LA Zine Fest

Southern California’s largest festival dedicated to showcasing zines, DIY print culture, and independent publishing is back for a one-day festival featuring hundreds of vendors, exciting programming, and community!

L.A. Zine Fest will be taking over the Angel City Derby Club in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, November 7 for a free, all day event hosting 350+ zine vendors, independent bookstores, local community groups, hands-on workshops, and thought-provoking panels.

In its thirteenth year, L.A. Zine Fest continues to draw national attention for its diverse zine marketplace, featuring hundreds of independent artists and creatives who showcase small-batch publishing, DIY culture, and the power of grassroots media to build solidarity, foster community, promote freedom of speech and self-expression, and encourage the circulation of ideas through in-person exchanges. The fest promotes zine culture through its annual festival and monthly workshops, fostering community and enriching the lives of artists and public alike. Through its current programming, participants have opportunities to share personal work, build confidence, and engage in collaborative, paper-based creative practices. People of all ages and backgrounds learn the history and purpose of zine culture through these offerings, where individuality and the exercise of First Amendment rights are encouraged and celebrated.

In June of this year, Daniel Sanchez Estrada, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for allegedly moving a box of zines and other literature from a home he shared with another defendant, his wife Maricela Rueda. In 2025, Rueda was criminalized for expressing support for migrants who are facing deportation under deplorable conditions and now faces up to 30 years in federal prison.

In this case, literature itself was criminalized. The simple act of passing a book or zine from one reader to another was treated as evidence of a broader criminal conspiracy.

At a time when free speech is under attack, the fest seeks to uplift voices, empower self-expression, and invest in the artists, neighbors, and community members who help build collective power.

L.A. Zine Fest supports local artists, activists, punks, queer and trans communities, poets, and BIPOC creatives throughout Los Angeles, celebrating the power of self-expression, the circulation of art and ideas, and the importance of in-person community spaces.

L.A. Zine Fest provides a platform for people from marginalized communities and fosters connections between readers and creators. This year’s fest features vendors publishing zines in multiple languages and working across a range of mediums and techniques, including photography, illustration, poetry, collage, risograph printing, and more. Attendees will discover zines on topics that are humorous, personal, political, instructional, avant garde, and uniquely creative. As one of the largest zine events in the country, more than 5,000 attendees are expected throughout the day.

L.A. Zine Fest 2026 highlights:
New Downtown Los Angeles Venue: A vibrant zine marketplace featuring 300+ independent zinesters, publishers, and creators.
Community Groups: Organizations tabling at the fest include LA Queer Zine Fest, SWOP LA, Nova Community Arts, the Los Angeles Public Library, Reproductive Justice Network, and more.
Zine Workshops & Panels:
12 pm – The Emergence of the Queer Zine in Los Angeles by Mattazine Society: LA has a unique history in the evolution of the zines in general, and specifically in the emergence of queer zines. This presentation covers the emergence of a queer sensibility in science fiction fan-zines, beefcake, porn and developments in queer-specific zines and other early publications through the gay rights movement to the punk rock era.
2pm – TRANS•SCRIBE: Creating Your Own Queer Archive by TRANS•FORM: As a co-presenting archive and trans organization, we’d like to invite participants to consider their own lives as worth archiving — and to think about what they might want to preserve, document, and leave behind. In the legacy of zinemaking and queer history, this workshop equips participants to start planning an archive of their own.
Zine Week: In the week leading up to the festival, L.A. Zine Fest promotes zine-making meetups, readings, and events celebrating independent self-publishing, DIY art, and literary culture in Los Angeles. Hosted by local libraries and community spaces, programming includes hands-ons zine-making sessions, live open mics, musical performances, and other creative workshops. Zine Week brings the community together to celebrate and build momentum before the main festival.

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