Downtown Salt Lake City officially becomes overcome with costumed fans of the Japanese artform this morning with three days of celebration at the Sheraton Hotel, including viewings and interviews and even gaming (both card and arcade) to be had. Two of the festival’s organizers sat down and chatted with City Weekly‘s own Gavin Sheehan for a chat about the convention and all that can be expected. Check it out at the link below, and if you’re int he area… go!

Gavin’s Underground interview with Anime Banzai

Gavin: For this year who will you have on hand as guests for panels and interviews?

Tyla: This year we’re happy to announce Michelle Ruff, a voice actress who has done voice work in both anime and video games. A few of her more popular roles would be Rukia in Bleach and Yuki in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. She will be in a few panels as well as an autograph session. Coming back again this year is Steve Nunez, aka Warky T. Chocobo. He is a local talent who can recreate video game music on his piano. I believe he will be performing a concert as well as playing the background music for our Banzai Brawl which has become a very popular event at the convention.

Gavin: Speaking of panels, what have you got lined-up in that area?

Chris: There are a ton of different panels taking place throughout the weekend from costuming panels to individual fan panels. There are also several events in the main events hall, the most attended of which are the AMV contest and the Cosplay contest both of which take place on Saturday afternoon and evening. The convention schedule was just uploaded to our site and can be found here.