FanExpo

I came once 10 years ago. Back then, I was a little animé nerd and in my friend’s homemade Naruto cosplay, I wandered the animé section of the expo with my cosplaying posse and took pictures with anyone and everyone. We visited the masquerade, which was more like a variety show of animé fans doing animé things. I had an absolute blast!
Fast forward to 2015, this year I decided to visit once again on a whim and things have definitely expanded. Though I am not incredibly obsessed with animé anymore, the expo was still really fun. They had a whole section dedicated to sci-​fi and horror, a very large area for merchandise, and panels upon panels of actors, authors, artists, and VAs. Some of the biggest names in geek culture were graciously posing for pictures and signing things for fans (for a steep fee of course). In the gaming and tech area, I was able to try out the Occulus Rift, as they were using it to promote the new Insidious horror movie. That was definitely a highlight.
Honestly, for $ 80, it was a good and exhaustive 5 or so hours of entertainment (and lunch). This was just me walking around with my boyfriend, taking pictures, and generally enjoying the atmosphere. I didn’t even visit any panels or events. Being 10 years older, I was able to finally appreciate all the cool stuff I was seeing instead of just running around yelling animé catchphrases. I think I’ll give this a try again next year.

Paid $ 65 per ticket ahead of time and then had to wait outside in line for over an hour to get in as they «oversold» tickets. I can understand how tix were oversold as our tix were not even scanned when we went in! Anyone could’ve photocopied our tix a hundred times over. (Print outs) Once we got in, it was so crowded we couldn’t even move. It was so disorganized! Ended up sitting on cement floor for almost 3 hours waiting for photo op as it was pointless to try and walk around. Will not be returning.

Fan Expo is an experience unlike any other. Truely it is life changing! Well worth the cost of attending

Comicon 2o15 was total crap. Very disappointing. Paid $ 20 for nothing pretty much. All the vendors sell merchandise with prices that are jacked up. Food is over priced and nothing was organized. Total waste. Very disappointed. Never. Again. Ever.

Firstly, I have no recent experience dealing with this event. I realise as of 2016 the management team that used to own the show will no longer be involved with Fanexpo in any way shape or form and I have no idea what Informa will do or what they’re like.
I went two times to the show from western Canada in 2009 and 2010. Hobbystar ran the event completely in those days. I am one of the little guys in the artists alley. I was okay with the show the first year I was there, I really had a hard time covering the cost of my table at the show, but there were like minded people I hung out with and it was a decent experience.
What totally turned me off from the show after 2010 were a few things: (1) They ripped us off when the fire marshall locked out the buying audience, and I could not sell near as much since the buying audience was never inside for a large portion of the event and (2) Hobbystar pretty well told me in my e-​mail maybe the reason I didn’t cover the cost of my table the second year is perhaps because I can’t draw, while other artists were fully reimbursed (those artists have told me since then).
That being said, I do not trust Hobbystar with running anything. As long as they are involved I keep hearing awful things about the show, and them over selling and attendees that already paid year in year out unable to get inside. And of course the blatant dishonesty they caused the artists that attended and the attendees they keep ripping off. If I suck at drawing, then why did I not have the same problem a year before? Take some responsibility for yourselves Hobbystar. Otherwise take a class in management, because you have proven to the public you can’t handle the job.
I will stay away from this con until Informa runs it completely. We all have no idea what can come of the job, but I certainly would trust my five year old nephew with running the con, in part because the moment he does something wrong he realises lying to everyone makes the situation worse.

I’ve been going to FanExpo since it was a small hobby show when I was a teenager. I remember tickets used to be about $ 12 back then, and the show was only a quarter of the size it is now. Now FanExpo is an insane 4 day event packed with Animé, Sci-​Fi, Comics, Movie, Horror, you name it. Everything is there and it now draws in more fans than ever before. In fact most days are even sold out now like the Friday and Saturday show dates. This is definitely the type of show you want to book in advance as you don’t want to miss out on the cosplay, celebrities and booth sales.
I personally think the show is a bit too big for my taste now. I mean it’s not as big as the Chicago Comicon or SDCC, but it’s the largest in Canada. I know the bigger is usually better, but I feel the Metro Toronto Convention Center can barely hold all the people in their halls. Now when I come to the show I find myself crammed in the aisles and barely able to lean over to buy fan swag due to the number of people there. Also the price of tickets has skyrocketed. What once was around $ 12 for a Saturday has jumped to $ 50 – 60 depending on the type of pass you get. The prices for each day varies, but it’s a lot considering you get nothing with entry. Not even a single comic or bag!
The show itself is huge and there are booths for sales, promotions, movies, video games, celebrity autographs, the list goes on. I mainly go to the main hall with vendors and company promos going on. The prices are ok, to be honest I’ve seen better sales at a lot of these comic shops for boxing day or black Friday. If you rarely get into the city though, or do much online shopping I guess it’s a great time to pick up items. Be sure to check out the artists alley as well to get some goods from your friendly neighborhood independent artists too!
Overall it’s a great show, but I think it’s grown a bit too large for my taste. I wish there was more free swag with your ticket purchase and event exclusives. If there was more of those I would definitely justify the price of admission. Hopefully one day it will get as big as SDCC and it becomes an even bigger phenomenon in Canada.

Have been going to Fan Expo for the past 3 years now, I think it’s safe to say… the first time you go is always the best experience. I felt super exhausted and drained getting to/​from the north and south buildings. They definitely added a bit more to their line up and made the show a bit beefier this year.
Make sure when you go:
–you bring lots of snacks and water. Food is expensive inside and not always to your liking. There is food options outside so make sure you do your research/​make reservations.
–Wear comfortable shoes/​clothes, I know if you’re cosplaying that will be a tough one.
–Bring LOTS of cash. You never know what you might see and it’s always best to be safe then sorry… or at least avoid ATM lines/​charges.
–Bring plastic covers/​folders for your photo op/​picture signings to go into. There’s no point in buying at the show… there aren’t a lot of stands selling them.
–Bring your charger/​external batteries. You don’t know who you might see wandering the expo and you want to make sure your devices are charged.
–Bring a backpack/​big bag to carry any shopping you do or free stuff you get.
–Make sure you have your ttc fare/​or book hotels early.
–HAND SANITIZER. This is a MUST.
–Napkins too.
–Buy any photo ops you want online or ahead of time. The line ups are crazy and you don’t want to miss your photo op because of that.
–Plan out your day (s) with the master schedule they offer online. Print and highlight.
–Give yourself about 20 mins to get from one building to the other.
–Make sure you make a meeting spot in case anyone in your group gets lost, there isn’t a lot of service inside certain areas of the buildings. So it’s best to meet somewhere instead of calling.
–For the parents, make sure you pack everything for your child. A blanket for them to sit on when they’re tired and lots of water/​snacks for them.
I think that’s about all I can think of, it’s what I think is pretty important from my experience going to Fan Expo.
I hope you find it helpful! Good luck and enjoy when you go!

As a Pittsburgh local Fan Expo 2014 was a bit out of my way — certainly not the furthest I’ve known pop culture fans and fellow geeks to travel for a convention, but quite a trip nonetheless. Sadly, while the trip overall was memorable I have to give the event itself less than 5 stars. (By the way my feelings rating wise are closer to a 2.5 than a 3.)
First, the pros: this convention features a great collection of genres and nerdoms. Horror, animé, sci-​fi-​, comic books and gaming all come together here, and fans can attend live shows, panels and Q&As with stars in every one of these divisions. There’s also a ton of really cool shopping and organization stands you can explore. Shopping wise there’s local artists, comic book vendors, limited edition and popular toys and more (saying three examples truly just scratches the surface of what you can find here!). As for a great organization example, I spent a lot of the weekend at the Doctor Who Society Of Canada’s booths checking out the items they’d collected and admiring the life-​sized Doctor Who props they’d built. These are just some examples from my experience, and I know for sure that different people would focus on different things. The plus side of a large convention is definitely that there’s something there for everyone. I also met some very fun and cool people at each of my events, and the conversations with fellow fans were truly some of my biggest highlights during my time at Fan Expo.
The cons? Well… let’s put it this way: I wrote a 2 page email to the organizers detailing my complaints quite fully. I had dozens of examples of how things were handled badly during my time here, from the lack of definitive line forming barriers creating traffic jams because too many major gathering areas were placed side by side, to the times management would yell openly at volunteers and visitors for doing the best we all could with the information we had. For all of your sakes, I’ll sum my complaints up as briefly as possible. Fan Expo, as others have mentioned, loves to sell tickets beyond capacity to both special events and the convention overall. They also cram as much as possible into the convention’s location, while doing very little to help newcomers like myself understand the layout of the building. Too many people + too many things to do + no guidelines for fans making their way through the mess = a gigantic disaster. During two days at this event I honestly didn’t get to do as much as I would have liked. I of course totally understand that large events inevitably involve some waiting and disappointments, but it really felt like the mess I was experiencing was entirely due to disorganization, an inability to utilize the convention space properly, and a lack of planning and of putting necessary limitations in place (and after talking to repeat visitors at the convention who have attended other large conventions who agreed with me on this, I will stand by this opinion). To add insult to injury, the volunteers (who we were told could answer any of our questions during our visit) often came up to guests like myself asking what was going on in an area, what line we were in — in other words, they started asking us for the information we were supposed to get from them. The end result was that I often felt like I was totally alone in a two-​building large sea of fellow nerds and geeks, because no one had any more of an idea of what was going on than I did.
I sadly did not get the experience you’d expect for the enormous price of admission here. I honestly wouldn’t make the trek back to Fan Expo unless I knew they’d addressed their organizational and space related issues (not to mention helped prep their poor volunteers more; I’m sure the weekend was even harder on them than it was on me). The way I see it, other major conventions have brought some semblance of order to their massive gatherings with good planning and reasonable ticket limits — so why can’t Fan Expo?

This was my first time going to a con and based on my overall experience (ticket purchase to the day of) it wasn’t enjoyable.
1. Ticket purchase.
Starting off when i purchased my ticket online, you had the option to print it or have it shipped ($ 20). I decided to print the ticket because that seemed better then having it shipped. About a week later (through comments on the expo FB page) I learned that the ticket I printed was ONLY A CONFIRMATION. This was really confusing because the fan expo website FAILED to clarify the difference in options when getting your ticket.
2. Its a $$ grabber.
As much as I love the merch, it was just to $$ there were items being sold for 2x the price offered by online & local retailers. Plus most vendors only accept cash and I don’t feel comfortable carrying alot of cash on me.
The autograph and photo sessions were $$ as well. The most expensive was Matt Smith being $ 110 for an autograph or photo. The cheap autographs were about $ 30 – 40 and those were from lesser known celebs like voice actors.
It seemed like if you wanted a fan experience, you’d have to buy it.
3. The crowd
I knew it was going to be crowded but not like how it was. There were so many people it was difficult to move around the building. You basically had to push and shove if you wanted to get somewhere. As well it was difficult to determine where lines started. Especially since there were no barriers to make queue lines.
Since it was so crowded, there was NO access to the south building (unless you wanted to wait 2h outside in the sun)
At one point they stopped letting people in. They said there was an issue but they were saying that to cover up the fact it was over capacity. Stupididly they were still selling tickets to people trying to get in (clearly in that situation they dont care about the people its about the $$) That being said I didnt get a chance to check out the south building so I ended up missing ½ of the booths and vendors. (Some of which I wanted to see)
4. Staff.
When i was standing in line for a photo-​op there was so many people that I almost missed my train. I tried to see if there were any staff floating to get an estimate on the wait however, there were no volunteers or staff available to help.
When navigating the building, some of the staff got angry if you entered an area you shouldnt be in (like a line for an autograph). However due to the large crowd you accidentally get forced that way. Plus there are no barriers to indicate where que line are.
5. Photo op purchase.
The website for purchasing photo-​ops was unreliable. It couldn’t handle the volume of customers so they had to take the website off line twice. Plus the ticket that confirmed your photo didn’t indicate where you need to go.
Due to the disorganization (which led to large crowds) and the cost of things. I dont think it’s will be worthwhile to go again. Maybe if the organization can get a larger venue (skydome or air canada centre) and spread things out better let alone clarify things more, id consider going. However I dont see myself rushing to buy a ticket next year.

Every year! Baby join this! Its so much fun meeting people an seeing how cool they dress up! Totally a worth while destination to attend!

Fan Expo is a behemoth of an event this year because they added a sports section along with the regular comic, animé, gaming, & horror sections. I went to three days out of the four. Line management to get into the expo was better this time around. People weren’t sweltering in the sun to buy tickets. And having both the north & south buildings meant there was better crowd management as well. But that also meant if you wanted to see something in one building then a different event in the other building you wouldn’t be able to make it if it occured one after the other. Also some rooms were too small for the event taking place. I went to the Captain Canuck screening & the room was so packed my brother wasn’t able to get into the room.
Scheduling seemed a bit wonky too. The panels for Nathan Filion & Karl Urban were one after the other & they didn’t clear the rooms after each! Some people were coming as early as the first panel & sitting through all the rest just to have a seat for the one they actually wanted to see. This meant that all the people standing in line outside the door had little chance of getting a seat to the panel they wanted to see. That is totally not fair. They should have cleared the room after every panel & I don’t know, given people in the line up a number so they could be sure to have a seat. That way you wouldn’t spend all your time in lineups for panels. You could actually go & shop the vendors! By Sunday I mightly sick of lineups & left earlier than I’d planned. Despite all this, I did have a good time at the expo due to the guests they were able to get. I just hope they do something about the panels next year.

As an avid sports enthusiast and a festival lover, the Fan Expo Sports Card Show was a let-​down. Layout was disorganized and the service wasn’t great. If you can, buy tickets on the website because line-​ups are extremely long at the venue. It was my first time coming and I waited two hours in the line and the ticket seller said they only sold the regular passes. Sports tickets were only sold in the North building, which was a block away. Of course, I had to leave the booth and a worker there, said to be an «escort» would take a couple others who were misled by the signs as well, to the sports ticket booth. The escort didn’t do a very good job as he left shortly after. Had to look for the building myself, ha. The line-​ups were short for the sports tickets and the celebrity signings as well, which is good. A few of the sellers at the card booths were rude but the majority were friendly. It would be spectacular if Fan Expo could hire more experienced workers and add noticeable signs. If you are meeting a sports legend or purchasing rare merchandise of your favourite athlete, then all of this may be worth it.

This is a review of the Fan Expo Sports Card Show of 2013. I thoroughly enjoyed it. There was a decent collection of dealers. O Pee Chee and Score Hockey had just come out for the year, and people were picking them up from dealers at a voracious pace. Most of the dealers’ prices were relative bargains vs the Beckett book price.
I liked that it brought together people who kind of like cards, but aren’t die hards. Its good to get casual people who maybe just want to buy some cards of local or favourite players to put in their binders. The hobby needs casual fans, and I felt this show promotes the hobby of sports card collecting very well.
The costumes people wear are great, and their is a palpable buzz everywhere around the Metro Convention Center.
For autograph seekers and those who get excited to see famous people, this is a great event.

For what its worth and location wise FanExpo is great for what it brings to the table. Since it incorporates many different genres it offers potentially more bang for your buck.
I’ve been going now for about six years and while I cannot give any account of how it was in the early nineties when it started I can give a fairly accurate account of how its been running and gaining popularity in the last three years. There is always a large line up of celebrities which is a good thing and the comic artists are not regulated to a little dark corner like they are in San Diego. Though there are a few gripes to this con that still irk me, well to be fair one of them has been lifted. The event organizers have finally taken over both buildings which means that we should not run into those overcrowding issues of years past. Another thing that seems odd is the inclusion of a sports show which in the whole spirit of the show doesn’t seem to gel to well but I’ll leave my judgement on that till the end of August.
Back to form, FanExpo is by far the best thing to happen to Canadian fans who can’t make it to New York or San Diego, and while it does not carry the same prestige (or star power) of those other shows it is still a wildly entertaining convention.
On a side note I do commissions and sets for cosplayers if anyone is interested, send my a message and I will get back to you if you so desire.

I had an AMAZINGLY GOOD TIME at this event. It was my first non-​local con and it was just so much nerd goodness. Where to even begin?
Ambiance — This con, for the insane amount of people attending (an estimated 80,000 plus over the four days of the event), was incredibly laid back. People were 99.9% courteous — no pushing, shoving, complaining, arguing, fighting, or even toe-​stepping. The second a camera came out people would screech to a halt to ensure they didn’t get in someone’s shot. The general etiquette was great and people were very willing to let you take pictures. It was a real marvel so many people could be in one place, all bustling around, and there were no injuries or other shenanigans. It wasn’t even that hard to look through stuff at most of the booths, except the few places that had items on the floor under the tables, because people were pretty careful about not crowding you.
Service — The staff was amazing and well placed. They were fast and friendly when we went to redeem our internet receipt for tickets, helpful and on point throughout the con — from the entrance to navigating from North to South Building and so on. A couple of the vendors weren’t the friendliest, but that is no fault of the con and can be encountered at any big event like this. For the most part vendors and the folks manning the booths for the individual comic publishers were very friendly and helpful. It was also impressive how many places took credit.
The content — This con is a general fan event. It has genres from all over geekdom, from sci fi to horror, from animé to video games, from comics to vendors of all merch geek. I have a lot of intersecting interests so this didn’t bother me in the slightest. Sure, some of it was overpriced, but I got some great deals and scratched a lot of hard to find comics off my list. I also bought an awesome brand new Tokidoki t-​shirt at a ¹⁄₃ less than TD sells them for on their own website.
Overall, this is a site to behold and the $ 40 I spent for one day didn’t seem unreasonable for the amount of time I spent at the con and the sensory overload of awesome I experienced. Particularly if you are from a smaller city like Buffalo that has fun but cozy, smaller cons with a lot less theatrics this is a must see.
p. s. We parked at a public lot on Queen (Nathan Philips Square Garage for $ 6 from 7am to 7pm) and walked to the Convention Center. Much cheaper than the parking closer by and a nice, laid back stroll in a non-​crowded area.

The 2011 FanExpo was our first expo experience and first adult con! We had attended some has kids in Halifax years ago, but hadn’t had the pleasure since growing up and reaching adulthood.
Well I think we found our annual geek retreat!
i was thoroughly impressed with my first expo experience!
So happy they added the extra day this year and i would be lying if i didn’t say i was concerned with the 4 hour wait in line and no admittance as previous years. It seemed better organized though still lacking.
We were staying at the Intercontinental hotel which is attached to the convention centre itself. We chose this hotel specifically because of it’s location to the convention and that there was a pedway for entrance to the convention centre. On the first day we were told by some expo staff it would be alright to head that way. Then security at the base of the escalators told us no it was for VIPs only. What’s the good of staying at the more pricey hotel with that perk and choosing it because of that perk and not be allowed to use it? I could have saved money and stayed a block away.
By the second day it seemed to be sorted out and we had our admittance via the pedway. (super happy! Day two was way better than day one!)
I really enjoyed the vendors and special guests. We didn’t even get a chance to check out the retro gaming lounge or even the panels, but when you don’t know what to expect or what to look at first, i wasn’t surprised in the end.
It was great meeting a lot of our favorite artists, though it seemed a little lacking in star status comparatively to the animé and tv/​movie celebs. and i can honestly say the animé side of the expo kinda pisses me off. I enjoy animé, but i don’t enjoy the wackiness that goes hand in hand with it. I personally don’t think it’s a great addition to the expo, but hey… it’s what gets the kiddies to come out apparently.
We were pleased as punch to meet Tony Moore and his lovely assistant Kara as we are big Walking Dead fans, both comic and tv show. We were even more pleased when Tony chose our idea for a comission. best $$ ever spent at the expo.
We also had the opportunity to chat with Steve McNiven who is a local comic hero of our hometown of Halifax, NS. We laughed at the fact we had to go to Toronto to meet him. Super awesome guy! Has all the charms of average haligonians and amazing art skills!
Some great cosplayers this year and even though ours were simple LEFT FOR DEAD costumes, (Zoey, Rochelle & Nick) we had a blast on saturday in costume and are planning new ones for next year.
If you don’t like crowds, this isn’t the place for you, but if you like Star Wars, zombies, comics, costumes, celebrities and lots and lots of walking it’s definitely worth checking out!

This review is based mostly on the 2011 Fan Expo experience, but I will touch on the broad spectrum as well.
To begin with, Fan Expo is an event that occurs in Toronto once a year, usually the last weekend of August at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (sometimes in the South Building, sometimes in the North building)
The Convention centre sports two main areas: The North Building and The South Building. The South Building is by far larger and usually Hobby Star (the company that runs Fan Expo) will book this building. Last year they did not and the fire department shut them down due to weight restrictions. They continued to sell tickets none the less and it was made painfully clear that Hobby Star is really just in it for the money rather than actually caring about their patrons having a good time. This wasn’t the first time they have majorly mucked things up. Previous years have seen a vendor arrested for selling illegal weaponry (throwing stars, brass knuckles, etc.), the Fire Marshal halting ticket sales on multiple occassions, attendee lockout (as mentioned above) and over-​selling tickets to special events without refunding.
Despite all of this bad news and bad press, Fan Expo continues to draw in tens of thousands of people every year, and growing. Normally the event happens from Friday to Sunday with the 2011 year being the first to introduce a Thursday to Sunday schedule (supposedly as an apology to fans for last year abhorrent practices, but clearly just an attempt to rake in more money). This makes it a prime spot for those with themed businesses and art to showcase and sell their work.
Now, onto this years performance: I quite enjoyed myself this year. I have been attending this event since 2004 when Rue Morgue’s Festival of Fear joined the title line-​up (now including horror, sci-​fi, animé, gaming and comics) and this was the first year I can actually tell you I had a good time all around. Due to the now-​4-​day-​event, I decided to attend Thursday, Friday and Sunday only — this made a HUGE difference. I have never been a fan of people pushing me, shoving me, running their strollers into me, etc. and this has always been at maximum on Saturdays (especially in the vendor room). This did however mean that I missed some key sessions I had originally planned on attending.
The bigger celebrities were giving their talks in the largest room available meaning there were loads of seats available without the need to stand or sit in lines for hours on end — unless you’re a major Fanboy who needs to sit in the front row to see Shatner for the fourth time. Which… you might be, if you’re reading this ;)
My husband and I splurged on the Premium (previously VIP) pass this year with the added incentive of a Premium Lounge where we could go and relax between exciting geek events. When we arrived in the lounge we were greeted by «Wonka Girls» who were handing us armloads of (not sample) Wonka candy.
This year I found things more easy going, smooth and I felt I was given more of an opportunity to see or do the things I wanted to on the various days. Aside from the candy in the Premium Lounge I couldn’t find a grand purpose for the Premium Pass this year. There was no separate entrance to the vendors area this year and it didn’t give me much more than I could have gotten for many dollars cheaper with the Deluxe pass.
As a bonafide Fangirl, I will probably always attend this event. I’ve learned the ins and outs over the years of what to sit in line for, what not to — when to visit vendors and what to buy and which day. If you plan on going, go with some friends. Even if the Expo sucks royally, you’ll still have great company.
If its your first year going — don’t spring for the Premium pass. Get a Deluxe for the weekend and pick and choose a couple of things you want to see so as not to overwhelm yourself. I would also advise first timers to go with long timer Con-​goers who can guide you in the right direction so that you don’t feel you’ve wasted your weekend.
If you can’t afford to go, my advise is to save up for the following year rather than trying to get in as a volunteer. Despite Hobby Star bringing in millions of dollars with this event, they still petition for volunteers rather than having a paid, on the ball staff to take care of things.
Altogether, I would definitely recommend attending with some friends and making your own good time.

I don’t know why I go to this convention. If I can help it last year will be the last year that i attend. Let me describe the convention to you. At the basic pass level, you pay at least 35 dollars on a Saturday for entrance. This entrance allows you some limited programming and access to a dealers room. The programming at this level isn’t very good. So basically you are paying to go shopping. When you are shopping you are mostly getting access to goods at equal pricing you can find in local stores, if not larger costs. Don’t take an android phone, because if you bar code scan you will realize that even at the discounted prices you are being RIPPED OFF.
This year in 2010 as mentioned before the Fire Marshall locked down the con. Why? because they oversold the con space and it was a fire hazard. Everyone got stuck outside, not just the 35 dollars payers. People who spent hundreds of dollars to have the «privilege» of basking in the presence of some guest celebrity were stuck outside as well.
Let me explain the ideal of a fan convention. A convention is where people who have an interest, be it Star Wars, or Bath Towels can go and meet people with their common interest. They are run to further these interests. This convention is not about the fans, they don’t care about the Fan in any way shape or form. They see people as a dollar figure they can use to maximize their price margins. This can be seen in their lackadaisical, to their chronic under staffing of pretty much everything, to the fact that this year they oversold the convention to the point that they basically got shut down on the largest day.
Basically, there are other cons in town for almost every single sub-​cons in this grab bag of a shoddily run fan con. If you go to a con as such you are less likely to feel like you are being exploited.

I think that FanExpo would be less soul-​crushing if it wasn’t five conventions jammed into one. On Saturday’s edition of the 2010 fest, 60,000 people showed up. I have never been in such a crowded environment. Oh wait, Fourth of July on the Esplanade in Boston. UGH. It was exhausting just trying to get up the escalator amidst the sea of bodies.
The fire department showed up and locked the doors so no one else could get in, leaving hundreds of ticket holders outside. Mind you, these were people who had already bought tickets and were standing in line. And guess what? They WERE STILL SELLING TICKETS. This event combines gaming, sci-​fi, horror, comics, and animé conventions into one big room with smaller rooms accommodating panels and screenings.
Not a fun time. Go on a Friday or Sunday for some more breathing room.