PoleCon 2026: Recap
Thank you so much for coming to PoleCon 2026 at—our for the foreseeable home in the DMV—Maryland Live! Hotel and Casino.
This is my twelve live PoleCon as CEO/owner, the fifteenth overall live event since its founding, and it just keeps growing!
From one attendee: “Performing at PoleCon was a dream come true. I started pole right before I turned 40, and I never thought I’d be able to do the things I can do now, especially not on such a big stage. Thank you for providing polers of all kinds a platform to share our art.”
PoleCon 2026 officially had ~1100 people attend, including attendees, exhibitors, and workshop leaders over the course of the weekend; not everyone is at the convention all at one time and not all of us are in one place all the time. This is about the same number of attendees as last year!
Interestingly we had slightly less Weekend Pass attendees but more Friday and Saturday pass attendee this year. We did have more than 10% increase in workshop attendance from 2025!
Showcases
We reprised 20 unique showcases highlighting the diversity of pole throughout the weekend.
This year we debuted the “Bet on Black” showcase on Friday night, continuing our history of celebrating Black Excellence now that our partner Black Girls Pole is no longer an active organization. It remains the largest showcase with the most live attendance.
This year we also continued our multi-camera livestream, featuring all showcases free/pay-what-you-can on our YouTube channel. Unfortunately, YouTube has blocked the replay on some of the days due to copyright issues and in a few cases completely dropped the stream.
We will be posting individual HD videos on our YouTube channel per usual once we receive them (likely in4-6 weeks). Any video that does not appear is because of music copyright issues on that platform NOT because we censored it OR because a performer has requested their video not be posted.
NEW: Moving forward for PoleCon: West 2026 and PoleCon 2027, the livestream will move to a pay-for platform to avoid the random stream dropping, censorship, and blocking that keeps getting worse with YouTube. Pricing structure to be announced.
This year we transitioned our payment and scheduling platform to Groovio! We really valued how much faster this platform is from our previous software tool and that as a software custom built for the pole industry, we can influence and encourage updates and features! (the tech team is already sick of me LOL)
Survey and Next Year
Per last year, after I review survey responses (going on now!) I may make some adjustments to aspects of the event moving forward.
I will write another blog to explain the changes so y’all are prepared.
Where are we going for 2027?
PoleCon has found a home at the Maryland Live! Hotel and Casino for the foreseeable future.
We will be returning the weekend after Memorial Day in 2027 per usual! June 3-6, 2027.
AND
To provide more opportunities for more people to be involved in the event, PoleCon: West returns in the fall.
PoleCon: West 2026 is September 11-13, 2026, in Phoenix Arizona.
The Full Schedule for West will be available June 15, 2026! SOON!!
Passes available now, booths and sponsorships available now, workshops will go on sale June 15 when the schedule is released.
The event will continue to be slightly smaller (1 less paid workshop rooms—an additional pole room has been added for a full 3 pole rooms up from 2 last year—and still 1 less day) It will follow the same basic PoleCon format with showcases, a vendor area, and workshops. This year there WILL be privates held at PoleCon: West and a photo room!
After PoleCon: West 2026 concludes, we will assess to see if it will continue to run in 2027 or if we will focus on only one event. We’d love to keep bringing more non-competitive events around the country and the world BUT finances are tight everywhere for everyone.
From an attendee: “I cannot express enough how thankful I am for you and this convention. The energy and love and support are just tremendous. Again I thank you sooooo much and hopefully to see you next year.”
Keep tagging #polecon2026 in your memories and we’ll keep sharing them!
Thank you for believing in PoleCon and in the community we all love and support.
- PoleCon 2026: Recap - June 4, 2026
- Interview with New PoleCon Instructor: Monica Maxine - May 29, 2026
- A New Warm Up? - May 22, 2026
Related Posts
