ColossalCon East 2017 Gallery by Adam Etheridge, Sunday

Like I did, Adam Etheridge also left about mid-afternoon on the last day of ColossalCon East, so he has a single gallery from Sunday as well. Since this is our last gallery from the new convention, I’ll close out with some observations.

Like its older sibling in Sandusky, OH, ColossalCon East is as much about cosplay (and specifically glamour cosplay) photography as it is about anything else. That said, it is clearly an anime convention at its heart. Remove the water park and bathing suits and it is not much different than AAC or AWA or Anime Boston.

That water park and those bathing suits are the main draw and will continue to be so, just like the original ColossalCon. Replicating this business model elsewhere in the country would be a very smart thing.

The Poconos location is beautiful, and will just get more so as the Kalahari expands the outdoor water park and the convention center. And as more people explore the woods and fields around the resort, more shoot locations like the small waterfall will be discovered.

The convention staff members were friendly, professional and informed every time I interacted with them. In full disclosure, I am friends with many of the guest team staffers, but I never interacted with them in their roles for the con, only when off duty, so they aren’t counted in that previous sentence. (I do, however, know them to be friendly, professional and informed as well.)

ColossalCon East sold out of its room block at the Kalahari very quickly for a first year convention, and I would expect it to do so every year going forward, no matter how much it expands that block. I know I’ll be back (although I have no problem staying at a less expensive hotel an easy drive away).

The one down side is the timing. Early September puts it too close to Dragon Con, and this year the weather was downright chilly. I am sure it can’t move much closer to the June dates of the original ColossalCon for fear of cannibalizing that con’s attendance. But early September — and next year is already set for Sept. 7-9 — is a tough time for many fans.

In this final gallery are cosplayers Sakuraharunogirl, Rin Cosplay, Aree’s Cosplay Workshop, Sorrowturquoise cosplay, Mao-chan, Aara Lee, xpandux, hide.was.here, eblcosplay, and many more.

Photo gallery tips: Once the page loads the images, you will see the Forward and Back navigation arrows above the image, in case you want to scroll faster than the preset. And to see the entire gallery as thumbnails, click on the gray four-box square next to the navigation arrows.

High-res images for sale!
If you are pictured in any of our galleries and want the high resolution download for yourself, we can make it available via a private, password-protected link, for $8 per image. Just send an email to editor AT nerdcaliber.com.

We are also now selling high resolution images of some of the photos taken of cosplayers that have agreed to let us do so. To see the 50 or so images we have available to download for a mere $8 each, go to our Anime Boston 2016 sales gallery and our brand new Spring Super Megafest 2016 sales gallery.

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