Dumpster fire conventions

>>9583174
with a story like that you gotta have pictures

>>9583176
Trying to locate them now anon, but the con operators are really fastidious about deleting evidence and comments. Sit tight.

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>>9583176
Here goes

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The "con floor" as it were

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RIP Ralph.

Sweet Jesus.

Ultimacon was going to be a first year con. They had the venue lined up and an amazing list of guests that was ever growing.

Two weeks before the convention, the hotel informs them they have failed to fill the room block and thus need to pay for public spaces (normal, part of the contract.)

They don't have money to pay for the convention space, because instead of socking away the pre reg fees, they've been using them to buy more guests.

Two weeks before the con, they lie and claim the hotel has kicked them out and that they would change venues. No one is going to give them a venue for $0.00, so they say they will have to cancel until next year, but they will refund everyone's money.
Con heads vanish into the night, no refunds are issued, and no legal action is taken because nerds are too shitty to organize a proper class action lawsuit.

>>9584635
Sounds similar to what happened at Dash Con

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Both of the bad cons happened in 2009, so bear with me (both are now defunct conventions):

Worst con I've personally been to was JACON X:
>Supposed rape
>Crowded Rave
>Pepper Spraying at rave
>major bathroom for con had a collapsed roof because of rain from two days before
>Wasabi Anime's Rave in a box
^whoever thought that up was as sharp as a bag of oranges
Seriously, me and my friends went to the hotel next door for the majority of Saturday during the day and didn't miss anything. Had a good time though, I'll say that.

The other con was ZonaCon, and oh boy was that a mess:
>ran by mother and son duo
>the mother used the con facebook to bitch about her personal life and insult her boyfriend(s?)
>mid-con on saturday the family duo both give up on the con and leave, leaving one of the vendors (pretty cool dude) to run the con and try to fix whatever was fucked up
>after he fixed almost everything, they come back and take control again
>being holed up in the cafe room after hours saturday night because of a gun scare from (supposedly) 2 miles away
>people holed up in said room are barricaded in, and told to be quiet and to sit in a pitch black room for like (what i remember it feeling like) 2 hours, with this resulting in some people turning the brightness on their screens all the way up and others yell whispering for whatever reason they had.
>Terrance Zdunich (GraveRobber from Repo! The Genetic Opera) bitching throughout the whole con in backrooms and elevators.
The whole thing was a lesson in how not to have/run a con, quite laughable really.

>>9583179
what a way to go

>>9583182
Ngl a convention hosted in a former mall sounds kinda cool. I'd like to see one that isn't shit give it a try

>>9584697
>>9583182

As a non American I'm just really surprised there's such things as abandoned malls with running electricity that you can rent as venue spaces.

>2012
>small shitty local con
>they've been around for a few years but just can't seem to get their shit together
>staff are completely untrained
>see someone puke in the lobby
>friends and I immediately tell some staff members what happened
>go back to lobby several hours later
>puke is still there
>dear god why

Last time I checked, the con went on "hiatus"

>>9584643
I don't blame Zdunich for bitching if it was that bad.

>>9584719
I'm american and I'm surprised this exists too

>>9584794
True, I mean, he could've been professional and waited till the con was over. But I guess it doesn't matter when you're just saying out loud what everyone was thinking.

>>9584905
Here's a great write up on wtf happened

http://animecons.com/blog/post.shtml/1493/The_Curious_Case_of_Wine_Country_Comic_Con

>>9584697
>>9584719
>>9584868
Polite pseudosage for vaguely OT but...

There's a tv show called "Abandoned" that aired on VICE and it's about abandoned american urban structures and urban areas. They've done a couple on different abandoned malls, apparently they're dead common in the rust belt areas. It's worth looking up if you're interested in abandoned structures.

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>>9584719
The term abandoned is a little loose. The Dan Bell series on Youtube is the most noteable. Most of them have one or two "anchor stores" aka a big box store open with a handful of small weird stores and it's not worth the trouble to block off the unpopulated wings.

But yes, very American. Some cities have taken some initiative and are reworking their old malls as apartments

>>9584697
It would make for a good horror / zombie con

>>9584906
How bad was it in the end?

>>9584912
No idea but from what little it has on the FB page I guess not great. Can't post link 4chan thinks it's spam

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>>9584719
>>9584868
>>9584909
There's actually one of those near me: Whitehall Mall in PA (not to be confused with the Lehigh Valley Mall that's actually thriving). More than half the store holes have absolutely nothing in them. There's a pet store that obviously gets their dogs from a puppy mill, a comic shop, and 3-4 general stores or tobacco shops. It's hooked to a Kohl's which is the only active store there. I guess the theatre may be, too.

If it was a little fancier on the inside, I think it'd be cool to have a con there and rent the empty spaces out to dealers or AA, like a "Dealercon" of sorts. We have another con in this area but it can never seem to break 500 attendance so idk how renting out the mall for a con would go.

>>9584926
Sage for off topic, but how does one know that a pet store obviously gets their dogs from a puppy mill.

besides the fact that upwards of 80% of pet stores do this, last I checked.

>>9584946
Just go to a shelter instead. Much cheaper, and the dogs really need you.

>>9584946
Mall stores like that usually get them from puppy mills. Also you can usually ask where they came from and if the store tells you they're from out of state, guaranteed it was from a puppy mill. Having a variety of puppies available (which that store does) is also usually a sign, since legit breeders often only focus on 1-3 breeds and don't produce puppies as rapidly as puppy mills that pretty much use the mother dogs as puppy vending machines. Often times they also take puppies from their parents way too early which leads to temperament issues which may or may not be immediately apparent.

People who bought puppies from that store have experienced their animals getting sick not long after adoption, which is usually a result of poor conditions from mills.

>>9583182
To be fair the other side of the escalators had much more booths for the vendors. That being said it was a complete shit show. I'm pretty sure they didn't have working a.c. since the 2nd floor was unbearable. Also the con was refusing the refund the money to people who paid for autographs that guests cancelled on.

>>9584909
Also the mall it was at isn't abandoned by any means. It's just possibly the shitiest mall in the entire area. They wouldn't even allow guests with helmets out into the mall without removing them.

>>9584637
Sort of, except that Dash con frantically busked for funds, so the attendees at the end of the day did get some sort of convention experience (I've heard that some people found it unremarkable, but not terrible) the Ultimacon people got nothing except wasted travel plans and lost pre reg money.

Later down the road, I picked up the podcast Talkin Toons which is hosted by one of their VA guests, and it was kind of a great unintended sideline listening to him plug the con as an upcoming appearance for about a month, and then suddenly switch to "uhhh... I guess this whole thing isn't happening? We're not sure what's going on."

>>9584719
Malls are struggling pretty badly with closures as they are becoming less and less popular business models, and no longer a social hub for young people. Sometimes they are fully empty but still patrolled and maintained to keep the property value in a holding pattern (otherwise you get squatters and damage) sometimes they will still have a few odd renters sticking around though the majority of the mall is understood to be dead.

Valley View in Dallas is one that has been actively dying over several years, and is still being catalogued as it dies.

Despite all claims of a deadline, and the partial demolition of the parking structures, it's still an active space. As of last weekend, we drove by and there was an estate sale taking place inside.

>>9585484
Ours here used to be popular but they tried too hard to get rid of the teenagers and instead cater to the grouchy elderly mall walkers before jacking the rent up to the point that once stores had their leases up they left. It's a ghost town now aside from the food court, some big-name stores, and a pop-up princess "Mommy & Me Tea" place.

Dead Mall con sounds like the most autistic yet eerily soothing thing. Could you just go roam the empty mall corridors? How would you even get that as a venue?

>>9585630
It seems like the entire mall wasn't abandoned, but the Macy's was. So, it was an empty Macy's in an otherwise not-abandoned mall. (Although I wouldn't be surprised if there were many other smaller closed stores if a Macy's couldn't survive.)

I lived in Mass, south of Boston for a while and there were SO many half-dead malls in that area. I guess there were just too many malls in one area, and they started dying off as a result of the recession and never really bounced back.

>>9585630
They're usually pretty cheap. The owners still have to pay property tax so they still need money even if it's from nerds

>>9584912
Reading up a bit more on it, the con ended up being a really barren event that looked like it took place in a school auditorium. Low turnout, not that many dealers, no big guests. The only "popular" event was a smash tournament with a $500 prize. Pretty much half the guests only came there for the tournament.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56CwyXa4DWA

>>9585716
Fellow MA gull here. Western MA isn't much better. The main mall of Amherst literally looks like it's stuck in the 80s with the lights half on

GoDaiko!Con is this weekend. Small convention in Michigan apparently made out of spite for Youmacon. From what I can tell on Facebook, the artist's alley tables were $300 and they were told there would be between 800-3000 people attending. Actual attendees were around 120 people, and artists are demanding their money back and pulling out a day early. Also the schedule for the convention was released a day or two before the con, so there's that.

>>9588783

Not surprised at the low turnout. Badge prices were horribly expensive and there was a cosplay beach party sponsored by Youmacon going on at the same time. I am surprised the hotel still let the con go on as it was held at the same place that Midwest was supposed to be at.

>>9588783

Almost forgot, Godaiko didn't even start accepting panels until two weeks ago.

>>9583182
>abandoned with a decomposing raccoon
>still looks better than a New York subway station

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I went to a shitty local con where "lunch" was provided with ticket purchase. The meal in question was frozen chicken nuggets cooked on an electric grill. It took ages for them to cook, and the staff kept eating them. They also tried and failed to make pancakes.

Also pretty sure a vendor pooped his pants, as he toddled out of the building in a hurry, followed by a horrible smell.

>>9583174
Went to a small local fair once, where one of the major selling points was having an escape room. By the time the fair had started, it wasn't even close to operational. When after more than two hours (out of the fair's six) the walls had finally been erected, they realized there was too much wind and they had to tear it down again. Hours after the fair was over they were still packing up the thing without it ever having been working. Apparently they went threefold over budget with it, too.

Rest of the fair was fun, though.

Is it bad that I actually want to attend a dumpster fire convention just for the stories?

>>9590003
Name of con? This sounds hilarious

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>>9588783
I knew that wasn't going to go well. (Kinda sucks because I'd like another good Michigan con.)

>>9588953
I think that there may be a misconception about why Midwest wasn't held there- the hotel overbooked and there was no room for staff and guests. (I work and know people who work in Midwest, there was no other reason.) It wasn't like they refused to hold Midwest or anything like that. I could actually see the hotel try to redeem itself after what happened, since they received pretty bad reviews.

>>9588783
From what I heard, tables were only $125, but artists were offered a measly $25 refund for their low sales. GDK's always been a shitty hallway con though, didn't surprise me they'd stoop so low to attempt to make some sort of profit.

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>>9583174

>Phoenix Comicon this year
>morbidly obese guy cosplaying The Punisher comes in with bag of loaded guns and knives strapped to him, actual ammo strapped across his chest
>apparently targeting cops patrolling the show
>but mainly targeting the guy who played the Green Ranger in Power Rangers
>walks around for almost an entire day undetected
>finally his sister calls police and tells them he's armed and dangerous
>cops tackle him
>he (in regard to the Green Ranger) "I stabbed him once before years ago and I'm here to finish the job"
>Green Ranger says he's never been stabbed

we went an entire day at our booth not knowing this had happened and didn't even find out until the next day after getting past security thanks to our Guest badges and being told everything.

>>9590306

$125 is still a really high price for a turnout of 120 people, though...

>>9590308
This fucker. I still have a hard time believing this actually happened. Security there is going to be a nightmare next year.

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>>9590280

Speaking of Godaiko this is making the rounds in the Michigan cosplay community.

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>>9590471

This one too, I'm really enjoying these petty memes

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Some more

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>>9590527

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>>9590529
Last one

>>9588783
At least GDC doesn't have actual real nazis -like Youmacon does though. They had to remove someone who was found to be a nazi, not a fake nazi but a real guy who actually loves Hitler and white-pride shit. The head of security is still an actual nazi too but Morgan hans't removed him yet.

Yes Youmacon has actual real nazis who run its groups. That makes it way lower on the list of cons than. GoDaikoCon could be.

>>9590582

Heard about that. Shitty as that is, I'm still gonna go to Youmacon because all my convention friends go, the location is great, and I always have a great time. Hopefully they get enough social pressure from attendees to remove the dude someday.

>>9590471
>>9590520
>>9590527
>>9590529
>>9590534
Please stop I'm so tired of seeing this bullshit on my feed lmao. I get that CBP is miffed that some guy flyer'd their event but honestly the people chugging out these shitty memes are so embarrassing.

>>9590582
I'm going to make a point of going there now so that they can have an actual Nazi in attendance.

>>9590447
It's already a nightmare, of the six cons I've been to in the last two months, four implemented bag checks and two started using metal detectors. It's made lines a horrible ordeal.

While none of the cons have said it's because of this incident, I have no doubt it's related.

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Oh man, come on. We can't have a dumpster fire con thread and forget about this shit.

I heard from one of the dudes running it that if his friend signed up for the masquerade, they automatically gave him first place.

>>9590582
Sounds like my kind of con.

No seriously though, are we talking actual affiliated with domestic terrorism Nazis or holds right wing views I don't agree with Nazis? Cause with all the virtue signalling these days I'm willing to bet it's the latter.

>>9591896
Like the real far far right. Why would someone actually get fired for it? Because they are real fascist And fired by Morgan directly for it. He had been filling one of my friends Facebooks with how good for society the actual Nazis were during World War II.

The one head one apparently even has an iron white cross tattoo and listens to almost only white-power death metal music (Hatebreed Marduk Burzum NSMB)but he hasn't been banned yet.

>>9588783
My god, that's still running? That was my first convention experience. The only other two openly dweeby girls at my all girls Catholic high school dragged me to it in 2010 back when the Troy Met was still open. I remember thinking "this is a con?" as we sat for three hours in the Convention Library. (Read a lot of Get Backers, which I've never picked up since.)
I recall having been handed a leaflet for GoDaikoCon in 2013 that announced it was going to be held at the Marriott the next year. Clearly that didn't hold.
In conclusion, glad to know that I'm validated in thinking of this place every time I see the words "hallway con"

>>9584697
Iirc, some /mu/tants were talking about hosting a vaporwave festival involving visuals and music in a dead mall. A mall in Pennsylvania was considered, but considering how much of the board is filled with neets, I don't think it ever took off. Would have made for a cool performing arts/gallery show.

There's an abandoned mall not too far from me actually. It has a Tai-chi studio, a Macys, and a theater. Also some construction in the parking lot for some reason. Probably wouldn't be too hard to rent it out for something like a con.

>>9584926
The wood paneling makes that place look a lot more comfy than most malls.

>>9585484
>no longer a social hub for young people
My local mall throws out anyone who's doing any kind of hanging around. Unless they are a bunch of beggars or foreign teenage boys because that's too dangerous or w/e.

>>9598038
So they only throw out people who aren't dangerous? Real useful, no wonder malls are dying.

>>9585484
I find it odd consider that two malls where I used to live are still going strong and constantly expanding, but they're gearing more towards teens and 18-30 y/os. There's a mall a couple cities over from there that's actually abandoned though and the city has done nothing to try and fix it. Despite being directly across from the police station, people constantly break in and the cops don't really care.

>>9583174
Not about this year but I was fortunate to be a part of FandomFest's Linemaggedon in 2013.

>me and friend are 17, buy passes and get in line for vendor hall at 230, hall is advertised to open at 3pm
>3pm comes and goes, no budging
>I go grab sandwiches from jimmy johns down the street, come back
>4pm comes and goes, no budging
>hear from up the grapevine that stuff isnt set up yet (?)
>4:45 and finally signs of life, the VIP pass people are being let in
>5:15~ and the general admission people are let in
>me and friend get to go in, finally
>did I mention the vendor hall closes at 8pm friday
>pssst no refunds
>we're 17 and it's literally babby's first con so we enjoy it regardless, unaware until several months later how much we were taken advantage of


1/2

>>9598638
>2 years later, at OMGcon 15 in Owensboro with a friend
>see a Fandomfest booth, make the supreme mistake of walking up to it
>booth lady (later introduces herself as the chair of operations or some bullshit power tripping position) flags us down, and we chat
>we tell her about our bad experiences 2 years ago in 2013, and again in 2014
>she listens to none of it, begins to verbally assault us and accuse us of lying to slander her con
>"well we've never opened at 230pm on a Friday so you're lying and my con is better than that"
>"we would have opened on time but we had several volunteers not show up on friday and you're lucky we opened as quickly as we could"

Lady was a full on unhinged lunatic and reading this makes me extremely happy that I refused to give her my money after 2014.

>>9584775
Name and shame, anon.

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>>9585074
>pre-paying for autographs

>>9598643
That was the year it was at the galt house and the fire marshal closed it down right?

>>9598819
Wausaubicon
I just looked them up again out of curiosity and their fb page is filled with sad updates, but they're all too delusional to just put the con out of its misery. They apparently tried to bring the con back this past June, but had to call it off because of some venue problem lmao

>>9599010
indeed.
There was so much collective asshurt about it on social media that the local paper wrote stuff about it.

>ps no refunds