In part 1 of our MEGACON Orlando coverage, we discussed the massive crowds. The crowds were partially caused by the other big events in town. Now we are going to take a look at other things that happened at MEGACON;
The big piece of drama everywhere is regarding the cast of the original ‘Charmed’ series. Shannon Doherty claims Alyssa Milano got her fired from the series. Things got teary and heated and everyone seems to have taken sides. It’s a lot of dram for something that happened over 20 years ago. The biggest thing (IMO) is that it has made the series (and the actors) relevant and news worthy again.
LineCon
Celebrity lines were almost out of control. It seems like conventions almost always oversell autograph tickets. There are a lot of complaints from people not getting the autograph or photo op that they paid for. Some are because of scheduling conflicts, but others stood in line for hours to find themselves cut off as the celebrity had elsewhere to be. One of the problems is the three tiers of autographs, you have the VIPS, the pre-paid tickets and the cash-in-hand. Even if they limit the tickets, the cash-in-hand inflate the lines. Maybe the big cons need to cut out the cash-in-hand for the big line celebs. This is a problem that almost all conventions have and few of them seem to be able to solve it without turning the celebrities’ into autograph automatons that don’t interact with their fans.
Ratings:
Our new thing for 2024 is to ask our readers to take a poll on some basic components of the con. We want to know how you rate the parking, the vendors and the food. The poll closes after 30 days and we will use this as a baseline for next years convention. We hope to eventually have a rating system set up for many of the conventions.
FOOD
(11 Votes)
PARKING
(9 Votes)
VENDORS
(8 Votes)
When you look at most of the complaints for this event they boil down to the crowds. The A-list celebrities are pulling in huge numbers and the focus of the event has shifted from artists and fandoms to celebrities.
Probably the biggest issue for the majority of our readers was the massive crowds. Most of our readers are attending MEGACON for art and comradery. They are there to see and experience artwork, whether it is comic art, photography or cosplay, and the massive crowds are not letting them. You can’t stop and appreciate something when you are being jostled by 500 people. In crowds that thick you can’t take one step back to take a photo of a cosplay without 30 people walking into your shot. You can’t show off your favorite cosplay for fear that it will be stepped on or have pieces torn off as the crowds shove their way through. Due to the crowds, even the schedule and arranged photo shoots ran into problems. Many of the cosplay photo shoots were moved away from the stairs, and several ended up cancelled or broken into chunks.
The chaos of the event has removed the fun and enjoyment for many, but that just means it’s time to move on to other conventions.
Photos
Cosplay photos are provided by a neutral third party with no opinions given on the event. Cosplay photos are provided to highlight the skills and enthusiasm of the photographer and cosplayers. All opinions and facts in the article are by the author.
Despite the chaos and crowds, our favorite photography duo Kat Astrophe and Leo Nocedo, of Nocedo Photo Media Group managed to get some great photos. We’ve borrowed a few of them, but you can find the rest of the cosplay photos on Flikr. Keep an eye on Nocedo Photo Media for some other great photography work. You can find all of their links on Linktr.ee.
To see what Cosplay Conventions are coming to your area,
be sure to check out our Cosplay Convention List!
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