This is a review of the National Haunters Convention Held on May 5, 6, and 7 of 2013.
I arrived Saturday morning to see a line of people almost 1 mile long (literally). Found out that they were in line for the Gun Show in the next building.
I cut through a break in the line to go into the building that the Haunt Con was in.
There was a sign that stated the admission was $30. This is their one day fee, but by purchasing this ticket, it would admit you into the other days as well.
I bit the bullet since I was already there and drove over One hour to get there.
I went inside and was dissappointed. It was held in a large warehouse, concrete floors, and looked like it needed a good cleaning.
Then I learned that a number of vendors did not show. I expected the place to be packed with people and vendors, nope, neither.
I overhead that they sold over 3000 prepaid tickets, and the attendance for the weekend totaled less than 1000. I think someone was exaggerating.
There was A lot of empty space.
Now I will say that the vendors that were there put on a nice show and their individual booths were very nice with a lot of interesting products on display.
I did overhear many vendors complaining about the show management. I also heard many of the volunteer staff talking about how poorly they were being treated.
I found out that a large portion of the vendors were attending this for the first time and they would probably never attend again. I cannot blame them based on what I saw. I also understand why the show did not have many repeat vendors from previous years.
The show itself did not in any way resemble the video that I had seen of it ; http://www.nationalhauntersconvention.com/video4.htm
I did not attend any of the classes, so I will not give an opinion. Although I did hear one of the "Professors" say "I am late for my class? I didn't know I was teaching a class."
The food was utterly terrible and way way overpriced. Hot dogs were almost $4, coffee $3 and reminded me of sewer water.
I threw them in the garbage. Next time I will bring my own.
Toward the end of the evening, some of the vendors decided to pack up earlier than the close time and I feel like they stole from me. I paid full price and did not get full value.
A little after 5 on Saturday, one of the vehicles that was on display was driven out of the building, disrupting a number of vendors, patron and spewing diesel exhaust into the room. I found out later that it was just being parked in the lot outside the door. WHY COULDN'T IT WAIT until the show closed for the night. Bad judgement on the managements side to do that.
I left the con and decided that the ball wouldn't be worth my time at that point.
Sunday I went back to find another dozen of the vendors had packed up and left. Two of which I wanted to make a purchase from. I guess they didn't need the sales, and I suppose I didn't need to waste money with companies that could not respect the patron enough to stay and deliver what was promised to me when I purchased a $30 ticket.
At around 2:30 I saw a bunch of the vendors starting to pack, ( I thought that the show went to 4, I guess that the vendors decided otherwise). I talked with a couple of the vendors before I left, and most of them said that this was the worst event that they ever attended and they would not return. I agreed with them.
In my opinion, the National Haunters Convention (http://www.nationalhauntersconvention.com) is a total waste of time and money. With the exception of a few vendors, almost everything that was available can be gotten during the halloween season at most stores. Other items can be easily made yourself. (One example is the animated little red riding hood holding the head of the big bad wolf. All it was was a xmas animated little girl, in a red rope, holding the candle, and the "artist" put a wolf's head in the basked, removed the white lacing and sprayed blood on the girls face and the wolf's neck) I will be doing this this year.
Do yourself a favor and avoid this Con. All they want is your money.
Most likely, though, it will not take place, there is the possibility that there will not be enough vendors to make it happen anyway.
