Conventions are loud, obnoxious, over-crowded freak shows. That being said, I’ve attended a few of them. Over the years the numbers have dwindled, but there are still two that I’ve regularly attended: Spooky Empire’s Ultimate Horror Weekend (which I’ll be referring to as Screamfest from this point on because SEUHW looks weird, and just like this sentence, is idiotically long) and May-Hem. If you’re unfamiliar, they’re Orlando-based horror conventions, both hosted by the same people.
The basic set up for either con is mostly interchangeable, though Screamfest is larger of the two. Bands, booze, famous people, costumes, vendors, tattoos, blah blah blah. It’s an adventure. A busy, hectic, crowded adventure. I’m a long-time Screamfest attendee for a reason, though. So let’s get to it.
Let’s start with stuff that has nothing to do with Screamfest. We arrived on Thursday, the con started on Friday, and we didn’t actually see it until Saturday. Why for? ‘Cause Old Town, yo.
Bars, cars, props, shops, an amusement park and even a haunted house. We checked out some of the shops, had a few beers, saw some amazing classic & vintage cars and I even almost pushed down some kids after a zombie invaded my personal space in the haunted house.
They had all of the main strip decorated for Halloween. Old movie monsters walking about and small sets done up to serve as a backgrounds for photo-ops with said monsters.
Then, I heard the Vincent Price Thriller monologue. It was louder than any other music playing, and seemed to be kind of, playing from everywhere. And then this happened:
My sister edited all the Old Town pics. Not bad, Eh?
They were pretty good dancers. After that, we headed back to the hotel to change and go get some food. About the time we ordered said food I started to feel physically ill. Turns out going from a relatively healthy diet to essentially drinking grease for a couple days wasn’t my best move. Needless to say, I didn’t make it to the pool party.
Shots, shot, shots, shots shots…
Saturday we made it to the convention. First thing we saw was the hearse & creepy car show.
And hey! Christine was there.
We met a zombie and cool voodoo creepers in the parking lot.
The freaking vendors room was packed. Standing room was non-existent. In the celebrity area I caught a glimpse of George A. Romero and Patricia Quinn, but I’m not the “stand in line for hours to meet people” type. So instead we hit a horror radio how-to panel because I’m also not a “crowded to fucking capacity panel” type.
Due to extreme caution and downing a small ocean of pink stuff, I was safe to actually attend that night’s pool festivities. Talking, drinking, and rave light dancing/mock-murders in the pool-facing rooms ensued. Everyone was there.
Even Cobra Commander showed up.
OH! On our way back to our room, the elevator tried to kill us. That is not sarcasm. Just thought you should know.
Sunday was much more tame. The vendor room actually had space to breathe! I love breathing space.
I even bought some stuff.
One room of the convention held a Tribute to The Haunted Mansion. This exhibit was done by Mucklebones, and their work never ceases to amaze me. It was awe-ha-ha-some. So awesome that I took 592 pictures of it.
This awesome tree was at the end of the exhibit. It’s not technically part of the mansion, considering the Haunted Mansion gift cart, it kind-of made sense. Kind-of.
After that, we headed home. Sorry That this post is so damn late. Sometimes, those unavoidable life-upheaving/changing things happen. Sometimes they even happen all at once. I’m not going to get into the meat & ‘tatoes of it. Just know that for the most-part it was fucking awful, but there were a couple things that were actually, really quite good.
While we’re on the subject of things belated: Happy not 2013 again! Ever again….
