A Frenzied Festival of Fandom
(Hooray for alliteration!)
Anyway, this past weekend, I went to the second of three conventions I was aiming to attend in 2013. This time around, it was Fandom Fest, which is - for all intents and purposes - the new name for the Fright Night Film Fest. I attended it last year and did enjoy myself for the most part, but I swore up and down that I probably wouldn't go this year thanks to how unorganized I felt it was. But like all things, I ended up ignoring my better judgment and went ahead anyway. I mean, they had Stan Lee and William Shatner there! And they're actually expanding into two locations to help with crowd control! How could I not go?
It turns out that all the problems I had with the con last year were pretty much still in effect this year. The show was understaffed, and the staff they did had obviously been told different things by different people and had a hard time giving people straight answers. I know it takes a lot of work to pull off shows like this, so you think they'd want to have everyone coordinated and on the same page. Is it so hard to run down to Radio Shack and buy some walkie-talkies for the staff to use so they can get help if they need it? I'm not upset with any of the staff, don't get me wrong. Everyone I talked to and asked questions of tried answering me to the best of their ability, and at least were honest if they weren't sure about something. It's not their fault if the people they answer to can't help them help others.
And the lines... oh boy, the lines. My friends and I stood in line for at least an hour trying to just buy our tickets, which I thought was bad enough. But there were others who had it worse. Some people I work with happened to be there too, and they told me stories of how they had to sit in line for five hours just to meet Norman Reedus from The Walking Dead. I've also heard horror stories on Facebook, Reddit, and various other sites of people waiting hours if not a day or two in order to pick up professional photos they'd had taken with some of the celebrities at the show, the times for different Q&A sessions and photo-ops being wrong by several hours (thanks to different times being posted in different places), and Q&As and events being cancelled at the last second after a crowd had already formed due to somebody bungling something. People would get sent in the wrong direction for events they wanted to attend thanks to a combination of uninformed staff members, no signage to let people know anything, and contradictory information from the show itself. It took us half an hour to even find the ticket booth because there were no signs telling us where to go. Hell, Colin Baker from Doctor Who on his Twitter feed that he apparently spent half a day sitting in his hotel room watching TV because the staff forgot to let him know he was needed for some of his events. I saw a video on YouTube of John Barrowman (who you nerdy types will recognize as Captain Jack Harkness from Doctor Who and Torchwood) apologizing for all the troubles during his Q&A, telling people that it was out of the hands of the celebs and that the fans should ask for their money back if they felt they'd been screwed over.
But it wasn't completely bad. There were a few good parts amidst all the hassle. All of the stars I had the chance to speak to were as friendly and as engaging as they could be, with more than a few going above and beyond the call of duty to make sure the fans were having a great time. The fact that these folks would be willing to bend over backwards to make the kooks and dingbats that are my fellow geeks happy really speaks volumes.
Will I go back to Fandom Fest next year? I very much doubt it. Granted, my curiosity could always get the best of me because I would want to see if they'd improved. But unless they got some super-huge celebrity that I couldn't live without meeting or had some event I had to experience, I'll probably skip the show next year.
But then I said that last year, didn't I?
Anyway, this past weekend, I went to the second of three conventions I was aiming to attend in 2013. This time around, it was Fandom Fest, which is - for all intents and purposes - the new name for the Fright Night Film Fest. I attended it last year and did enjoy myself for the most part, but I swore up and down that I probably wouldn't go this year thanks to how unorganized I felt it was. But like all things, I ended up ignoring my better judgment and went ahead anyway. I mean, they had Stan Lee and William Shatner there! And they're actually expanding into two locations to help with crowd control! How could I not go?
It turns out that all the problems I had with the con last year were pretty much still in effect this year. The show was understaffed, and the staff they did had obviously been told different things by different people and had a hard time giving people straight answers. I know it takes a lot of work to pull off shows like this, so you think they'd want to have everyone coordinated and on the same page. Is it so hard to run down to Radio Shack and buy some walkie-talkies for the staff to use so they can get help if they need it? I'm not upset with any of the staff, don't get me wrong. Everyone I talked to and asked questions of tried answering me to the best of their ability, and at least were honest if they weren't sure about something. It's not their fault if the people they answer to can't help them help others.
And the lines... oh boy, the lines. My friends and I stood in line for at least an hour trying to just buy our tickets, which I thought was bad enough. But there were others who had it worse. Some people I work with happened to be there too, and they told me stories of how they had to sit in line for five hours just to meet Norman Reedus from The Walking Dead. I've also heard horror stories on Facebook, Reddit, and various other sites of people waiting hours if not a day or two in order to pick up professional photos they'd had taken with some of the celebrities at the show, the times for different Q&A sessions and photo-ops being wrong by several hours (thanks to different times being posted in different places), and Q&As and events being cancelled at the last second after a crowd had already formed due to somebody bungling something. People would get sent in the wrong direction for events they wanted to attend thanks to a combination of uninformed staff members, no signage to let people know anything, and contradictory information from the show itself. It took us half an hour to even find the ticket booth because there were no signs telling us where to go. Hell, Colin Baker from Doctor Who on his Twitter feed that he apparently spent half a day sitting in his hotel room watching TV because the staff forgot to let him know he was needed for some of his events. I saw a video on YouTube of John Barrowman (who you nerdy types will recognize as Captain Jack Harkness from Doctor Who and Torchwood) apologizing for all the troubles during his Q&A, telling people that it was out of the hands of the celebs and that the fans should ask for their money back if they felt they'd been screwed over.
But it wasn't completely bad. There were a few good parts amidst all the hassle. All of the stars I had the chance to speak to were as friendly and as engaging as they could be, with more than a few going above and beyond the call of duty to make sure the fans were having a great time. The fact that these folks would be willing to bend over backwards to make the kooks and dingbats that are my fellow geeks happy really speaks volumes.
Will I go back to Fandom Fest next year? I very much doubt it. Granted, my curiosity could always get the best of me because I would want to see if they'd improved. But unless they got some super-huge celebrity that I couldn't live without meeting or had some event I had to experience, I'll probably skip the show next year.
But then I said that last year, didn't I?
posted by Matt Sutton at
5:30 PM
1 Comments
