Smaller Geeky Events July - September 2022

9/23-25/2022: Free Star Wars and Disney Art Con

So this was basically an artist alley that people could stop by. First it was a massive walk from the front doors of the Denver Convention Center just to get to the room where it was being held. If you had shared the event on your social media you got to pick from a few different mini prints (about the size of a normal piece of paper). Once inside each artist had their work on display and there was a central pay station by the entrance. Most of the stuff was really over priced. At cons I'm used to paying $20-30 for a larger print and even the small ones here were going for $40. I know inflation is going on, but for them to hike the prices up that much for a special event was disappointing. I didn't end up buying anything and I wish they would have had more of a rang of prices. Also some artists were friendly to people when others were not. Not really a good experience.

This artist was actually working on things in front of people so they could see the process. This was one of the nice artists that let me take his picture when I asked and even talked to me about what he was doing. For this picture he was adding black light paint.

8/27/2022: Colorado Festival of Horror 2022 Beer Release at Outworld Brewing

https://www.facebook.com/events/1343998482737311/?active_tab=discussion

Like last year the Colorado Festival of Horror released a new beer to help celebrate their up coming con. 

The beer had the look of an Irish red. To me though the taste did not match the description on the menu. The beer was very hops forward which gave it a bitter taste. The bitterness did overpower the "sweet biscuit" that they were going for. They needed to either cut back on the hops or dial up the other flavors. Last year's beer was much better.

The con had their table again where you could buy special glasses with artwork for the beer release and other con related items. I actually bought last year's con pin since it was on sale.

This event overall seemed much smaller then last year's. The experience from the brewery itself was disappointing. Last year I gave them a lot of room for bad customer service due to it still being part of the height of covid and being short staffed. This year though it seemed just as bad if not worse. One of the waitress kept running around asking if the dishes she came out from the kitchen with was theirs. The food orders seemed highly disorganized. Then when we asked about the watermelon salad they had last year they said they no longer carried it. Too bad since it was a great item on their menu and the only reason I was able to talk Mommy Geek in going with me today. She had been looking forward to getting it again. Then even worse when she then tried to order the cheesecake that were out of that and it was the only dessert on the menu. I'm not sure why they even bother to have food at this place with all of the issues they have around food. Overall the experience was bad enough this year that I'm not sure I will make the effort next year to cover the beer release if the con decides to do it again. 

8/20/22: Hello Kitty Cafe Truck Visits Park Meadows Mall

Even though we got to the event an hour and a half early we were still nearly 2 full long blocks back in the line. (For a video of the line you can check out our TikTok at: https://www.tiktok.com/@geekedcolorado/video/7133977616301821227?is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7133977616301821227) The line once they opened moved relatively fast...as in I got to the front faster then I thought I should have, but it still took 45 minutes. At least between playing Pokemon Go and talking to people in the line around me the time went by at a good pace.

They had this menu board out so that people could see what they had ahead of time. The food items were way over priced for their size and it would have been nice if they would have also had some cheaper items for people that would have been in the $5-10 range. It really did feel like for this you were just buying for the namesake instead of for the actual item. Brand name means that they can just hike up the price and people are willing to pay it. Mommy Geek and I decided to avoid the food items and ended up getting 2 of the face masks, one keychain, and the piggybank. 

For another video of the event: https://www.tiktok.com/@geekedcolorado/video/7134124457173568814?is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7134124457173568814 

7/31/22: Rocky Mountain Con's Christmas in July Toy Show

This was a great little toy show. They had a good mix of items. I saw some items I never knew existed, like a Dracula Transformer, to vintage Halloween decorations. I even found a tie dye big foot Squishmallows that Mommy Geek had been looking for at a good price. I also got to talk to some of the vendors. I was a little sad that the anime themed booth still wasn't open by the time I left. That vendor lost out on a lot of sales because I saw other people trying to look around their sheet and then just walking off.

They even had a group there taking donations to help kids. This organization I have seen at other geeky events and not just those hosted by Rocky Mountain Con.

This was a very nice lady that is trying to expand on her business and really get it to take off. I found all of the stone creatures she had very cute and she even had some anime themed ones.

7/31/22: Squichmallows Event at Five Below

This event was actually supposed to take place a week earlier, but due to supply chain issues they had to push it back. Even with that, they didn't have any of the mystery bags. Five Below seem to do these events every now and then. The problem is getting to the stores before the resellers buy up everything and hike up the prices.