It seemed okay in an overall view, since they had Welcome To Night Vale and Steam Powered Giraffe coming, but ended up being a big waste of time money and effort.
WTNV walked out due to lack of payment. Dash-con staff wasn't being clear about WHY there was no payment. Though they said, (staff), that they were going to pay WTNV after the panel. WTNV canceled part of the Europe tour, and flew over there to not have their money upfront, so Dash-con kicked them to the curb, didn?t pay for their hotel room (which they said they would) so the crew ended up sleeping on a futon. Ginger-haze decided to leave the con early after discovering Dash-Con wouldn?t be covering her hotel room anymore and she was charged the full bill (and she toted with WTNV and slept on the futon too). Ginger-haze, WTNV, and The Baker Street Babes are also being forced to pay their hotel fees because Dash-Con refuses to cover the costs as originally promised.
Although they promised everyone who paid for special WTNV seating a refund, they couldn?t afford to refund them, (my friend Zee and her sister also got to be apart of this). They offered her about a quarter of her money back, an extra hour in a pitiful ball pit, and 2 entries in a shitty raffle. The ball pit that was supposed to ?Pay for the Night Vale walk out? deflated about half way in, also someone apparently pissed in it, (great, right?)
Steam Powered Giraffe actually canceled MONTHS before the con, but Dash-con continued to sell tickets and make an announcement last minute.
Now lets start with the whole 17k thing. First day of the convention, there was some misunderstanding about the hotel contract (they had a ?verbal contract?) and they needed to raise SEVENTEEN GRAND ON THE SPOT IN TWO HOURS. Now the fishy thing about this is that they received the goal of 17k on paypal and cash. Paypal takes about two days to transfer (the con would be over by then right?) and the hotel staff said they had no idea about that crap. There was no confirmation that the money donated in cash and via PayPal on friday ever made it to the hotel Its been pointed out that Marriott Hotel, the Renaissance would have required them to submit their full reservation payment 5 days in advance of the event. Therefore it?s very, very likely that the ?$17,000 fundraising? was a huge scam. Because DashCon would?ve had to pay that money 5 days before this weekend or the event wouldn?t even be happening in the first place.
Now the rumor about the BDSM panel is false but, (again with my friend), Zee?s sister, whos 16, got into the ?Can U Knot?? panel because, I quote, ?She looked old enough?, they didn?t ask for ID nor any sort of verification.
The game room consisted of some tables, one TV, and one gaming console.
Possible art theft by Dash-Con for the nebula graphic in their banner (not confirmed though).
The panels were honestly dumb, ?British men with?Cheek bones!?, the cringe worthy, ?Superwholock hunt? , also including finely aged meme such as, ?Such Karaoke. Very Sing. Wow. ?, ?Homo erotic subtext.? (that was not 18+ on the schedule, as well as BDSM was not marked 18+ either. Homo subtext was pretty damn good though), ?Hay there brony?s? which was probably just a large shade throwing party, ?Hateful Anons and beyond: How to deal with bullies?. What, seriously, how is there an one hour long panel on that? And also, the infamous ?Tumblr Language? Yes, learn what ?throwing shade? and other memes and texting language is in an hour long panel! I think i made my point.
Some panels were not organized, ?Name That Anime? panel was handing out hotel mints as prizes for correctly answering questions instead of maybe stickers OR ACTUAL CANDY???
Tons of vendors left because sales were so bad that they weren?t going to make the initial cost for the space.
The ticket prices were outrageous (65$ for a weekend pass, a larger sum than Anime eXpo) and for a first time con the price is insane. (First time cons can either be a hit or a flop so its better to price lower, and obviously this failed.)
Some people were having panic attacks and freaking out because they had no way on getting home until Sunday evening or they don?t want to waste 65 FUCKING DOLLARS.
Dash was expected to have 5-7k attendees, but only got, AT THE MOST, 1000.
They had attempted to show both Pacific Rim and Doctor Horrible?s Sing-A-Long Blog without the legal rights to host a public viewing party. Del Toro has reportedly been notified about the unlicensed showing of Pacific Rim at a convention, which occurred in a room of approximately 60 people.
So all in all, Escapist, that?s why Dash-con is a total ruin.