This weekend was the tenth time I packed up and rolled out to Nekocon, our local home grown anime con and I couldn’t have been more disappointed. The convention itself wasn’t so bad, just a little light on the programming. The staff however, left a lot to be desired.

Will and I have been working on our Jet Set Radio Future cosplays for some time now. A lot of work, time and money went into these costumes. We were suited up, complete with roller blades, walked (NOT skated, walked) into the con, and were told by one of the rudest staffers I have ever come across at ANY con: “There’s no skating in the building!” Ok, Will and I head to a bench and as Will starts pulling his skates off, the same staffer comes up again to ‘inform’ us: “You’d better have shoes because there’s no stocking feet in here!” Fine, we skate out. As a note: there is no reference in the rules about skates. We checked. And the number one statement we got once we took the skates off? “Man, you guys just need skates!” We each spent $70 on those skates and the staffer could have at least been polite, it doesn’t hurt. Oh, even better? I saw at LEAST three girls running around the main con hall with, surprise! socking feet or completely bare foot.

That was Friday early afternoon; the evening was even more fun. Mike and I changed into our Snake Eyes and Scarlett costumes. I have a small toy crossbow and Mike has the toy Snake Eyes’ sword. We walk into convention center, walk less than ten feet into the hall, and get pounced on by ANOTHER rude staffer. “Are you peace bonded? Where are your peace bonds?” The table for peace bonding was at the end of said hall. We had just walked in the door.

On the lines of unannounced cosplay rules: last year, Neko decided not to request permission from the Hampton Roads Convention Center to allow full face coverings as outlined in Virginia state law. So when we showed up in Mando gear last year we were ordered to take the helmets off unless pictures were being taken. Ok, no problem, we complied without argument, but decided not to troupe at Neko because of that rule. Low and behold, we show up at con this year, and now full-face masks are allowed in the halls. If we had known that we would have trouped with 501st, but the changes were not announced, so we invested in other cosplay that we couldn’t wear.

I spent most of the con in the hotel, and we were on the same floor as the con suite. Almost every time I walked, the con chair was in there. I never saw him in the convention center once. I also heard venders talking about a surprisingly high booth fee, the con inflating attendee numbers to get them in, and they were not happy.

It bothers me that this con has gone so far downhill. I have been to much smaller and much larger cons that were both run better and with better staff. This con used to be enjoyable, but ever since we moved to the HRCC, it’s just been one issue after another. I’m just glad we only had to drive fifteen minutes up the road, I’d be pissed if I had to drive four hours for a con of that quality. There’s no point pre-reging early because there was a five dollar difference between reging in February and reging in October. Thanks to some great friends we got an amazing deal on the room, but if we can’t get the room for that rate, we’re not staying up there. So disappointing.