One thing’s for sure- popular culture reigns supreme among people of all age ranges, serving as a conduit to many exciting interests among its diverse community, including anime, science fiction, cosplay, collectibles, art, video games, card and role-playing games, and much more.
And for fans of those awesome activities, ExtravaCon – Long Island’s newest and fastest-growing pop culture convention – is returning for its second year, expanding its offerings this time around to a whole two full days of fun and fantasy for all attendees.
Taking place on November 14 and 15 at the Long Island Hilton in Melville, ExtravaCon is presented by Seepersad Entertainment, which has also been running the Long Island TCG Show event for the last several years as well.
The eponymous company, headed up by founder and president Rebecca Seepersad, spearheaded the inaugural ExtravaCon in 2025 as a one-day affair; however, after an overwhelming response from the Long Island community, Rebecca noted that she made the decision to expand the event to two days for 2026.
ExtravaCon covers just about any aspect of geek culture you could imagine, including an artist’s alley where you can buy and commission work by many talented creators; cosplay contests, where attendees can dress up as their favorite characters from the worlds of anime, sci-fi, and more; panels featuring professionals and voice actors who share stories, insights, and behind-the-scenes experiences; play classic videogame consoles, courtesy of The Long Island Retro Gaming Expo; Star Wars lightsaber training; the Long Island Tamagotchi Club; “Blast a Stormtrooper” featuring The 501st Legion cosplay group and Nerf guns, and much, much more!
But perhaps the biggest draw at ExtravaCon is the ability to attend meet-and-greets with celebrity guests; included this year is a reunion of the creator and lead voice actors from the popular “Hey Arnold” cartoon – which is currently celebrating its 30th anniversary – in addition to talent from other shows such as Dexter’s Laboratory, Dora the Explorer, Winnie the Pooh, Disney, and others.
Rebecca is a teacher by trade, but she’s also a rabid pop culture enthusiast; she’s a huge Pokemon fan and regularly attends events such as New York Comic-Con in Manhattan, but said that she noticed that there were few such local conventions on Long Island. To remedy that, she took it upon herself to create her own, initially starting with the Long Island TCG Show in June of 2023.
“And that’s really why I created Seepersad Entertainment, to do card shows,” she said. “I love Pokemon myself and there were just no trade shows or conventions for Pokemon cards on Long Island, so I basically was like, ‘All right, well, if nobody else does it. I’ll just do it myself.’ And it pretty much took off. I grew out of my venue the first time I did it at the Holiday Inn in Plainview. We had 800 people there, so the next year I moved to the Hilton in Melville.”
While she continues to hold smaller events at the Hilton, in May of 2025 Rebecca held her first Long Island TCG Show at Uniondale’s Nassau Coliseum, representing the continued growth of the show’s stature and attendance. In addition to Pokemon, the TCG Show also features numerous other card trading and collecting franchises, including Dragon Ball, Magic: The Gathering, and more.
With this fast success of TCG, Rebecca eventually decided that she wanted to start up a full-fledged pop culture convention as well, and, thus – in November of 2025 – ExtravaCon was born, held on a Saturday at the selfsame Hilton she had been using for the TCG Show. Using her own experiences religiously attending cons since she was a teenager, she was able – with the help of her friends – shape the event into something that encompasses numerous interests and genres, with something to appeal to any fan of geek culture.
“I started ExtravaCon because it’s a thing that I’m passionate about. Like I said, I love Pokemon, but I’m a nerd of other things as well,” Rebecca said. “I go to New York Comic-Con every year, and my first convention was the Big Apple Con when I was 15, and it was super cool. And I love creating things myself, so that’s why I started ExtravaCon.”
Rebecca noted that she approached the creation of the TCG Show and ExtravaCon as more of a hobby, as opposed to simply a business.
“I had a lot of help from my friends, and I’m a pretty organized person anyway, being a teacher obviously. But what also helped a lot is that I’m a convention goer myself, so I kind of know what works and what doesn’t work,” she said. “The first year of ExtravaCon we had over a thousand people attend, and that was just for one day. This year we’re expanding it to two days, and we’re expecting about the same level of attendance on both days.”
Those attending ExtravaCon can also take advantage of the two restaurants and bar at the Long Island Hilton if they get hungry or thirsty, or just hang out and relax in the Toon Zone, a room where a projector will be playing old cartoons throughout the day. And if you’re a cosplayer and you encounter a wardrobe malfunction, there’s even a repair table where you can get help getting your costume back in order in time for the contest.
ExtravaCon will be running this upcoming Saturday, November 14, from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Sunday, November 15, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. In addition, early access tickets are also available for purchase that get you in one hour earlier on both days.
For a lifelong fan of pop culture, Rebecca said that having created her own ode to her geeky passions has been a dream come true, and invites everyone to come on down this month to experience everything that ExtravaCon has to offer.
“One thing that’s so cool is getting these voice actors that I’m a fan of to attend,” she said. “I’ve had Veronica Taylor at two of my events already, who’s the voice of Ash Ketchum from Pokemon. And if I told my 10-year-old self that I would one day meet the voice actor of Ash, I would never have believed it. It’s so cool, because I love these people and I grew up watching these shows. It kind of feels like unreal, sometimes.”
To find out more about Long Island ExtravaCon and to purchase tickets, please visit their website at https://www.ExtravaCon.com.
