Traveling and Cons

[Anonymous No.10773008]

How far do some of you travel for cons and how far in advance do you plan? Do you try to hit a certain number of major ones each year, or are there just a few ones in your area that you attend?

[Anonymous No.10773071]

Euro here. Thousands of miles for American cons taking place in the summertime.

I plan months in advance, especially right now since it's a logistical nightmare.

I try to hit AX and Otakon each year.

[Anonymous No.10773082]

>>10773071
>Euro here. Thousands of miles for American cons taking place in the summertime.
Aren't there cons in europe?


>>10773008
The most i travelled for a con was driving from San Diego to Anaheim (1 hr 45 minute drive), i usually file my PTO like a few months before the event, usually as soon as i booked a hotel room.

>Do you try to hit a certain number of major ones each year,

Wonder con is a must for me each year. If i get to attend SDCC that would be great.


I would like attend a Convention out of state preferably, an anime con or some bucket list con like DragonCON or NYCC

[Anonymous No.10773087]

>How far do some of you travel for cons
My current record is Sakuracon. If I had flown directly from home, it would have been almost 3000 miles. Of course I was already away at the time so managed to have a much shorter flight, thankfully. For furthest distance driven, Atlanta to the top of Ohio just last week for ColossalCon which took about 12 hours.

>and how far in advance do you plan?
Clearly not as far as some people. There have been too many instances to count where I assume I'm not gonna make it cause it's coming down to the wire, then somebody chimes in to confirm they'll be there, so I just drop everything and book right there. Only a few are ever guaranteed beyond question, right from the start

>Do you try to hit a certain number of major ones each year
I guess, but honestly "major" will never be a selling point to me. I'm there to hang with people I already know, or at least meet new ones. Huge events are absolutely the wrong place to try that.

>or are there just a few ones in your area that you attend?
Two of my absolute favorites are small and local, so I'll always go to those as well.

[Anonymous No.10773088]

>>10773082
There are, pretty big ones too, but I have an aversion to my own countrymen as well as neighboring countries.

The atmosphere at American cons feels much more liberated.

[Anonymous No.10773093]

>>10773008
If I can't drive there, I normally won't go. The furthest I've gone was a 3 1/2 hour drive one way. I plan a year in advance. I usually spend so much money on one con (all things considered - transportation, lodging, dealer's room, cosplay, etc. I don't lose any money for taking off work though since I get paid salary) that I don't often go to multiple ones a year.

[Anonymous No.10773097]

someday i want to do out of state cons like gencon or PAX but living in orange county, theres already a bunch of cons with my interest in the area within driving distance.

wondercon, AX,smaller anime cons, starwars celeberation, monsterpalooza, designercon, comic con, LA comic con. thats generally all i go to every year so the majority of the time im either at LA convention center or anahiem.

[Anonymous No.10773121]

>>10773088
>The atmosphere at American cons feels much more liberated.

in what sense?

[Anonymous No.10773123]

>>10773008
Furthest I've been to is just a state away for a con. The drive is usually 6+ hours though so this year I opted for a cheap roundtrip flight.

[Anonymous No.10773415]

I usually try to figure out what cons I plan to attend in the first 2-3 months of a year. I've heard bad things about all the larger local cons here in Texas (where I moved to post con season in 2019) so I mostly go to cons further away, mostly back in the Midwest where my friends live, unless I host a panel at a smaller one in-state and day trip it for a free badge. I did AX in 2019 and am doing it again this year, but who knows how that will end up.

[Anonymous No.10773440]

The furthest I've gone I believe is 8.5 hours by bus.

[Anonymous No.10773442]

10 hours by train, as an Eurofag

[Hitman Monaghan No.10773496]

>>10773008
Furthest for me was Washington DC for Magfest. (From Washington State) I normally start planning two, maybe three months in advance.
Find out how long we have the hotel
Request time off
Pay card holder
Buy plane ticket
Plan what to wear.

[Anonymous No.10773519]

>>10773088
Bet you're fucking italian

[Anonymous No.10774266]

>>10773088
I hear Japan Expo's actually really good... but the year they came to the US was kind of a disaster. Didn't gel with the yanks - aggressive interviewer, expecting AX-style records, all staff were yuros

[Anonymous No.10774541]

I mostly do midwestern and eastern cons. So far my furthest drive is around 7 hours to Anime North in Canada. I'm going to go out 8 hours to my first southern con this year. Typically my far away ones are 6ish hours to the east coast.

Each of the big cities in the Midwestern area have a con with a large enough draw that I do the trek between them every year. A part of why I'm going to my first southern con is to change it up a little bit. There are some west coast cons that seem interesting but I don't have any base out there. I don't really know anyone out that way. So even if I convince a group to go with me it kind of feels like your going as a stranger?

[Anonymous No.10775073]

I went to Atlanta Georgia for momocon. I live in North Carolina.

[Anonymous No.10775084]

Question for cosplayers;

How do you transport a costume if you're taking a flight? What if it has props, or an odd shaped/styled wig that can't just be tossed in a bag?

[Anonymous No.10775110]

>>10775084
I found a store that sells moving boxes near me that I use. As long as the box is within 62 inches then it's technically not oversized so airlines don't charge extra, even if the dimensions are weird as fuck (I brought one box that was 37 x 20 x 4 to carry a long prop). If you're going on some trips Amtrak might be preferable due to having larger luggage allowances.

[Anonymous No.10775412]

>>10775084
if i have a cosplay with props i know im going to be traveling with, i make sure i can break it down during the build phase of it. so stuff like swords or guns, they break apart and held together with magnets and dowels

[Anonymous No.10775834]

>>10775084
Golf bag hardcases are perfect for traveling with odd and long cosplay items.

[Anonymous No.10776025]

>>10775084
Hard case designed for sports gear if it's for say, a staff or longer sword. Odd wigs - if weirdly shaped but can be packed carefully in a box, then your check in will be a box.

[Anonymous No.10776335]

>>10773088
Same, and I've been thinking of going to AX as a central euro

[Anonymous No.10776354]

>>10773008
I've been all over the place, including to Japan, as industry or a GoH, but that doesn't really count imo. Furthest I've gone on my own dime for the sole purpose of attending a con (I don't count attending stuff I happened to be near for other reasons) was LA to Austin for a niche gaming con.

>>10775834
Pelican-style rifle cases can also be good options, and have the extra advantage that baggage handlers are generally extra-careful with them because they think it's a gun and they can get in huge trouble if they fuck up with one. I actually know some people who, when traveling within the US with props or other fragile gear, actually put a gun in there (or something that legally qualifies as a gun, a handgun frame or stripped AR-15 receiver or similar) because it guarantees special handling and TSA aren't allowed to open it up and fuck with it without you supervising. (Afaik they inspect it in your presence and then put a tamper seal on it that doesn't come off until you claim it at the other end.)

[Anonymous No.10776709]

I travel to a lot of US/Canadian conventions from the UK since the flights are rather cheap and the conventions actually have more meat to them. Most of the time you go to events here just to meet up with friends you know while the guests are rather subpar. Europe has some good events as well but the whole atmosphere is different across the pond, especially when it comes to the people and parties.

[Anonymous No.10777355]

Hi, another Euro here.
Never been to any American convention but I thought I'd give my perspective in terms of Western-European cons.
The furthest I had to travel was from my homeland, The Netherlands, to the UK. That was by airplane.
I am planning to go to some German and French cons in the future. Never been interested in Belgian cons because they're just worse versions of Dutch conventions.

Now in terms of the Netherlands I always stand by the fact that we have one of the best public transport system in the world. You can practically get anywhere here in a relatively short time. Due to the fact that The Netherlands is so small (smaller than most US states) you can practically host an event anywhere here and people always show up. Therefore you can almost always expect the same community to be at every convention. It's funny because whenever somebody mentions organising a con in Groningen (the fart north of our country) or Maastricht (the far south) people immediately try to push those ideas off due to it being "too far". (Mind you, traveling from those two points by train would take you 4 hours at most, and those are our "extremes").

(cont.)

[Anonymous No.10777356]

>>10777355 (cont.)

Most people here travel by train and bus to our conventions. People that live close by sometimes even come with bikes. The older community also carpools to cons quite often. You never have to use an airplane to travel to a convention in the Netherlands if you're already here. A very funny thing about the Netherlands is that sometimes people even go to a convention for three days but travel back to their home every night if its around 2 cities away. I did that once with a con that was around 40 miles away. I traveled back and forth because I was lucky there were late-night trains that weekend.
However hotel-culture is still a thing here and you do get the better experience by being in a local hotel during the con.

I do think that the average Dutch cosplayer (or convisitor in general) visits cons more often than Americans do. Imagine all major US conventions beind held in the same state, that's basically what we've got. We don't really have this "local convention" culture. It's either a very big/international con or it's a very small experimental thing. We used to have these local conventions though but they all stopped sadly.

[Anonymous No.10777369]

I don't travel more than 3 hours other than comiket. Vomiket is the only convention in the world worth traveling more than a few hours to.

[Anonymous No.10777555]

>>10777369
I've only ever done Comiket as an exhibitor. Going as a regular attendee and having to wait in those lines seems brutal as fuck.

[Anonymous No.10777614]

So far, the cons I've been to have been pretty close to where I live. Back when AkibaFest had its first run in LA, I was only about two or three hours by car. Kawaii Kon this year was literally half an hour drive.

I'm attending GacuCon (without cosplay cause of life matters) and that will likely be the longest I'll ever go for a Con, until Japan unfucks itself or something cool happens in Europe.

[Anonymous No.10779752]

>>10773008
Was gonna fly to Dragoncon from Washington DC but the airlines are super clusterfucked right now. I'm just gonna drive down there.

[Anonymous No.10780262]

>>10773415
>I've heard bad things about all the larger local cons here in Texas
Stop listening to leftist pussy faggots who cry over everything. Go to cons and enjoy them. And stop getting your opinions from people on the internet. Even mines. Just go and see what it's like. Jesus christ

[Anonymous No.10780268]

>>10773415
We have a convention nearly every fucking weekend here and before you even try them our you blow a bunch of cash to travel back to the middle of nowhere?

[Anonymous No.10781240]

Went to Comiket for Asia, wanted to do that Taiwan one
Farthest North was Desucon Lahti Finland, higher than the alaska one
Middle of no where con had to be Kawaii con in Hawaii
Might do the con in Africa next year
Will do one in Aussie land next year

From the US, just often depends on work but a plane ride is a plane ride.

[Anonymous No.10781302]

>>10773008
I try to travel as far as possible, it's fun and it's a built in excuse if a girl gets too clingy after drunken con sex

[Anonymous No.10781350]

>>10773088

>I have an aversion to my own countrymen as well as neighboring countries

least racist european/slav

[Anonymous No.10782128]

>>10780262
>>10780268
I need to make more of an effort to meet people/make friends, but at this point I'm in my mid-late 20's. I don't want to have to play the discord/facebook minigames to find rooms/people to hang with & soloconning can get boring easily.

[Anonymous No.10787363]

>>10773008
I flew to California from Ontario for Star Wars Celebration this year and I'll be flying to the UK for the one next year. My motivation for going is getting to spend time irl with internet friends who I normally only get to talk to over discord while getting to do a fun event as a group. To me nothing beats getting to dress up with a bunch of buddies and go to an event we're all passionate about.

[Anonymous No.10789422]

lol no. I live in Los Angeles. There are literally all kinds of cons just an hour - two hours away.

Fuck travelling to some city just because of some autistic anime event

[Anonymous No.10789425]

>>10773088
>a euro liking america

thats a first

[Unicorn No.10789436]

16 hours altogether from Ohio to Atlanta and back for Momocon.

6 hours altogether to Austin from Ohio for Colossalcon texas.

6 hours to San Antonio from Ohio for San Japan.

8 hours from Ohio to Los Angeles for AX, and ALA pre Covid.