This weekend marks the 48th running of San Diego’s iconic Comic-Con International, by far the biggest convention in America’s Greatest City and one of the great celebrations of pop culture anywhere.

Every year here at the Sofia—one of the best-situated and historically rich hotels in SanDiego—we are proud to welcome so many Comic-Con attendees: During this stretch of the calendar, you’re apt to see a few superheroes, supervillains, Stormtroopers, and various other delightfully garbed characters wandering around our vicinity.

Comic-Con still has oodles to offer the comic-book, fantasy, and sci-fi crowd defining its traditional focus, but these days the colorful soiree encompasses much, much more: a vast sweep of the creative and entertainment industry falls under its bigger-than-ever purview. Even if you’re not a manga obsessive or Star Wars fanatic, Comic-Con has something for you—including simply an absolute feast for the eyes and ears!

The Comic-Con Experience

Comic-Con is such an enormous and multifaceted enterprise that it’s daunting to pick out its highlights and downright impossible to convey its mood and energy.

Here artists, authors, actors, directors, publishers, and other creators mingle directly with fans, celebrating tried-and-true characters and stories and franchises while previewing up-and-coming blockbusters, graphic novels, and other works. It’s both a huge gift to fans and a huge thank-you for their tremendous and inspirational passion.

You’ve got autograph-signings and photo ops, panels and teaser screenings, hands-on workshops and games, art exhibitions and lectures. It all goes down at the San Diego Convention Center (less than a mile from the Sofia Hotel) plus a variety of associated venues added to accommodate the better than 130,000 attendees and a jam-packed schedule that define the current event.

Awards, Screenings, Panels—You Name It!

From Friday night’s Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards (the “Oscars” of comic-bookdom) and Sunday’s San Diego International Children’s Film Festival to the legendary Masquerade on Saturday night—which sees an incredible lineup of costumed participants strutting their stuff on the stage in Ballroom 20—Comic-Con comes stacked with special events.

This year, television-show panels will be spotlighting everything from Twin Peaks and Game of Thrones to SpongeBob Squarepants and Broad City. Meanwhile, attendees will get insider looks at hotly anticipated films such as Blade Runner 2049 (with Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling) and Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg’s upcoming adaptation of Ernest Cline’s bestselling sci-fi novel).

Here at the Sofia Hotel, we’re honored to be among the choice hotels in SanDiego for experiencing Comic-Con, and certainly, wish each and every participant a very wonderful (and maybe a little wacky) time!