Hello and welcome to the Otaku Mind. This is Justin and I hope everyone is having a good day. I’m in the middle getting set for my much-needed vacation, but I have time to write to you guys for a bit. In the far off year of 2019, cons were alive and bustling with people at convention centers. Coming together and either celebrating anime, comics, videogames, or whatever else they wanted. While virtual and online cons are fine for what they are, there’s just something special about going to one in person and hanging out with people who share your same interests and passions. Hopefully the day will come when we can go back to them. Creating a con is never easy. A lot goes in to making a con a success. There’s planning, organizing, getting guests, reserving hotel rooms as well as the venue, security, the list goes on. When put in the right hands and organized correctly, cons can create memorable experiences for everyone who attends and makes them want to come back again. When put in the wrong hands, cons create disastrous experiences that will be talked about and ridiculed for years by people online because of how disappointing or God awful they were. Most people who attend cons walk away with a happy experience, but for these 11 cons, people walked away with unpleasant experiences to say the least. I’m Justin and these are the top 11 Worst Cons of All Time.
#11. K-Expo 2018
A con dedicated to K-Pop music with live performances. It’s the first con I can think of where a K-Pop event would take place on American soil. Hopefully, we can get a J-Pop con someday. Now to be fair this con wasn’t a complete disaster, but it started off very bad. The venue of the con was changed at the last minute to a smaller venue packing people into a building where they were told they couldn’t leave until the event was over so it felt like a hostage situation. People complained about this enough that the organizers unlocked the doors allowing people to leave. Everything was disorganized and delayed because of this last-minute change to the venue, there were no vendors (so good luck finding food), and those that paid extra for premium seating didn’t get their seats. Thankfully, the con was saved thanks to amazing performances from the bands and artists that were there. They tore the house down and their interaction with the fans was reportedly well received.
#10. New York Star Trek 1976
During the 70s, Star Trek was a big deal, so it was normal to have a con here or there, but this con managed to rub people the wrong way. This con was organized by Lisa Bonyton and was the second Star Trek convention she and her company ever did. The con had appearances from the show’s actors who did a live read and had 20,000-30,000 people attending. So, what went wrong? Well, three things. First off, this was a con for profit and paid its special guests to attend. This made a lot of people upset as it seemed like the organizers were only interested in money rather than offering a good experience and celebrating the series. This con is often regarded as the con that destroyed fan run conventions with actor guests. Second, this con interfered with other cons. This con deliberately scheduled itself in the middle of another Star Trek con happening and another con that was taking place around the same time cutting into both of their attendance. Finally, it oversold. That’s right, this con oversold its attendance and the hotel didn’t have any room to house them all. Because of this about 10,000 people were turned away and those that managed to get in were stuffed like sardines in a room for the con. This angered a lot of people and ruined the whole experience for them.
#9. PAX East 2013
PAX East is a gaming convention where you can meet all your favorite streamers and big name game industry companies. PAX often receives good praise but 2013 was regarded as their worst year. EA, Valve, and Rockstar didn’t show up and the other companies had nothing new or innovative to show making this a pointless visit. On top of that it was said the place was disorganized with its maps, there was no schedule, no room numbers, and not too many guests showed up. It was just a disorganized con where nobody had anything to show.
#8. C4 Winnipeg 2017
Much like PAX was a disorganized mess so too was C4 2017, a comic con from our neighbors up north. What went wrong? Well for starters registration for vendors was a pain in the ass as it took forever and those who registered late were given a crappy location with no chairs or tablecloth. There were scheduling issues, maps were useless, and the staff wasn’t helpful at all. As if that wasn’t bad, there was reportedly a puddle of urine in the men’s restroom that was never cleaned all weekend, bad cabs, and someone almost got mugged reportedly. C4 has had a number of problems over the years and I think this year went down as the worst of them all.
#7. Cravecon 2016
You can pretty much have a con for about anything, but food? You’ve got to be kidding me?! Actually, no. I can see that happening. I went to a few candy cons when I was a kid. In 2016 a bunch of middle-aged Youtube food critics who eat food in their cars and overreact to each bite created a con designed for fans to meet their favorite content creators. What people got was a crappy con. Barely anybody showed up, they charged $250 for VIP tickets, the events were stupid and unentertaining, and the main event was just reviewing Swedish fish Oreos in a Bentley while everyone watched from outside. What the hell? You would also think that since this was a food con they would have some good food to serve, right? Wrong! They just went to IHop for lunch. Again, what the hell? This was a complete fail and everyone who organized it took a huge hit with one of the organizers in denial believing that this con was successful. Wake up man. Just like the food you eat this con was a complete failure.
#6. Las Pegasus Unicon 2013
Ah~ the brony community. Quite the welcoming people they are, but even they will admit that this con sucked. In 2013 the hype of the brony fandom was really starting to ramp up and Hasbro was still trying to figure out if it was okay to send their stars to these community events. When they heard about this con, they jumped at the chance to go as did everyone else not knowing that disaster was soon to follow. For starters, the turnout wasn’t as high as the organizers had originally planned and the event soon became bankrupt with the hotel ready to kick everyone out, and the VAs/staffers not sure if they were getting paid or not. The next day, shit hit the fan as the organizers bailed on everyone leaving a number of people abandoned and forced to pay hotel fees as well as the VAs and staffers. While charity auctions and brony communities banded together to gather all the money, this whole experience left a bad taste in Hasbro’s mouth. It almost ruined all interaction in general between Hasbro and fans. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed and Hasbro managed to repair/build a strong connection with their fandom in the years to come.
#5. Tentmoot 2003
A con celebrating Lord of the Rings. That sounds fun. Oh wait, it never happened. What was supposed to be a 5-day event celebrating Middle-Earth turned out to be a huge scam created by an insane man named Andrew Blake. A man who claimed he could channel the spirits of fictional characters and actors from the books and movies. He also has a number of criminal charges against him such as assault, domestic abuse, fraud, and cult building. Blake used his many aliases to fool everyone into thinking this con was going to happen hoping to scam people out of money and nearly succeeded. He was soon captured and arrested but no charges were filed against him and he continued to work his way into other fandoms trying to build cults before disappearing sometime in 2018.
#4. TanaCon 2018
A shit show of boringness. TanaCon was created by Youtuber Tana Mongeau in direct defiance to another Youtube convention happening nearby. It was said to be a 2-day free event with concerts, talks, and meet-ups, only for the event to get shut down on the first day. People spent hours in line trying to get into the event with no water, food, or protection from the sun. When the venue hit capacity those who spent hours in line were turned away and told to come back tomorrow. Confusion and scheduling also occurred with creators as some were unable to attend or just chose not to attend the event at all because they had no idea what was happening. This meant that the con had little to nothing in it which angered everyone who went on Twitter and posted their disappointment on this con. It was a complete disaster and Tana took full responsibility for it. Don’t do it again.
#3. Fyre Fest 2017
Fyre Fest is one of those cons that sounded too good to be true and sure enough it was. The con was organized by this wealthy entrepreneur named Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule. The con promised a 2-week vacation in the Bahamas on a private island with gourmet food prepared by celebrity chefs, luxury villas to stay in and party, and live performances from Blink 182, Major Lazer, and many more. Many people signed up for the con but only around 500 people made it to the island while others didn’t make it due to flight cancellations. Upon arrival, instead of seeing luxury villas they were given tents to sleep in. Gourmet food, nowhere to be found but you got free tequila. Live performances were never scheduled or the bands pulled out. Oh, but that’s only the beginning to this shit fest. Some people had their luggage stolen; nobody could find the staff because they didn’t wear uniforms and said staff couldn’t communicate with each other because they had no walkie-talkies. So nobody knows who’s in charge and those who are in charge can’t communicate with each other. Many of the staff quit after a few hours and since this was promoted as a cashless event many people left their cash at home so they couldn’t buy anything or catch a cab to escape this shit fest. The festival was soon shut down by the Bahama government and people left for the airport to put this hellhole behind them only to find another disaster in the airport. The people were dehydrated, hungover, and sweating like mad in the hot building where the staff chain locked the doors for some odd reason. Billy was hit with a $100 million lawsuit and pleaded guilty on two counts of wire fraud. He’s now serving six years in prison. In the end, Billy and Ja Rule underestimated how much running the con would be and didn’t prepare accordingly for the event. How Ja Rule managed to escape unharmed is beyond me.
#2. Rainfurrest 2015
Usually a con is ruined by terrible organization, but there are times when a con can be ruined by the people attending them. Rainfurrest is a con for furries which went from 2005-2015 with 2015 being the last and the worst of the bunch. Things started off fairly good, but all hell broke loose when night came. People in attendance started to get drunk, disabled fire alarms in rooms to get high, toilets were deliberately flooded, other guests were harassed, they sabotaged a hot tub, somebody pooped in the pool, and they left used nappies everywhere including on people’s cars. Multiple people were arrested for possessing illegal drugs (some were even rushed to the hospital for overdoses) and the response of the hotel was swift as they warned other hotels in the area not to play host to this con. Since than Rainfurrest hasn’t happened as nobody would want to play host to this pack of wild animals and after reading what they did, I wouldn’t either.
And number one. . .
#1. Dashcon 2014
When I started this list every search I did had this as the worst con of all time and I can see why. Dashcon was a fan convention created by fans of Tumblr. The con seemed to promise a lot of stuff such as multiple panels, Welcome to Night Vale reading (don’t know what that is), live performance by Steam Powered Giraffe (have no idea who they are), the Baker Street Babes (don’t know who they are), and a massive ball pit for everyone to enjoy. There was expected to be 5,000 people in attendance but only 500 people showed up and that was the least of their worries. Multiple panels? Shitty. Welcome to Night Vale reading? Never showed up because they couldn’t pay him. Steam Powered Giraffe? Cancelled months before the event happened. The Baker Street Babes? I don’t know what the hell happened to them but I’m willing to bet they were never scheduled in the first place. That massive ball pit they were promised? It was just a kiddie pool and was shut down when someone peed in it. But it gets worse. So much worse. On the first night the bill for the venue hasn’t been paid and the hotel is threatening to throw everyone out, so the organizers beg everyone for money pretty much extorting them. They raise $17,000 allowing the con to continue but this move only came back to haunt them. Because everyone gave their money away, they couldn’t buy anything from vendors who paid $150 for a booth and aren’t getting any money back so they pack up and leave. The teen volunteers who were helping out go hungry because they were promised a free meal and never received it. One of the organizers has a full meltdown and Tumblr finds out that the artwork used on the Dashcon site is stolen copyrighted material so that gets them in trouble. Speaking of the site, the organizers had the gall to change the site’s guidelines when no one was looking so they wouldn’t have to refund everyone’s money. Good God. This had to have been a scam. Between the lies and pocketing money, there is no way you can sit here and tell me this wasn’t in some way a scam. It may not have started like that, but it quickly devolved into one. This was a con that was organized by people who had no idea what they were getting themselves into, had no idea what they were doing, and should not have done this in the first place without seeking professional help first. Dashcon remains to be the worst con of all time and serves as an example of what not to do if you decide to create a con.
And that’s my list. Can you think of any other bad cons you’ve experience in the past or heard about? Let me know in the comments section below. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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