Fantasy Con is here, and for a first time convention, it was pretty good. Hopefully it will be back again next year. My wife and kids and I all had the opportunity to go visit the con yesterday. We decided that is how we would celebrate our independence. Plus, it was a really hot day here in Salt Lake, so it was nice to be indoors instead of outside in a park or something. I took a few pictures of some of the things we saw, not nearly enough, and I am going to share them. Before that, however, I wanted to talk about how this con was overall, compared to what we have here in Salt Lake City.
The Good:
The good stuff first. One thing I really like about this con was that there was a lot to see on the main floor. They had a battle arena, a main stage (The Relics Stage), and then two other small stages, plus glass blowers and blacksmiths that you could watch. It was all out in the open and easy to find or just stumble into. The kids enjoyed some of the shows, and the ones they didn’t, it was easy to leave because you were not in a separate room. For whatever reason, when you walk in somewhere to watch something and the doors are closed, it’s harder to leave. You feel more like you are disturbing everyone. They had musical performers, aerial acrobats, dancers, comedy. Really, something for just about everyone.
They also had a lot of hands on things, which for kids is awesome. They had an archery range, which we tried out. The boys loved it. My younger son is still talking about it. My older boy got it down pretty quickly and was shooting arrows pretty well. We were fortunate that we hit this up early because it got pretty busy later in the day. They also had a local game store, Epic Board Games from West Valley City, who came and set up a huge gaming area (board gaming) and you were able to borrow different games they had on hand and try them out. You did need to surrender your DL, but you got it back once you returned the game. This was great for us. We had been wanting to try out Catan Junior for a while with our kids. It was also nice because it gave us an opportunity to sit down and be doing something with the kids for a little bit. It was a good break. Another hands on experience was the creature encounter. I stayed away from this one because it involved snakes and lizards, but my two oldest kids thought it was pretty cool.
The atmosphere was great. They went to great lengths to transform the Salt Palace into this fantasy world. They had giant statues guarding the main way into the vendor floor, a huge dragon (pictured above), a giant animatronics rock monster by the queue for the main stage, a castle at one end of the vendor hall, and a great fountain in one of the lobby areas. They also had some great mood setting music playing throughout, so you felt, in some degree, like you were in a different place. It was cool.
Logistically, there were some things I thought were pretty good. One thing they did was have spots to purchase your autographs and photo ops at either end of the line of celebrities, instead of just being able to buy the autographs from each celebrity spot. I think this centralized some of the line and kept down on some of the congestion from the actual area in front of the actual celebrities. Another logistic plus was the number of places they had to sit down throughout the vendor hall. If you were tired and needed to sit, there were plenty of places to do it. This worked well for them, but I think this is not as easy to do (large battle arena, big stage area, big gaming area all on the main vendor floor) if the crowds were larger. I don’t think they were planning on the large crowds we saw at FanX or last year’s Comic Con, so having these large areas full of chairs worked well.
The last thing I wanted to mention was how many free photo areas they had. There were a ton, and my son wanted to stop at each of them, but those free photos make for quick, easy, cheap memories, which are the best kind sometimes.
The Bad
Most of the bad for me had to do with one thing: This was the first ever Fantasy Con, and it showed. They will hopefully get most of this fixed as they do this again and again. Overall it was a really great time, and would recommend going to anyone, but there is always room for improvement. So I don’t want people to think I am trying to overly negative here.
My biggest complaint was the entrance. They only had one, and it seemed like it was just some little back door. If you left the con (which we did for lunch) and came back, the entry was the only place you could come back in. That is probably pretty typical, but it would be nice if they had another entry. Plus the entrance they chose was on the side of the building and were doors that went right into the exhibit hall, after going up a wide flight of steps. There was no ramp in sight. This was a small problem for us because we had a stroller. Fortunately, it was just an umbrella stroller, so it was easy to carry up the steps, but what about folks in wheelchairs? One of the volunteers told us there was a ramp out there somewhere, and that they needed to get some volunteers out there to help direct people to it because it was hard to find. When we came back after lunch, there still wasn’t anyone out there to let people know.
Once we got in the building this was our process: 1. Volunteers/ security checked our backpack, for what I don’t know. 2. One volunteer called us over asking if we had wristbands, I told her no, but that we had bought our tickets online, and prepared to pull up my code on my phone. She said she couldn’t help me, but that lady over there could scan our code. 3. Lady with scanner gets it out and as I get ready to show her my scannable code, she says it’s better just to swipe my card that I used. It was easier and less of a hassle. For whom? I had my code up and ready, so now I had to get my wallet out and pull out my card. That seemed like more of a hassle. She then gave us our tickets and wristbands. We then asked her for kids wristbands. She didn’t have those but this other (third volunteer, now) lady had them. 4. So now we were with volunteer 3 to get wristbands for the kids. Finally, after getting the wristbands we could walk in. This is where the lack of con experience comes in for Fantasy Con. I am sure they will have this whole process streamlined by the next Fantasy Con. Wouldn’t it make sense to have the scanner, wristbands and kids wristbands all with everybody? More convenient for the consumers, for sure.
Planning on a holiday weekend was a gamble. A lot of people are off for the 4th of July, so they may be more available to be there. But, a lot of people go out-of-town or already have traditional plans. Plus, UTA does not run on the 4th. This was a big negative for me. I hate, HATE driving downtown, so I was disappointed to find out Trax would not be available. The fact that UTA does not run on the 4th is out of Fantasy Con’s hands, but planning it on the 4th is not. Plus I would imagine it would be slightly more difficult to staff the volunteers. Not everybody automatically gets July 4th off, and those that don’t, it’s a fight to get the time off. So, many people who may have volunteered maybe didn’t because they couldn’t get off work. I will be interested to see if this becomes a new thing each July 4th, or if they move it next year.
Overall:
Overall, the con was great. I hope it will be back next year. It is a great little thing to have in between FanX and Comic Con. Hopefully, it will continue to happen and to grow. I see it as becoming the third part of a big three, the Chris Bosh to FanX and Comic Con’s LeBron and Wade, or the other guy to FanX and Comic Con’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. It was fun. The kids had a lot of fun. I was glad we went.
Now for some pictures:
Here three of my little ones. They were obviously misbehaving, needed to be locked up. I wonder if we could get some of these for home…
Me and three of the kids with a new friend. I am the one in red plaid, just in case you were wondering.
The kids working in a dwarves mine.
With Rocky the rock monster. You can tell my daughter was a little scared. She wouldn’t get any closer than that.
My two boys in front of the giant dragon.
So that was Fantasy Con. A good time for everyone. I am glad we went. I was also glad we brought water bottles and some snacks, that made it easier to make it through the day, plus we hopped over to City Creek for lunch, which was a great choice instead of spending the outrageous money they were asking for food at the con. Lots to see, manageable crowds, I would definitely go back again next year.
