culture festival returns to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Aug. 20. The annual three-day event was canceled last year for the first time since it began in 2013, due to the pandemic, but now it’s back with a blast from the past—or is it the future? Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, costars of the 1984 sci-fi classic Back to the Future, will make an appearance at the 2021 comic con. They’re also bringing with them the iconic time-traveling DeLorean for photo ops. Of course, Awesome Con features many other big and obscure names from the worlds of comics books, novels, movies, and television, such as The Addams Family’s Christina Ricci, Rocky and The Mandalorian star Carl Weathers, former Batman writer Tom King, and Sensational Wonder Woman writer Amy Chu. Fantasy fans who also double as science nerds will be especially stoked for Awesome Con’s Science Fair, an event dedicated to exploring the science that informs pop culture. Headlined by special effects expert and former Mythbusters star Adam Savage, the fair will offer lectures on different scientific theories along with displays by organizations such as the Smithsonian Institution, NASA, and the National Science Foundation. The fair will also feature their popular “Ask a Scientist” booth where congoers can ask questions on any subject of scientific interest. “Awesome Con is thrilled to be returning back to an in-person and live event,” says Lauren Dabb, director of marketing for LeftField Media, the company putting on the con. The con runs from Aug. 20-22. awesome-con.com. $20-$90.