Crunchyroll Animefest 2025 : Merch, music and merriment!

During the madness that descends when the biggest gathering of nerds, geeks and all things fan-atics takes places towards the end of sweltering July here in too-sunny San Diego for

Comic-Con, anime distributor powerhouse Crunchyroll decided to host its own gathering for the hordes of anime fans out there now!

Called Crunchyroll Anime Fest 2025, the matsuri (festival) was held out behind the San Diego Convention Center, in a place called the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, known for hosting everything from fine dining and film with orchestral experiences like Jurassic Park, to “Weird” Al Yankovic, and Boyz II Men with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. Clearly, the Rady Shell is home to all sorts of sounds and fandoms, though what descended there on Friday and Saturday July 25th and 26th 2025, may have been a whole new experience.

Just getting to the Rady Shell is a whole trek, as the place is behind the San Diego Convention Center, down at least two more flights of steps, across a pier, and even once inside the Fest, you have to go up yet another smallish set of steps to get to the concert hall and the fake grassy knoll in place of seats. There was almost nothing in the way of overhead protection at the actual concert venue itself, but being able to just cop a squat on the fake grass ground with its gently rolling hills was actually pretty nice. Just remember your sunscreen and maybe a fan.

There were a fair amount of photo opportunity setups as you enter, featuring backdrops from Dr. Stone, The Rising of the Shield Hero, and The Apothecary Diaries; a giveaway of blind boxes from Afeela, the Electronic Vehicle developed by Sony Honda Mobility, and a car with a wrap from the quite popular new anime The Brilliant Healers New Life in the Shadows; and a game where fans could enter the world of Gachiakuta by rifling through bags of “garbage” in search of treasure, free merch, and cool swag.

Crunchyroll itself obviously had a few booths of merchandise to buy, and one big open box in front of one of their main booths, featuring “blind box” merch in closed Crunchyroll bags at set prices for fans to gamble on. And of course there was a place for free Crunchyroll swag handed out, mostly posters, though at one point there were lightup wristbands given out, set to be in tune with the fireworks show that was going on both nights.

(the fireworks thing is NOT mine, I found it online somewhere and thought you could include a few seconds of it or something)

The major draw of the whole Anime Fest is of course the concert area itself, where they played several known Anime themes to the delight of the crowd, had some trivia and

mini-performances going with audience participation, and of course a rather foul-mouthed DJ dropping beats whilst we anticipated the great live performances scheduled for later on in the afternoon.

Magnolia Park, when they took the stage at the Rady Shell, did not disappoint. Front man on the vocals Joshua Roberts, oh he belted out tunes on that microphone like he was born to do this, while guitarists Freddie Criales and Tristan Torres absolutely shredded their instruments, backed up by Vincent Ernst on bass and Joe Horsham on drums, Magnolia Park kept the Rady Shell rocking even in the sultry summer heat, fans nearest the stage bounced in their melting enjoyment.