The South Mississippi Toy Fest will return on Saturday, bringing more than 100 vendor booths featuring toys, comics, video games and other collectibles to the Lake Terrace Convention Center.
The event runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will include vendors, celebrity guests, cosplay and fan groups. Early-bird admission begins at 9 a.m.
The festival has grown since it began in 2021 with 10 vendors in a Laurel dance studio. Organizers moved the event to Hattiesburg as attendance and vendor participation increased.
Michael Keith, one of five owners of festival organizer Bros Before Shows, said the Lake Terrace Convention Center is the event’s fourth location. More than 40 vendors are currently on a waiting list, he said.
Keith said the festival gives collectors a place to find items connected to their childhoods and meet others with similar interests.
“Maybe your family didn’t have the money to buy certain things, and now that you’re older and you have adult money, you can buy it and kind of reminisce,” Keith said.
Organizers also use a Facebook group to connect attendees searching for specific collectibles with vendors who may have them.
“We came together to do this show because we are collectors, and we wanted to share that with everyone else,” Keith said.
The event will also honor longtime vendor Irene Van Egmond, who died earlier this year. Organizers renamed the event’s charity raffle in her memory, with proceeds benefiting The Arc of the Pine Belt Region.
Keith described Van Egmond as a central figure in the festival community who treated vendors and attendees like family.
“Miss Irene was our grandmother and our mother of the show,” he said.
Keith said the festival’s continued growth shows there is a community of collectors in South Mississippi looking for opportunities to gather around their shared interests.
“It tells me that this area needed something like that,” Keith said. “The more that people know about it, the more people eat.”
General admission is $5 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Early-bird admission from 9 to 10 a.m. is $10. Additional information, including the guest lineup and event details, is available on the South Mississippi Toy Fest website.
