Jonesboro, AR — (JonesboroRightNow.com) — July 7, 2025 — Northeast Arkansas Game Fest 2025, hosted by the NEA Gamers Guild, is slated to be the biggest festival in the event’s nine-year history, according to NEA Game Fest coordinator Kier Heyl.

This four-day event will begin at 9 a.m. on Thursday, July 17, and continue through 5 p.m. on Sunday, July 20, at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Jonesboro Red Wolf Convention Center, located at 223 Red Wolf Blvd.

The festival will take up about three-fourths of the convention center’s main ballroom, in addition to a secondary room for a private gaming space. Vendors, fan tables set up by local nonprofits and other organizations, concessions and more will be present.

“We’re going to have several tournaments and it’s an ‘omni gaming con’, which means it’s going to be board games, miniatures, collectible card games, and role-playing games, along with a few other geek events,” Heyl said. “We have over 100 events and when you have that many events, there’s always a few spots here and there the people can still sign up to play. You can get your package at the door. It is slightly more expensive at the door with the exception of kids’ badges.”

Badges allow participants to sign up for attendee-run events and tournaments, exclusive silent auctions, and qualify for door prizes.

Badge prices are listed below:

  • 1-Day Adult Badges $25 each online or $30 at the door.
  • 4-Day Adult Badges are $50 each online or $60 at the door.
  • Friend of the Library (FOL) Adult Badges are $75 each online and includes a 1-year FOL membership and pin.
  • J-Town Throwdown 40K Attendee Adult Badges are $75 each online.
  • 4-Day Child Badges (ages 11-15) are $10 each and children ages 10 and under are free.

The event will benefit the Friends of the Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library, or the Friends of the Library for short. Heyl, who is one of eight volunteer coordinators, said the cause is near and dear to the hearts of the NEA Gamers Guild, which also hosts monthly events at the library.

“The Gamers Guild has always been kind of a family-forward kind of the group,” Heyl said. “Our mission statement is basically ‘Let’s unplug from our devices and sit around as a group of family and friends playing a game together and spend that quality time with each other.’ Supporting the Friends in the Library compounds on that as it is such a great charity because we’re trying to help support events and programming at our library, which is also very much about unplugging from your devices and sitting down with family and friends, and, of course, it also is going to help to increase literacy for our Jonesboro and Craighead County kids.”

To pre-register online, click here. Pre-registration closes July 13.

“The most important thing people need to understand about tabletop gaming is that the people who love tabletop gaming love to teach people about tabletop gaming,” Heyl said. “Almost all of our events are new player friendly, and you don’t have to know anything about games or gaming or anything like that; you can show up at the table and they will teach you how to play.”

To find out more about the event, visit click here. For a full list of the 100+ games and times, check out this year’s schedule, or visit the NEA Game Fest Facebook page for updates. Event signups that are not full by the start of the event will be first come, first served via paper signup sheets available at the convention.