Colossalcon East 2024 Writeup And Gallery Part 2

In my first article on Colossalcon East 2024, I gave an overview of the attractions, events, and activities at the convention this year. This article will be more of an editorial-type piece, where I’ll cover some of the feedback shared by other convention attendees, as well as sharing some of my own personal opinions based on my experience at the convention.

I’m very pleased to start things off discussing a major improvement that many attendees, including myself, noticed this year. Over the course of the past couple of conventions, staff at Kalahari’s waterpark began to enforce seemingly arbitrary restrictions for photography there, which included prohibiting flash photography in the area. This year, flash photography was allowed throughout the convention in the waterpark, and I am not aware of any other restrictions being enforced.

In recent years, I had heard quite a few accounts of attendees being told by Kalahari staff that their attire was inappropriate in some manner, which many attendees referred to as being “dress coded.” This year, I did not hear of any such instances taking place. Although I can’t say for sure that this didn’t happen to any single person during the convention, it was clear that staff was much more lax when it came to what was allowed this year.

Kalahari staff just seemed much more relaxed and friendly during the event this year. In one video that I saw posted in one of the Colossalcon East Facebook groups, security and staff were seen dancing during one of the late meetups in the lobby area. During the past couple of conventions, it felt like security and staff treated us like a nuisance rather than valued guests. This year it felt as though they were simply there for our assistance and safety, as it should be. I’m not sure what prompted this turnaround in attitude from venue staff, but it was a very welcome change.

A few complaints
One of the most common complaints I heard this year was that many attendees found it difficult, if not impossible, to get in touch with various convention departments via email. Some people mentioned that they were given a runaround when reaching out to Colossalcon East staff, with one department directing them to another department, who would sometimes point them back in the direction of the original department being contacted. Other attendees mentioned receiving no response at all to their inquiries.

I noticed that the meetup/photoshoot spreadsheet was not posted on the convention’s website until around a week before the event this year. In years prior, a first draft of this spreadsheet was released several weeks prior, giving attendees who wanted to plan their cosplay lineups around the meetup schedule more time to do so. Some meetup hosts who attempted to contact the department in charge of this in order to make changes to the time or location of their meetup expressed difficulty when doing so. I noticed several hosts mentioned that they did end up getting a response at the eleventh hour, but getting things straightened out farther ahead of time would have given them more time to get word out to those interested in attending their meetups.

I don’t think that these problems necessarily mean that Colossalcon staff members aren’t trying their best. It seems more likely that the convention is short-staffed in some areas. As Colossalcon runs four conventions during the year, and has another one coming in Virginia in 2027, I think that it’s important that the organizers invest in more staff sooner than later, as this is a problem that could get bigger as Colossalcon expands.

There are a couple of issues pertaining to the after-hours night swim/party that were brought up last year and were mentioned again after this year’s convention. One is that people were not allowed to bring in drinks in the Kalahari cups that were purchased elsewhere in the venue into the night waterpark party, despite this being allowed during the normal operating hours of the waterpark. Some attendees mentioned that this may be due to concerns about drugs, which I’d say is a valid reason. However, this needs to be properly communicated to everyone ahead of time. Colossalcon East’s official website states “You may however bring food and drink purchased at the Kalahari into the water park.” This needs to be updated if it is not the case.

Another concern is that children have been present during the night waterpark party. Some people believe that this event is for attendees that are 18 or 21 and up; however, this is not the case. That said, many attendees, including myself, think it would be a good idea for the organizers to consider making it an adults only event for a number of reasons.

One issue that has persisted for quite a few years now is the lack of communication from Colossalcon management. Attendees have a number of ways to communicate feedback to convention management, including a feedback form that is posted after each event, and a feedback panel that is held on the final day of each convention. That’s great, but the problem is we never hear any sort of response from Colossalcon to the issues and concerns we have. I saw a post in one of the Colossalcon East Facebook groups that summed things up pretty nicely. I don’t recall the exact statements, so I’m going to paraphrase a bit. Someone that attended the feedback panel said something along the lines of “Y’all complain about stuff, but barely anyone showed up for this feedback panel.” The top response was something like “We don’t bother because management doesn’t seem to care.”

While I’d like to think that Colossalcon management does care and at least reads and listens to the feedback we provide, I think it’s important that they do something to show that’s the case. I’d recommend that Colossalcon makes an official post across social media after each convention to address some of this feedback. Communication is key, and it can certainly provide some much-needed reassurance to convention attendees that management is working to improve the event every year.

Cosplayers in this gallery include zadrabug, mr.markmeer, xavacynx, casaragicosplay, edotactician, styx.cosplays, theday.hascome, chegglesdcos, intaxkt, maridaleedle, moknowsdesign, notsosolidsnake_productions, cosplayswithv, lavaapunk, mizubimayhem, peachyaki, _brierodriguez, sunflowercos, miss_across, modernruss, saren_mae_cos, dioquetila, _jimmyap_, jayythepisces, ganba.ruby, mejiecosplay, _mycabbages, 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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