Metrocon 4, June 2-4, 2006   This was, by far, the worst anime convention I have ever been to...which is a pity, as this was the first anime convention Josh and I went to together, and Tampa is a gorgeous city. We both highly enjoyed visiting Tampa moreso than attending its anime convention!   I had heard a lot of great things about Metrocon from its attendees, and had actually planned to go in 2004, but crap happens and I didn't go. Then for all of 2005 I didn't cosplay or go to a single convention. I was completely out of the cosplay scene. So I didn't know that Metrocon 3 had apparently been a huge disappointment. Had I known this, I probably would have not gone. The entire convention turned out to just be one issue after another. Issue #1: Cost   Josh and I went mainly for my art table in Artist Alley(and of course, cosplay). Art tables were a whopping $75, which is pretty darn expensive considering way bigger conventions offer way cheaper tables! This price did not include a membership pass, nor did having an artist table qualify us for discounted passes. So we also had to pay $50 admission...each. I still do not understand why membership badges were so expensive; while Metrocon says it's "Florida's largest anime convention" it is still pretty small; only a couple thousand attendees. Even with this $175 we had to spend up front, we were confident we would make this amount back in the alley, plus profit. Issue #2: Artist Alley location   The alley turned out to be in the Dealer's Room. I had never heard of an Artist Alley being in a dealer's room, and didn't know what to think about it. As the day progressed, it didn't take long to realize that this was a horrible set-up. The Alley was actually set up by the exit door of the Dealer's Room; so people came in, flew to the dealer tables to shop, then completely bypassed the alley on their way out. Needless to say, business was crappy for us and those all around us. It didn't help that there were no signs or anything that designated the section as Artist's Alley. Issue #3: No food...no water...   The whole convention I was either thirty or hungry, and heard everyone around me complaining about those same two ailments...and for good reason. While most conventions provide free water stations for its attendees, Metrocon did not. The convention center would not allow it. I only saw two water fountains that weekend, and they were each on completely opposite ends of the convention center. The overpriced vending machines were sold out on Friday. There were only two places inside the convention center to buy food; a coffee stand and a little "grille" area that sold $5.00 hotdogs and the like, and had very limited hours it was open. The convention center was so freaking greedy, that it didn't allow anyone in the dealer's room to sell food or drinks...not even pocky or Ramune sodas. You had to walk several blocks in Florida summer heat just to find a restaraunt. The closest thing was a Publix grocery store, and it was still quite a walk to it. Issue #4: Costume Contest   By Sunday we were both feeling pret-ty frustrated with the whole convention. We didn't even bother to set up in the alley for more than a couple of hours, and then we headed to the line for the Costume Contest pre-judging (which was actually confusing in itself, as the two different size con books had two different times listed for it). The contest was to be 65 contestants (short contest). I get in line with 15-20 minutes to spare, and I was far enough up in the line to insure a spot in the contest. Time goes by...a long time. The line doesn't move, and the doors for the pre-judging room never open. After an hour and a half, a girl comes around to the line and says "Hi, I'm one of the judges! I'm sorry we haven't started pre-judging yet, but me and the other judges were in the Human Chess Match, which ran late. So now we are going to be giving out stickers with a time for you to come back for pre-judging! Sorry!"...and then goes into the pre-judging room. The obvious question is, of course, why were the judges involved with an event that was scheduled *right* before pre-judging? Well, you tell me. Anyway, I got a pre-judging time for 3:30. I came back and saw that I was in a group of about 10-15 people that had the 3:30 time slot. After about 45 minutes, my turn comes up. I'm standing outside the door, and it opens. I take a step forward, and the staff member says to me "Due to time constraints, we can't take anymore contestants." And slams the door in my face. The girl behind me asked me what the woman said, and I told her...and she ran off crying. I started to leave, and looked behind me and saw the remaining nine or so people still standing there, and they're looking at me kinda weird. So I walk up to them and tell them what the woman told me, since she hadn't made an announcement to everyone else. We all stand there talking about it, and then the same staff member who slammed the door in face comes out, and goes to the end of the line and grabs a group, and takes them into the pre-judging room. She never even made eye contact with the rest of us while she did this. We all (about 10 people) stood there, thinking maybe the woman was confused and would come back out. After all, we *were* part of the 65 contestants. It's not like we were extra people they tried to fit in but couldn't. After a few minutes, she came out with a chair and stood on it to make announcements to the people that had been judged and were lined up (they were standing on the opposite side of the hall from us). The staffer still acted like we were invisible. So we started to ask her questions. "Excuse me? Excuse me, but are we going to be allowed in? Excuse me, there are only ten of us here, can't you let us in?" Then the staffer turned around and YELLED "IF YOU CAN SAY ANYTHING NICE THEN LEAVE RIGHT NOW!" WTF...we were being nice, she was the bitch. Cries erupted from our small group. "We didn't paid $50 to get treated like shit!" "Fuck you!" "I paid $100 to get in this convention and get a door slammed in my face!" The staffer just stared us, apparently not having expected us to come back at her with anger. We all walked away, yelling various things the whole time (no one was escorted out, as was rumoured later on). Overall Thoughts   This convention was shitty; there's just no other way to say it. It's small, extremely overpriced, poorly organised, everything ran and hour or more late, and the staff was horribly rude. I honestly cannot name one positive point about this convention. On conventionoverload.com, you can actually watch several disgruntled attendees complaining about everything from the game room, to the cosplay contest, to the lack of water. I cannot recommend this convention to anybody; even if you live in Tampa, don't bother.