After the year that was 2020, there was a palpable feeling of joy in the Orange County Convention Center last weekend during the rescheduled MegaCon 2021 in Orlando, Florida.
MegaCon is a yearly 4-day FanExpo HQ event, beginning on Thursday afternoon and ending on Sunday evening.
This year, there were required masks for all attendees, sanitizing stations set up throughout the center, and plexiglass windows on the talent’s tables. Photo ops included a plexiglass partition that the actor could choose to use or not. A looped recording reminded guests to keep the masks on and to head home if they felt unwell.
Hundreds of vendors were present, selling everything from art and jewelry to t-shirts and swords (plus, everything in between). A whole Tattoo Alley was available and you were able to get a tattoo if you were lucky enough to get one of the coveted appointments.
There were all-day gaming setups, cosplay meetups every hour, The 501st Legion, Daleks, and of course, Ghostbusters. There were so many pop-culture references in a single place! One could feel the happiness of people just getting to be out and geek in public again with 100,000 (estimated weekend total) of their friends.
Guests that appeared at the convention included TV and film stars such as Stephen Amell, Michael Rooker, William Shatner, Kevin Alejandro, John Barrowman, Aimee Garcia, George Takei, Ron Perlman, John Stamos, Bob Saget, Dave Coullier, Robert Patrick, Ray Fisher, Ryan Hurst, Adam Savage, and voice actors galore from Dragonball and My Hero Academia. There was a surprise panel from Amell and Alexander Ludwig after a screening of the pilot episode of their new Starz show Heels.
Were there talent cancellations? Yes. Were some of them VERY last minute? Also yes. However, most attendees seemed to be understanding, and many may have just found a new celeb or artist to love with their extra time.
Overall, MegaCon this year did the best they could with the current situation and made a fun, safe convention for everyone to enjoy. MegaCon 2022 is already on the books for May 19-22, 2022.
