Above, Lara "Angelique" Parker.
This year's Dark Shadows Festival was held this weekend at the Burbank Marriott Hotel Convention Center. The theme was Dark Shadows Resurrected. The convention was not exactly a "resurrection."
The last Dark Shadows Festival I attended was back around 1992 at the LAX Marriott Hotel. That convention was well-attended and the convention had a main session hall, banquets, a big dealers room, video room, art room and other things for attendees to occupy their time with. Plus, the attendees had easy access to the guests. It was an impressive convention with a lot of enthusiasm.
Above, Kathryn Leigh "Maggie Evans/Josette" Scott.
Unfortunately, the Dark Shadows Festival at the Burbank Marriott (next to the Bob Hope Airport) was sparsely-attended (maybe 400 tops), had a tiny dealers room (with not all tables occupied), a main hall and not much else. In the lobby area, there were some displays of photos, memorabilia and fan art. It also contained the tables for the celebrities to autograph programs and memorabilia for the fans. The Dark Shadows celebrities present were Kathryn Leigh Scott, Lara Parker and Marie Wallace.
David Selby was scheduled to have a session at 3:00 and Jonathan Frid was scheduled for a 4:30 session.
Sorry folks, there was just not enough there to keep my interest up to hang around for the aforementioned sessions.
Recently, I was part of a committee that put on the annual G-FEST convention for Godzilla enthusiasts in Chicago. G-FEST has far more things for attendees to do, including a huge dealers room, more than one session room for panels, video gaming, G-Pardy games, video room, a special room for small-fry activities, etc. In other words, G-FEST had more "bang for the buck" than did the Dark Shadows Festival.
My question is: What happened to the great Dark Shadows Festivals of yore? Frankly, I was greatly disappointed. With a $15/day admission price and a $12/day parking charge, one would expect that the promotors would have put on a better show. They must have lost some key organizers over the years. The little contact with the convention's staff I had gave me the impression that they lacked enthusiasm. One guy, who led a session on the new Johnny Depp Dark Shadows movie, was snarky to some convention attendees who were having a quiet conversation in back of the main hall before he took the stage. Nothing like making your customers feel welcome!
At least Lara Parker, Kathryn Leigh Scott and Marie Wallace were gracious to the conventioneers. As one who has been a part of convention organizing and planning, I felt embarrassed for them
There were 600 people at the banquet Sunday night, so your report of "maybe 400" fans attending the events is false. The correct number actually approached 1500. Had you stayed longer then you stated in the article, your facts on the event would have been more accurate. It apears "YOU" had a not so good time, but please don't speak for the other 1499 of us in attendance. True, the Dealers room was small and part of it was not used, but what was there was very interesting for many of us fans. The Q&A sessions were GREAT, and Mr. Frid was wonderful in his One Man presentation.
ReplyDeleteIn your own words, you state you haven't attended a Dark shadows Festival since 1992. That hardly makes you an expert on how a Dark shadows festival is run. This was my 18 consecutive festival.that said, I can state here that it was a well run event that ran pretty much on time all weekend. With the exception of only offering the fans one entree selection at the Sunday night banquet, did not hear any fans complain about the activities.
I know I speak for many of my fellow attendees when i say we are already looking forward to next years event, wherever that might be.
I did not attend this year's festival but stopped off to visit some friends. True, it may have been a smaller crowd than in 1992, but typically the West Coast festivals bring less fans than the East Coast festival. If you have only been to two festivals, you only have two to compare.
ReplyDeleteWhen was this other festival you speak about, the G-Fest?
Keep in mind, times are tough and many of the DS festival attenders are East Coast folks who maybe couldn't afford to go....
Just a thought.
Macaroni and cheese for a banquet? It felt like we were on candid camera. Besides that I enjoyed the Festival and had a great time every day I was there.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't macaroni and cheese, but vegetable lasagna and very good.
ReplyDeleteNo, when I was at the convention, which was from about 11:00 to 2:00 PM on Saturday, I was being generous in saying "400 tops." I'm sure more probably showed up after I left. So I stand by my figure.
ReplyDeleteSince I am involved in the planning and publicity for G-FEST, I am in the perfect position to judge whether or not another convention is giving customers their money's worth. The festival in Burbank had a meager dealers room (with several unoccupied tables), the main entry hall and the lobby with the stars and some displays. That's it!
With such slim pickings this year, I would hope that it was well run as there wasn't much there.
The contrast of this year's festival to the last one I went to in 1992 is like the difference between night and day. The 1992 DS Festival was great, no complaints.
Glad you liked this year's show, but I wasn't impressed.
Macaroni and cheese, vegetable lasagne, or whatever it was at the banquet was basically mush with a few vegetables on top. Whatever happened to a well balanced meal. This was pure starch with no protein and the only other thing was a salad. Our whole table couldn't believe it. It wasn't worth $50.00 and the word banquet was very misleading.
ReplyDeleteSorry you didn't like the banquet.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I've heard of a banquet where the attendees cannot identify what's being served. Usually, banquets such as this serve "rubber chicken" at least (chicken has traditionally been cheap).
I was debating on whether or not to attend the banquet, so your post tells me I made the right decision.
Maybe the $50 cost can be broken down like this:
$5.00 for meal; $45 for Jonathan Frid autograph.
I've attended several festivals. "Snarky" well describes many of the festival goers and organizers I've come in contact with. I went to see the stars. But by the second festival it became apparent the stars rehash the same stories over and over every festival so it gets quite boring. The fans are aggressive. Whenever you are speaking with a star, another fan will rudely interrupt. It is difficult to plan some sightseeing with the festival program since the program gets changed around.
ReplyDelete