When a con is crap: Once Upon a Con

Back in the pre-COVID days, as fan events hit a peak we never thought possible, there were also events that did not come off as planned. Sometimes it was misfortune, sometimes it was scammers…and in the most memorable cases like DashCon and its legendary ballpit, it was just people who were in over their head. 

As events have come roaring back, unfortunately so have events that go way, way off the rails, and it seems that the world of fantasy has been struck by several such events, two just this past weekend. 

I met some of the folks behind Once Upon a Con last year at Baltimore Comic Con. They were colorful and lively so I stopped to find out their deal and it turned out it was a big fantasy con planned for 2025, with an emphasis on fantasy, cosplay and so on. According to the website: 

Join us for the nation’s first fantasy book convention: Once Upon A Con – Fall Into Fantasy✨ Immerse yourself in your favorite bookish worlds with over 275 vendors and guest authors, 150 hours of exciting panels and workshops, our own Starfall Masquerade and High Fantasy Fashion Show. Dress to impress for the first book-centered cosplay competition, make new friends with over two dozen cosplay meetups, and so much more!

As someone who is no stranger to dressing up and marching around with a sword, this sounded like fun, and I filed it away. But over this past weekend I started seeing some warning signs about the actual event popping up on social media, first on Threads of all places. Cosplayer Huunimoon wrote:

I made a list of everything that’s gone wrong with Once Upon A Con so far, so you dont have to (it’s a lot 🙃) 🧵 

So the biggest mishap so far imo is that judges & staff weren’t given the hotel rooms they were promised, which is how they are supposed to be compensated for their work. Some waited 6+ hours in the lobby before PAYING OUT OF POCKET for a con they are WORKING AT. 

The cosplay competition was cancelled entirely (mind you these craftsmanship competitions are how COSPLAYERS SPEND A LOT OF THEIR MONEY for a con). People wasted a huge chunk of their time and money to enter their cosplays into this competition, and the entire thing just ended up getting cancelled before they could even begin prejudging🙃 

The VIP banquet was also cancelled (which is insane considering ticket price), and the tea party event held for the affiliates of the con had no food, drink, or decor, so people were being turned away for THAT too :/ Panels had no staff to run them (many were getting rescheduled or cancelled, which confused the original panelists) and a huge chunk of the staff walked out due to failure of compensation from the con organizers (remember when I said they had to PAY FOR THEIR OWN HOTEL ROOMS??) 

OUAC tried to scapegoat the former warroom staff before deleting their posts when receipts were dropped. This isn’t a bad con, it’s something comparable to OG Dashcon. Cosplayers, guests, judges, EVERYONE that gave money to be at this event deserves better than what OUAC provided. I feel awful for everyone who spent their money and time expecting an actual con experience and got this instead :(

Also, while all of this was happening the con organizer was WALKING THE FASHION SHOW RUNWAY?? okay 🙃 

If you went and feel like you wasted your time/money, please don’t beat yourself up 💖 You showed up, you brought your cosplays, your joy, your community spirit, and NONE of that is wasted. The organizers failed, not you! You all deserved infinitely better, and I hope your next con makes up for it tenfold 💕💕 

While there are many accounts of people having a great time at this four day event, it does seem that OuaC pulled one of the biggest fails possible: not paying for hotel rooms for guests and even con staff. Once again social media is full of guests explaining that they showed up, found they didn’t have a hotel room, ended up paying and had to leave early, resulting in many panels and the cosplay contest (a heavily advertised event) being cancelled. 

For instance, this cosplayer was promised airfare and lodging as a guest to show up to cosplay as an elflord, but arrived to find his credit card charged for the entire stay – at $400 a night. After waiting in the hotel lobby for hours for a con staff to show up, he had no choice but to check in. 

Apparently warning signs about OuaC started last year, when Second Star Events, an event company that puts on costume events, withdrew from involvement with the show:

ON SUNDAY, 10/20 Second Star Events (SSE), who were to host the two Starfall Masquerades at Once Upon a Con (OUAC), announced that they would be withdrawing from the convention (slides 1-3) due to being unable to “align with leadership” and provide “the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and respect for both [their] partners and attendee.” OUAC also put out a statement (slide 4)confirming SSE withdrawing as well as OUAC stating they will be “restructuring [their] entire operations to not only make [their] staffing consistent with convention industry standards, but also pivoting [their] focus towards bringing…the best fan driven content that surrounds the core of the thing we love most—fantasy books.”

This was followed by even worse allegations from SSE involving financial mismanagement and even harassment on the part of OuaC. Despite this, the show went on, although the venue changed: originally it was to be held in Lancaster, Pennsylvania but was moved to the Gaylord Resort in Maryland. Because of this – and the troubles bubbling under – many who had bought tickets already asked for refunds…and most have yet to get them. 

There are many more accounts of problems at the show – poor security, an underwhelming swag bag and more. The swag bag was a particular problem as it contained “doubloons” that could be redeemed for books from attending authors. This led to an even bigger boondoggle, as author/exhibitor T.D. Cloud writes: 

The whole doubloons system was a massive red flag from the start. For context, VIP badge holders were given two plastic coins that they could use to trade for any book in the vendor hall. Authors then hand in the coin to con-ops and are reimbursed for the cost of the book later. The only information we were given about this pre-con was a small two sentence paragraph buried in a very large email sent maybe two weeks before the event itself. We were not given an option to opt in/opt out of this transaction system. No timeline was given on when reimbursements would happen, no set prices or ranges were put in place, and it was again another instance of the “honor system” because they had no way of verifying our book prices and we had no way of proving that there was compensation owed beyond giving them contact info in a spreadsheet that they then had to fulfill… whenever they decide to fulfill it.

And it just gets worse from there.

As recounted by one Redditor, events that were supposed to be highlights were instead mismanaged to the point of comedy. The War Room was a scavenger hunt based on the fantasy series Fourth Wing, the immensely popular series by Rebecca Yaros. But materials to get started on the hunt were never delivered, and the third day challenge – finding and taking pictures of dragon eggs – started late because no one had placed them around the show. The eggs were also removed by attendees so no one could finish the challenge. “At the end of the convention, one team was announced the winner after “points were tallied” but in no way was a point system ever shared. I know my team finished two challenges, but this was never recorded.”

What was supposed to be a lavish fantasy masquerade also approached ballpit levels:

Ballroom Decorations: This might seem petty to some, but we were promised an immersive masquerade experience, specifically the Autumn Court from ACOTAR. When we showed up in our ballgowns, it was just the ballroom with some standing tables and then chairs pushed to the sides. There was a DJ and some of his music choices were on theme, while others were downright confusing. I absolutely loved seeing everyone’s outfits, but it was not remotely close to an immersive experience. Imagine a high school prom without decorations.

And on and on. Apparently the disaster unfolded in real time on the official Once Upon a Con Discord, but by the time I tried to check it out, it had been shut down to anyone not already on it, and apparently some of the channels have been shut off. Not a good look. 

One of the convention organizers, Elaina, did post an apology on Facebook: 

Dear Team, Staff, Attendees, and Partners,

I want to take a moment to sincerely apologize for the challenges we faced during the recent convention. I recognize that my actions and decisions directly impacted the overall experience, and I take full responsibility for the shortcomings that occurred.

I failed you as a convention chair. I tried to do too much and everything was a mess because of it. Were there a few issues out of my control from the start? Yes. Were the biggest challenges through the weekend because of my lack of proper communication and planning? Yes. As one of the convention chairs, I should have ensured proper planning and delegation, but I let my refusal to give up control hinder our team’s efforts. This has led to major operations issues that overshadowed the hard work put forth by our staff and volunteers.

I deeply regret that my lack of effective management affected not only our team but also the wonderful attendees who joined us. It was never my intention to create difficulties or detract from the positive experiences that many had. I am truly sorry for the burden my decisions placed on all of you. In light of these events, I have stepped down as one of the convention chairs, recognizing that this is necessary to allow our organization to move forward. My focus now is on supporting the team in any way I can as they navigate the path ahead.

Despite the challenges, I am grateful for the amazing memories and connections that were made during the convention between authors, vendors and community members. Seeing thousands of you dancing through the night and into the early hours of the morning, attending events and making new friends.

I want to assure you all that I am committed to learning from this experience and to ensuring that I do better in the future. I will not be taking part in the planning and execution of our event, and have full faith in the team that is taking over to lead this event into the realm of fantasy that you all enjoy so much. Thank you for your understanding and support, and for those of you who feel like our event under delivered— I am truly sorry. I under delivered, not our team. I dropped the ball and that tainted the experience that so many of you had.

Team Medical Dragon, Public Safety, and the staff that stayed behind to make sure this event happened— you are the heroes. I hope to one day earn back your trust and repair our relationship. I ask that you do not fault or blame the incoming board or con chair for my actions.

Fantasy is for everyone and I hope that all of you found a moment of magic among the chaos this weekend.

Elaina

As one fantasy classic put it, tale as old as time: con runner bites off more than they can chew and an immersive fantasy ball becomes some tables with chairs pushed to the side. “Learning from the experience” is not really a reasonable swap.

According to the FB post, Elaina is now the FORMER co-chair, and OuaC has formed a new board and is already planning a 2026 event. While there was much that was good and fun about the event, we’ll see if they can regain the trust of the community. 

Speaking of community I should note that this is not my fandom and not my community. As someone fascinated by the culture of fan events, I’m just trying to put down some of what I’ve seen about this show. However the vast majority of the commentary about OuaC is on Reddit and TikTok and I haven’t had the literal hours needed to go over it. 

I did pick up on the fact that “when a con is crap” seems to have befallen several other bookish events of late. There were allusions to other disasters – a Bridgerton Ball in Detroit last year went viral when it didn’t have enough food and other flops – and this very same weekend, Sinners and Stardust, a con devoted to dark fantasy, had another set of problems. Here’s a relevant Reddit thread. Although the show was planned to highlight spicy, dark romance, some people took this too far, including groping (really assaulting) a male cosplayer as posted in an IG story by author HD Carlton:

Sinners and Stardust announced that such behavior would not be tolerated and would result in a perma-ban, but if Reddit is to be believed, it was not an isolated incident at such events. 

While romantasy has cooled off a bit, it is still a huge genre, and authors like Yaros and Sara J. Maas have huge followings. It seems that fantasy-themed “bookish” events –  are a growing genre of con, and why not: a fun weekend full of costumes and contests and author signings sounds like a total blast. 

Once again, I’m not a member of this particular community and if I’m misreading posts and videos, I welcome corrections. The internet also likes stirring up drama. But in the case of Once Upon a Con, it does seem worth remembering: putting on events for 7500 attendees is an expensive, complex undertaking. Having lots of fun, exciting ideas for an event doesn’t mean you’ll be able to pull it off without a lot of help and backing. And for god’s sake, don’t promise people a hotel room and forget to pay for it.