Fanatics Fest, the sports, pop culture, and collectibles festival, is returning to New York City this month.
The 2025 edition will take place over three days, from June 20 to 22, at the Javits Center in Midtown Manhattan. The festival will include autograph sessions and photo opportunities with athletes and celebrities, interactive experiences, a collectibles show where attendees can buy, sell, and trade with hobby shops and dealers, panels, live programming, and exclusive merchandise.
According to the festival’s website, the list of athletes and celebrities slated to attend includes LeBron James, Tom Brady, Kevin Durant, Travis Scott, Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, and Victor Wembanyama.
“We’re going bigger and better next year,” Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin said. “Adding hundreds of athletes and celebrities to the roster, blowing out the event space to add many more interactive experiences from the top leagues and teams, creating more opportunities for fans and collectors to meet their favorite athletes, more exclusive product drops, and overall taking the entire event to a new level.”
“The ‘FoMO’ was real,” Lance Fensterman, CEO of Fanatics Events, said. “We’re committed to taking everything fans loved about year one and making it bigger and better, while also taking the great feedback we received to heart and improving select areas.”
This year, Fanatics Fest will debut “Fanatics Games,” a “Pros vs. Joes” skills-based sports competition between athletes and fans with $2 million in prizes on the line.
Last August, the inaugural Fanatics Fest drew more than 70,000 fans and 300 athletes and celebrities. Fanatics announced in the December press release about the 2025 event that “significantly more event space” would be added this year, including more space for autograph events. The company added that it aimed to increase its celebrity attendance to more than 500 athletes, artists, creators, and entertainers this year.
Fanatics Fest will operate from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on June 20 and 21, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on June 22. Tickets can be purchased on the festival website.
