Being the broke young wild at heart couple that Dan and I are we went into heaps of competitions to win tickets to pop culture expo 'Supanova' and guess what - we succeeded!
Having had to work on the Friday, we had to choose Saturday to go and were well aware of the fact, that this is probably going to be the most crowded day.
Our expectations didn't come anywhere close to the mayhem that expected us: A line that went down over 2 blocks for all people with prepaid tickets, an even longer line for people who still had to buy their tickets. Dan and me, the smarty pants that we are, parked really close to the venue just to realise we had to walk for about another 10 mins to find the end of the line. In front of us were two medieval pilgrims, behind us 3 japanese looking manga girls. Passing the two storm troopers on our way up we encountered numerous alien looking creatures, which made us and my camera lense very happy.
After about 45 min of lining up we finally reached the venue and got stuffed into the tiny little space. A more than useless 'goody bag' is what we got at the entrance. Then we saw the masses of people and the heat virtually struck us in the head. Both Dan and me started to get raving headaches and after circling the few shops, without even getting a glance at the merchandise because of all the people, I suddenly had some sort of panic attack and almost fainted. I couldn't breathe and my eyes filled with tears, I felt nauseaus and my head was pulsating heavily from the pain. There was strictly NO oxygen in this place and we tried to get out of there as soon as possible.
Outside we looked for a possibility to buy a bottle of water so I could at least make it to the car safe and sound but then again, there were way to many people for the amount of food and drink provided. Having another look around, the thought of entering the building and this tiny hot room stuffed full of people made me want to throw up and by the end alll we wanted to do is find a security guy that could direct us out of the place. We finally slipped through a gap in the fence, where at least another 200 people where lining up. We couldn't believe, that they still let people in, when it was so overcrowded already. Also the prepaid line didn't seem any shorter.
Supanova would've been a pretty cool event that I was quite looking forward to but overselling the event and saving on aircon, food and drink and resting spaces ruined it. As for all the special guests announced, a lot of them pulled out shortly before the event (or at least them being unable to attend has only been announced a few days before the acutal event). This didn't mean a lot to me as I am not a nerd and didn't know half of them anyway - if I would be a fan and really keen on seeing that particular person, I would've been pretty sour though.
The whole event was a rather short experience for us and even though we didn't have to pay for the tickets, I am still pissed of with the lack of organisation. I talked to friends who went the day after, thinking the Sunday would've been less crowded, only to hear the same story. One girl in particular was so disappointed about not being able to have a look through the massive selection of comic books, because too many people where pushing through and blocking the way.
The best part was probably the lining up, where you could actually see all the costumes and crazy fans being excited about the expo.
As for the organisers I'd suggest to be a little less greedy and put more attention to quality than quantity as this was an absolute joke. I don't even think the exhibitors benifited from the insane number of people, as staying at a stand to have a look was impossible due to the crowd.
Supanova - Supafail for me.
Still I had fun taking pictures before the event and it would be a shame not to share them!
