Gainesville resident Preston Burt says the 10th annual Southern-Fried Gaming Expo in Atlanta is a way for the community to come together to enjoy arcade machines, pinball machines, retro home video game consoles and more. The three-day expo returns Friday to the Renaissance Waverly Hotel and Cobb Galleria Convention Center in Atlanta.
Burt, co-founder and organizer of the expo, said the event started in 2014 with a focus on sharing the world of arcade and pinball machines with the community.
"I grew up enamored with arcade cabinets and I actually got my very first one while I was in college," Burt said. "Once I graduated, I had to sell that off and my wife said, 'Hey, whenever we get a house with a basement, you can get that arcade game back.' Well, we moved to Gainesville, and I started looking around for an arcade to put in that basement ... so I started working with a local collecting group, and I organized some of my own, and actually started up the Atlanta Pinball League. It was from there that a group of us decided we'd love to share what we have in our basement and what we get to experience with others, for everybody else in the community."
Burt and the other organizers of the expo have dubbed the event "Georgia's Largest Arcade," featuring over 500 arcade games, pinball machines and video game consoles set to free play, along with over 1,000 tabletop games that will be available for attendees to play. A list of games that will be available to play at the expo can be viewed here.
"If you like video games, if you like arcades, if you like tabletop gaming, if you just like having fun with game shows and general stuff like that, you'll have a great time at the show," Burt said.
Attendees can enjoy other activities, such as eSports tournaments in a variety of video games including Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, Fortnite, Street Fighter 6, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Halo Infinite and Gran Turismo 7. ESports tournaments will be hosted by the Carolina Games Summit and sponsored by Red Bull. They will offer thousands of dollars in prize money and college scholarships.
Additionally, the show will feature a series of panels and other entertainment items, including a game show hosted by Phil Moore, former host of Nick Arcade on Nickelodeon from 1992 to 1997.
Burt said a community favorite is the HOTLanta Extreme Eating Challenge.
"It has nothing to do with video games or gaming ... we have people that eat progressively hotter and hotter peppers until they have to tap out by drinking a glass of milk or they win the whole shebang and eat the hottest one," Burt said. "The crowd really gets into it."
A full list of panels and other events at the expo can be viewed here.
Hours for the expo are as follows:
- Friday, July 28th, 2023: 3:00 p.m. – 12:00 a.m.
- Saturday, July 29th, 2023: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 a.m.
- Sunday, July 30th, 2023: 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Online, pre-sale registration has closed, but interested attendees can purchase a weekend pass or individual day pass at the doors of the event.
More information can be found on the Southern-Fried Gaming Expo website.
Listen to a full interview AccessWDUN's Austin Eller had with Preston Burt by clicking the above Soundcloud player.
