What's the worst con you've been to? Bonus points for dead ones.
There's a few cons where i just spent a couple hours then dipped. One is an anime con held at a university gymnasium and the other is a Small Hotel Lobby Comic con focused on Gen Xers/Boomers
>In NYC for work>See that NY Comic-Con is going on a few blocks from my hotel>get a one day pass for only $75>its only one floor>no panels>the top end of the vendors were funko pop dealers>get spammed with phone calls about a "discounted" disney trip I won for weeks from a shady raffle
>>10960283Amazing how I don't think I've seen this thread before when it's such an obvious idea. The worst con I ever went to was also emptier than this pic>Still a green who goes to cons on Saturdays twice a year and that's it>End up at a local hotel for work and notice people in costume walking around>Shocked to find a con I'd never heard of>Call out the next day>Find a couple dozen attendees, like 5 vendors and 2 panels for the whole day>Leave in under an hour>Oh well that's ok there's another one next we-- >Cancelled due to the first wave of Wuflu lockdownsOnly con I'd ever rank F-tier. They're still going and always switch venues. The one at an indoor amusement park was a cool idea and they did NOTHING with it>>10960311>get spammed with phone calls about a "discounted" disney trip I won for weeks from a shady rafflenot 100% how that relates but any excuse to dunk on NYC cons is good enough for me
>>10960311What year was this? I hate NYCC, but it is one of the biggest and most content and vendor packed cons.
>>10960283Worst ever was Brooklyn Comic Con. It was in the top floor of a dirty ass warehouse, no lights, just a single rusted staircase, no fire exits.https://youtu.be/o9aFCKN11_s
>>10960346>not 100% how that relatesThey had a raffle as soon as you walked in for a free vacation. Just fill out your name, email and phone number on an index card and theyll let you know if you win at the end of the conFor the next few weeks i was getting daily calls about how I won a discounted $800 5 day 4 night vacation in Disney's Animal Kingdom Resort!* complete with parkhopper passes** and available for use anytime in the next 2 years!****After you pay they send you a confirmation for a motel 6 45 minutes away from animal kingdom**park tickets not actually included ***only available november 1st - december 31st of either year no refunds if you dont use it>>10960348The whole thing was shysty as fuck, it wasnt the real NYCC™ it was something called comiccon that had no relation to the real thing. I got played like a chump and had to get a new amex card. Its a lot more obvious looking back, i dont think the real thing would have been a single floor, barely lit line of vendors selling water damaged figures and moldy comics
>>10960349Looks like a fun con
>>10960346>Still a green who goes to cons on Saturdays twice a year and that's itThe horror of a small con existing... You sound insufferable>Call out the next dayYou called out of work because you saw a few people walking around in costumes? Red flag for retard.
>>10960374Mad
>>10960377Anon you're the one who saw a few people walking around a hotel in costume then jumped the gun to call out of work(lmao) to show up without much mature thought. That's shit some 16 year old does with their highschool job and you need to be 18 to post here.
>>10960283A-Kon 2022 was my worst. Apart from the usual massive lines preventing you from going to any panel or anything unless you queue up for it an hour before, the venue was very over capacity to the point where it was dangerous to just be there because of how packed everything was.>Bonus points for dead onesThey had one more convention a year later at the same venue and died afterward, so I'll be claiming my bonus points now.>>10960346>Amazing how I don't think I've seen this thread before when it's such an obvious ideaI think there have been threads before about bad con moments in general, just never about bad cons overall. I definitely remember bitching about A-Kon '22 on this board in the past lol
>that con being run out of a podunk community college >that con being run out of a 2 star Marriott >that con being run of a labyrinthian metro trade show hallMaybe I'm just salty because I have to drive 2+ hours to reach anything
>>10960283the only good cons are the ones that shut down. didnt have a good time at TFcon in 2014. post coof, i went to a con that was free and setup inside of a dead chinese mall. it was boring as shit and im pretty sure it was funded by the CCP. last i heard, it was surprisingly still alive and thriving, but it's a paid event now. still no panels or gaming found though.
Island Fancon on Vancouver Island. No signage outside indicating there was a con. Vendors included 4 different booths selling dropshipped crystals from AliExpress and tarot readings, 3 or so 3D printed crap booths with the same articulated dragons and dragon eggs and shit, several AI “art” slop booths, a perler bead booth full of stolen pixel art designs, and a bunch of crochet booths with the same stuffed chickens and patterns as every other crochet booth. Oh, and an MLM for nails (Colorstreet). They moved a bunch of the artists around, and had a “VIP” shopping time, but there were maybe 2 people, it was so dead. Two clowns making balloon animals and balloon swords outside of the vendor hall were talking shit about everything and everyone the entire time. Not like in a funny way, they seemed pissed. The website made it seem like it was going to be a bigger con than it was. Really small venue but it was still too big for the amount of people that ended up showing up. It was in a really bad location with not a lot of parking. Total shit show.
>>10960405I'm sure it would bring you joy to know the same organizers are hosting a bigger event, Metro-Con in Burnaby soon
>>10960283I went to a con where the only food for miles was a guy making chicken nuggets on a hot plate. Con staff kept stealing them or dropping them on the floor. The con chair had poop on it.
>>10960289Boomers? Did you went to a medical insurance convention? Jajaja goddammit Gen Z
>>10960283>In Detroit>Worst lines imaginable in 2023 for Youmacon on day 0>Venue staff was busy setting up the venue for hours>Many staff members in various departments quit due to low pay>Saving grace was a change of ownership for the con after Morgan Kollin ended up resigning.Still worth it if you were oblivious to the behind the scenes stuff and ended up getting your badge at the door due to how bad pre registration was.
>>10960413Boomer was obviously an exaggeration but its a small comic gathering where they talk about flash gordon, rocketman, the phantom and other pulp
Not quite dead since it's now been spun off into Wasabicon PDX (another bad con, with another bad story), but Newcon 2015 was probably my worst con from memory. >Dead floor>Lack of panels>Overpriced for what it was>Filled with annoying fujoshi's one of whom punched meThe only noteworthy event was some dude dressed as the Joker (Dark Knight) offering 17 year-old me booze.Second worst was Newcon's continuation, Wasabicon. While I did previously enjoy the previous con I attended in 2022, this time in 2024, it didn't pan out as well.>Overcrowded for a small ass hotel in a Hilton in downtown Portland>Not too many interesting panels >The con staff, for some reason, allowed me to host a panel similar enough to another one>Artist alley was placed in a parking garage, which supposedly got a few people sick>A unique addition, the 18+ section of the con was virtually gone>Cosplay deviants party was virtually dead>Absurdly hotI think it's time to put Newcon out to pasture.
>>10960283My worst con was probably Colossalcon Prime 2024. Con itself was fine I just didn't have a great time with the group I was with.>>10960405>dropshipped crystals from AliExpress and tarot readings, 3 or so 3D printed crap booths with the same articulated dragons and dragon eggs and shit, several AI “art” slop boothsLooking at this cons website it seems fine but this is the quickest and easiest indication that an event sucks shit.
>>10960412>The con chair had poop on it.I'm sorry what?
Otaku Con.A hundred weebs in a business centre beside a large roundabout. Conrunner threatened to sue /cgl/ for deformation. Claimed to have licensed the name from Otakon. They hadn't.
>>10960704NTA but I saw this happen one year at Wasabicon many moons ago.
>>10960960why do people care about licensing the name otakucon?
Field con
I hate that I lost the name of the worst one I went to. It's dead, tho, so it doesn't really matter. Buenos Aires. On some street called French.>took place at a school during a sunday>gaming room had jackshit>barely any cosplays>most of the time, my friend was just cracking jokes about how shitty and small this was>the people weren't very open to chatting, eitherThis was a few years before COVID, and it was the point where I realized, wow, this community really isn't the same I remember. I guess you can call it a culture shock, but like...come on, the point of these things used to be that you could meet people who share your interests and chat with them, perhaps even make friends. Now it's definitely like if you don't have friends to go with already...tough. Get into some discord group or something and start from there.
>>10962297I guess it wasnt the san jose school, no french streets aroundlast sunday I went to a vocaloid concert there, it was pretty good
>>10962305Definitely not that school, I only had decent to good times as cons there.
>>10960406I think I heard about that to e, was it the one they held at Metrotown?
>>10960423I went to youma that year and was actually shocked how many people at the con genuinely didn't seem to know about all the shit going on in real time.>Go to Jackbox Panel>Manage to slip in to a game in time>Make all the jokes be things like "Comped Maid Cafe Admission" or "Whoops guess we forgot to send the badges">No one there understood any of itAnd this was like Saturday night too
>>10960283never been to any
>>10960283>be florida anon>almost every con here is a 2/10>ultracon is nothing but an oversized vendor hall with no panels >low attendance >wasabicon >supercon used to be fine but it went downhill drastically >spirit of japan was not fun and low attendance really grim because they somehow return every year and dont learn from their last mistakes at all
>>10963549What a useless post
>>10960283I don't cosplay I clicked on this board by accident
>>10963569That's all of his posts
puchicon.
>>10960283Anime Impulse. It was a huge market in the especially Mexican part of LA county
>>10960380>That's shit some 16 year old does with their highschool job and you need to be 18 to post here.Well the lockdowns were five years ago so he would be over 18 if that was the case so
>>10963576Kek
bumpu
>>10960283sausomes were not that bad. small cons != bad cons
>>10960289>There's a few cons where i just spent a couple hours then dipped.Sometimes that's perfect for a con.>drive 25 minutes. (use it as an excuse to take the motorcycle out)>chill>play some vidya>beat everyone in quake 3>chill with random dudes cosplaying gordan freeman>look at the maybe 12 booths in the "artist alley">go home. take the twistiesNot bad for an afternoonThe "bad experience" is those cons - but you rented a hotel room and traveled to it so you're stuck at them for 3 days bored out of your mind.
>>10960423>in DetroitYou probably could have stopped there.
CreepIE con I guess. Probably not the worst con but it was basically just a vendor hall and autograph signings. They had a "haunted house" which was just a cubicle maze with the lights off and 2 hooded people jumping out at you. The arcade had really old cabinets like Dig dug and Pac Man with broken or sticky controls. The chili dog I got from the food truck was runny and undercooked. I ducked out and had more fun at the nearby mall. At least people were cosplaying as horror characters though.
>When it's 2 PM on Saturday>The floor's empty>Everybody crammed inside the ONE and only event that's getting any attentionNot the sign of a worst-ever con but definitely no better than C-tier
>>10966943>>play some vidyawhen a con can't even provide this experience in big 2026, it's too boring to even post about.
Anime Otapia
>>10960397I'm going to be spending 5 hours to go to a con in spring and the shit they're posting on twitter is making me regret booking it at all. However, there's nothing else nearby.
>>10966943>local small con changes its venue from walking distance from my house to somefuckwhere in the next state over>ride my motorcycle there because im planning on doing a cosplay with it>"if i'm bored, at least i cant take my bike for a rip on the local twisties, chill in the pool, or hang in the hotel bar">get there>pool's closed>hotel bar is staffed by slow assholes>too cold to ride anywhere>vibes weren't right for the types of cosplays i like to doAt least i had friends there who threw room parties every night. Other than that and the occasional panel, it was boring af.
>>10967166what con and what event?
>>10967451Can't even remember which one specifically cuz it's happened so many times. But they're always local and the event is usually cosplay contest
FanimeCon 2022 (Specifically that year)I swear to God, Covid made everyone forget how to run their cons. So many panels didn't happen or got delayed the to tech issues and it just felt poorly ran. I left feeling like I barely got any vacation out of it.I'll say that things have gotten better with that gone as time went on, but I was just surprised with how sloppy they got after being virtual for just 2 years.
>>10962297>Get into some discord group or something and start from there.And the only way to get in to those is to talk to people, who refuse to talk to anyone.
Ani-Magic the year they had it at the county fairgrounds, 2008 maybe? I'll have to explain A-M (not to be confused with the similarly-named German con) for the probably 95% of people here who aren't even old enough to have gone to it.A-M was held in the SoCal desert at a weird old hotel, where the main feature was a large courtyard and pool area surrounded by single-story buildings, with rooms on 3 sides and event spaces on the 4th. This led to it being an amazing party con, most of the people who were into hosting would get rooms on that courtyard, do cool decoration displays in the big windows facing into it, and you could basically go "bar hopping" between different parties or hang out in the courtyard, and that was basically the entire reason people went to the con. Moving it to a location with no hotel rooms, no booze, and so on completely shattered the whole vibe and point of the con and just turned it into a generic shitty small con that died in a year or two. Its legacy lives on in AnimeLA though.
>>10960349this looks comfy
Local con a year or so ago in a not-that-small city. Went on a Saturday and there were maybe 200-250 people total walking around a mostly empty convention center. Massive dealer room but no meetup or panel space except a couple rows of chairs and a TV down the hall. Somehow they managed to spring the money for JYB, which is why I think everything else was the way it was. They had him and a couple other literally who guests sequestered off in the back of the dealer room, but they were charging for access to them. Of course everyone wanted to go talk to JYB and the literally whos got maybe a handful of people each total. There was a girls' gymnastics competition or something happening in the building at the same time and you could see how uncomfortable a lot of parents were having these weeb freaks near their little girls. Dipped out after a couple hours.
One the larger normiecons in the area would run unprofitable small cons with the sole purpose of taking away attendance from new cons starting up in the area. Once and never again.
AX 2007-2016. The SPJA back then were ran by literal retards.
>>10969057No fucking joke. I was SPJA (not AX) staff in '13, my boss answered directly to the CEO, and it was a fucking mess.
>>10968970I really dont get the point of going to cons because dipshits like that were the majority of who i encountered. Any potential gf was surrounded by orbiters or actually was with their bf and everyone else just seemed to be there for an ego trip with their clique of friends. So I just ended up leaving after a few hours in both cons i went to.No idea what people mean by hotel parties. No one would invite me and they’d act like you were wierd just for knowing anything about any given anime series.
>>10969073Think two steps ahead, even girls who have bfs are usually friends and and rooming with girls who are single. You need to put aside being a sperg for a moment and stomach being friendly with another male even if you have to fake it so you can be invited to the parties the girls are actually going to. If orbiters are a problem for you, you also need to step your game up. It's not hard to be the most interesting person in the room as long as you're willing to lie a little.
>>10960283Twitchcon was by far the worst con on a price/activities scale. Over $120 for a bare convention. I've seen better fun at a hotel con or university con.
>>10960349What an annoying spic
>>10969082Doesnt matter when they are all just there for an ego boost and had no intention of actually talking to anyone outside their friend group. Retards like you are why these third spaces are vanishing.
>>10969110skill issue
>>10969073The problem is, you're going to cons with the sole intent of using it to find a GF.That shit never works. Go to cons to have fun. Go to cons to make friends. Once that becomes natural to you, then the GF will come.
Honestly, I hate AX, been there 3 times.>crowded as fuck ALL the time>few blocks off of Skid Row>never meet people: its always either autists or soulless clout chasers>only fun I had was trippin balls with friendsMy sister is doing Artist Alley for AX and Fanime, and I told her I flat out refuse to go there anymore.
>>10969150>proves my point
Wasn't really the cons fault buuut>Book a hotel room for a con>Drive there>Unpack>Every single fucking panel was playing classroom games like "headup 7 up">Energy of the con just wasnt there for Friday OR Saturday>Got a flat tire when I went to go get pizza and couldnt leave the hotels parking>Had to sleep and wake up early to get towed and paid like 250 bucks>Then a maid let 3 wasps in my room when she opened the fucking balcony and im allergic so I had to wait 45 minutes to be able to even swap rooms>Then got towed because I parked in a "reserved" space even though there was literally no signs and had to pay another 250 bucks to get my car out>All this shit and the hotel was a really nice 4 star hotel so there literally was no reason for any of these issues to take placeI ended up leaving Saturday night after a horrendous Friday, I mentally couldnt take it anymore so I went home and chilled.
>>10969150Anime expo has always been the worst american convention. No reason to go past 2010 unless you want to be surrounded and suffocated by annoying streamers, literal whores, and fat smelly brown pedos that don’t even cosplay in 100 degree weather and hobos.
Can I post something related but positive?>good small conEvillecon, I only went once because I live like an 8 hour drive away, place was tiny but I was never left wanting for a good panel. The artist alley was really small too of course but I just kinda absorbed little bits each of the three days and re-examined some stuff on the second and third days. IIRC the food was decent too. I believe it was 2022 that I went?>good con that diedAnimatic-Con, it was in Ohio somewhere I think and the proceeds/profits went to an autism charity (I mean, maybe they didn't, but that's what they claimed so it's possible). I ended up going the last year they held it. The venue was pretty inside including an atrium with fountains and shit, the attendance was good with good cosplays including some micro-celebrity types, the panels were fine... My memories of it are unfortunately somewhat overshadowed by trying to keep track of my dad (when he got back from buying milk, so to speak, I dragged him to cons for about a year) and more or less ruining a book I had brought to read during downtime.
For people who hate anime expo, why even go to a large anime convention if anime and merch/AA isn't the foremost thing you care about? It's not exactly the worst con if you are going there and ignoring the express purpose it exists. As for my least favorite convention it would have to be all the big texas cons i've been to but especially anime matsuri. The whole con exists for the two money grubbing leech owners sucking off the goodwill and self regulation of a bunch of kind hearted anime nerds. There's no staff, there's no security except for houston pd. The dealer hall is all bootleg temu junk. There's no good food. The hotels are all insanely overpriced. There's no transit. And the events are a free for all with no line management. And worst of all the online reputation of the con owners has attracted a bunch of racist incels from outside the area to the point where it's all a smelly rude sausage fest now.
>>10969449What's wrong with the other big Texas cons. AM complaints about it being trash is common knowledge.
>>10969462Same stuff but without the terrible owners i guess. I went to all those cons for the guests, and everything else about them was a headache. The extra compounding costs probably bothered me second most after the safety issues. All the dumb crap you have to pay for like ubering everywhere deceptively makes it more expensive than la or ny. And all the hotel shops and convenience stores nickel and dime the hell out of you because they know you're not walking 5 miles to the grocery store in 110 degree heat. There's also no reason for all those empty parking lots to cost $35 to park. If I'm going to pay those prices I'd at least expect some nice scenery or fun locations or welcoming people with good food. But it's all lard laden fast food, strip malls, and suburban sprawl. And then everything closes at 10pm, meanwhile there's roving scooter/ebike gangs terrorizing downtown so it's like a death wish to leave a con hungry.
triad anime con
>>10969468going there tomorrow, qrd?
>>10969469I'll be there too. look for the guy dressed as sirus, awakener of worlds
>>10969469where you at bitch
>>10969465This sounds like a you problem, not bothering to look up anything in the surrounding area, yet it's the fault of the convention. They charge $10 for a bottle of water, $20 for a sandwich, while parking nearby costs $35, as they take advantage of the dumb and lazy.
>>10969497It sounds like you've never been to Texas, because there's nothing in the immediate surrounding area, and any place suggested is always like an hour away from downtown. If you ask anyone around they tell you to go to the mall or some rinky dink park that's just a bunch of invasive plants and noisy ratty grackles. Top most suggested place is always bucees or wafflehouse or roadhouse all of which are an hour away by uber from the closest convention center. And all the restaurants downtown serve what you would find in an amusement park, with the same prices. The only exception is San Antonio which has an amazing looking downtown, and texmex within walking distance, but it's also a retirement home for old people and a typical tourist trap with it's own problems. Yet it's still inferior to Orlando.
>>10969499Hey dumbshit fuckwit, this is >>10969497 and I live in Texas. I've been going to cons for over 20 years. I also fly all over the US for cons from Florida to California. I've been to every single major convention center in Texas that can accommodate over 50k attendees in every major city, all of them at least a half dozen times. I knew what the fuck not to do.You are a massive retard who thinks all that your convenience shit should be 5 minutes walking distance from every con. I know to stop by Target or Wal-Mart before stepping into a con, check where the closest food spots are, and find out how much parking is available or if I can take public transportation to save money. It's a thing called brain cells.Going off that, it's bullshit that everything is far away, parking is expensive, and that you have to clinch your butt if you see a non-white person when walking outside to get food adds on how fucking stupid you are.You're the same retard who stands up at feedback panels spewing bullshit on things that a con can't do anything about when it comes to city planning.You are the fuckwit problem.
>>10969503What a lovely stereotypical vibe of Texas you offer.
Anime Boston 2026 and it's next week.>Comfy cosplay events cut from the schedule indefinitely>Idol showcase gone and replaced by a fucking talent show>Opted in to get badge mailing for an extra $15 only to not had ever been put into the database to begin with and now I have to pick up my badge>Hotel block shadowdropped with no warning and I had to room with a rando>Only one anime viewing room instead of the usual 2 or 3, down from 4>Hololive event management was a disaster last year and probably won't be much better this year>Ticket prices probably going to skyrocket again while they remove more shitI could count how many things this con does right on one hand even after chopping off half of my fingers first
>>10969527>I had to room with a randoi bunked in a hostel this past month and found some stuff i didn't care to lock up had been stolen. not the first time. just thinking about some rando and all their friends sitting around with all my expensive junk in the room would eat at me. funny part was while i was there i saw the staff just nonchalantly hand a guest a pair of bolt cutters for the lockers without even questioning what he would use it on.
>>10969527Don't forget>con takes place mostly in the prudentail center, so you have tons and tons of normies mingling with cosplayers>and every year there are always "teens" heckling the cosplayers.
>>10969468>that font>that aesthetic I'd recognize them anywhere. something owned by the same people as ColossalCon can't be bad (right?)
seishuncon in 2013it was a tiny con and the hotel was also hosting a wedding that weekend. i had drank and got to talking with one of the hosts, they said the bride was cool with it, but the day of they were PISSED to have so many freaks roaming around and the hotel had to restrict the con-goers from being allowed upstairs. the con-goers kept bugging them asking what they were cosplaying (im guilty too lol). i even had some plastered drunk wedding attendee hit on me and then he stared at me for a while and then asked if i was trans and i played it off like i was with a deep voice to get him to leave me tf alone. funny and cheap con overall, had to talk my sister out of buying a battlestar galactica suit that wouldve used our ENTIRE budget and she still talks about it lmao
>>10960397momocon or something?? it used to be free at Gwinnett tech i think but now over $100 for the weekend :(
