Salt Lake City Comic-Con is the Next Big Geek Convention
When I attended Salt Lake City's first Comic-Con this last weekend, I'll admit I wasn't expecting much, but it ended up blowing me away. I had no idea the convention would be as fun or as big as it was. I go to a lot of conventions throughout the year, and this put most of them to shame.
Deseret News reports that more than 50,000 tickets were sold, but I think a lot more than that that showed up. At one point the Fire Marshall showed up and had to shut the doors, not allowing anymore people into the Salt Palace convention center because it was already over capacity.
Not only was it bigger than I thought, but the people putting it on were also surprised by the turnout. Event creator Dan Farr had this to say in a statement,
"Talk about a wild ride. This Comic Con has gotten so much bigger than we ever imagined. This is has gone better than my wildest dreams.”
Keep in mind this is the first Comic-Con in Salt Lake City, and you can bet your ass it's going to grow. They're definitely going to need a bigger venue though! Maybe they will expand on the already existing Salt Palace.
Some of the biggest guests included William Shatner, Stan Lee, and Adam West. I even got a video of Lee coming out of the bathroom, which was a little strange. There were a ton of other celebrities as well, and a ton of talented artists were in attendance. On top of that, the cosplay was incredible! I wish I got more photos, but I was too busy. I've posted some of them below.
I had a blast, and I'm excited to see what they do next year. I'm sure they'll end up getting even more star power next year, because they've proved that there is a huge audience for geek awesomeness in the area. This is going to quickly become a must-attend event.
This convention is only to get bigger and bigger over time.