Colossalcon East 2024 Writeup And Gallery Part 3
Alas, all good things must come to an end, as we come to my third and final article and photo gallery from Colossalcon East 2024. I’ve written about the majority of what I wanted to discuss in my first two articles, so in this one I’ll go over some personal thoughts and random tidbits from the convention.
First and foremost, the convention was a good experience overall for me this year. This is in no small part due to the positive change in attitude from Kalahari staff, particularly in the waterpark, where things went quite swimmingly (heh) this time around. With that said, it will probably take a couple more years like this before I can come into Colossalcon East with excitement and optimism rather than anxiety and pessimism.
The outside part of the waterpark was open for part of the convention, which is not the case every year. On Friday it was open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. On Saturday it was closed due to inclement weather, as it was raining for most of the day. On Sunday the outdoor slides were closed, but the rest of the outdoor area was open. Historically, it has been a bit of a crap shoot regarding whether or not the outdoor waterpark would be open, as we’ve had some years with good weather, but despite that the area remained closed. The past couple of years it has been open for part of the convention, despite the weather being a bit dodgy at times.
For historical purposes I’ll log the weather during the convention here. Thursday was sunny with a high of 71 degrees. Friday was partly cloudy with a high of 71 degrees. There was rain throughout the morning and afternoon on Saturday, with a high of 64 degrees. Sunday was mostly sunny with a high of 62 degrees.
The at-the-door cost of a multi-day pass to the convention was $95 this year. I did see some codes for $10 off floating around a month or so before the convention, and tickets are cheaper if you buy them earlier in the year, but I can’t recall when and what the exact price points for them were.
Things got a bit more expensive for some visitors that wanted to buy day passes on multiple days for the waterpark this year. The Kalahari had previously offered a monthly pass, which allowed unlimited entrance to the waterpark for an entire month, for around $130. That was less than the cost of buying a pass to the waterpark on two separate days. Sadly, the Kalahari discontinued monthly passes prior to the convention this year. Fortunately, I was able to purchase an extra wristband from someone for a very reasonable price this year, which helped me keep my personal costs down.
More than just waterparks
Colossalcon management very much wants potential attendees to know that there’s much more to their events than just the waterpark. And there certainly is, as I’ve written about many of the unique attractions of the “convention proper” in my first article on the convention. That said, many of the photos in my galleries from the convention, and frankly just about any other photographer’s galleries, were taken at the waterpark. And of course, being in the waterpark, most of the cosplays in the area will be swim-themed. This is a big part of what makes the “Colossalcon experience” unique, and it should be expected that people are going to lean into that. I can take cosplay photos in front of a boring, grey concrete wall at literally any other convention in the country, so why would I do that at an event that has a much more photogenic environment to take photos in? A seemingly rhetorical question for sure, but if anyone has a good answer, I’m all ears. Otherwise, I’d be hard-pressed to consider changing things up significantly.
That about wraps things up for my coverage of Colossalcon East 2024. For full disclosure, I’ll mention that Nerd Caliber did not receive press passes for this year’s convention. Hopefully next year we will officially be press members for the event, and be able to get some more team members there to get some video coverage and more photo coverage from different areas of the convention.
Cosplayers in this final gallery include Majestic Misato Cosplay, sheepyhorns, starberryshortcake, bewitched.belial, elizawitchcosplay, elle.chu, xxkohbun, kitbitcosplay, asc_jkenn, rexa_cosplay, _mycabbages, mizubimayhem, rufflebutt_cosplay, infinitepolygoncosplay, mystik.cos, candycosplay21, meivix, popsickleshark, warpstarcosplay, mickysometimes, AshleyIsALot Cosplay, and many more.
We now use Smugmug to present cosplay photo galleries and will post all photos there, with a link to each gallery in its own gallery article. This will allow us to give you higher resolution images to download — still for free.
To view the entire gallery, just click on the image below. If you are pictured in any of our galleries, feel free to download the images and use them non-commercially on social media, with appropriate credit.
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