We’re excited to collaborate with Japanese art book publisher @pieintlglobal to bring you the Next ILLUST Award 2025 Exhibition! Select works from the 2025 competition are being showcased at bookshops and events in various countries, and we’re excited to present them here in NZ!

Event Programme is out!! 🧡 Explore everything happening at Overload 2026, from guests, panels and stage events to cosplay, workshops, competitions and more. Download a copy of the programme from our website and start planning your weekend! The PDF is interactive too!

Mix a little RED into your Overload weekend ❤️🧡 We've teamed up with Radisson RED Auckland, a fun and stylish hotel 10 mins from NZICC, to offer Overload attendees a special rate from 21–30 Sept 2026. Your Overload adventure doesn't have to end when the convention does! ✨️

♻️NEW AT OVERLOAD: COSPLAY SWAP! Got leftover fabric, a wig or costume you no longer need, or materials from a past cosplay project? Give them a second life at the Cosplay Swap stall! Let’s keep good cosplay materials in circulation & out of the bin. Full deets on our website🧡

As part of Overload’s 20th anniversary celebrations, @HeroesNZ and Overload present NZ Makes Comics - a visual celebration of New Zealand’s graphic novel industry, featuring eight professional artists! #OverloadNZ #NZMakesComics #NZComics

📸 Calling all cosplay photographers! Whether you're a pro or just starting out, show us your best cosplay shots. Entries open 1 Aug 2026. Huge thanks to FUJIFILM House of Photography for sponsoring these amazing Instax camera prizes! Full details on our website! #overload

To celebrate 20 years of Overload, we've saved one final surprise. Please welcome our secret final guest — Hyuganatsu aka Uririn! 🐗🙌 Uririn is the cute boar kept by The Apothecary Diaries author Hyuganatsu-sensei (@NaMelanza) Visit our website for all the details! #overloadnz

From page to production… Overlord comes to Overload 👀✨ We’re honoured to welcome 3 special guests connected through the world of Overlord — creator & light novel author @maruyama_kugane , KADOKAWA editor Akiko Fujita, and animation producer Kazufumi Kikushima 🙌 #overloadnz

You didn’t think we were done yet… 👀✨ #overloadnz

The guest lineup keeps growing, please welcome our EIGHTH guest announcement — webtoon artist, ORKA! @orkatoon is a South Korean illustrator & webtoon creator best known for A Stepmother’s Marchen. Debuting in 2019, it has been published globally in multiple languages. 🎉✨

BL lovers — this one’s for you 👀✨ Rounding out our local artist reveals, please welcome DOYAK to Overload 2026! 🙌 A Korean-NZ webtoon artist, @dkbyak is the creator of Wet Sand, a mature-rated BL drama about love, power, and crime. Get a copy at Overload & get it signed!

We’re not done celebrating local talent yet 👀🇳🇿 Please welcome our sixth guest reveal to Overload 2026 - Chelsey Furedi! 🙌 Auckland-based artist behind ROCK AND RIOT and PROJECT NOUGHT, now a full-time freelance illustrator. Come meet Chelsey this September! ✨ #overloadnz

From right here in Aotearoa 🇳🇿✨ we’re excited to welcome memoh. to our Overload 2026 guest lineup! Award-winning digital artist, designer, and creator of the high fantasy comic 'Dominion'. Discover her work this September 🙌 #overloadnz #memohcomics

Another musical talent will be joining us this year - please welcome our 4th guest, Rin Sakura! 🎤🌸 A Japanese singer based in Australia, Rin blends traditional kimono with anime songs & J-POP to create a truly unique stage experience. This will be her first performance in NZ✨