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This was the very first Midsummer Scream convention which was held in Long Beach, California. For a first-time event, it ran quite smoothly and had quite a turnout from both exhibitors and attendees. To be perfectly honest, I\’m not much into Halloween. It was fun taking my nieces trick-or-treating when they were young, but that was years ago. I bought my ticket on Groupon because I wanted to check out this convention, but I didn\’t want to pay full price. This girl loves a discount and never wants to pay full price for anything.
A friend was already going to the convention (which is how I heard about it), and we were both really excited for the Noche de los Muertos, a \’80s themed costume party with live music by Oingo Boingo Dance Party which was held Saturday night after the convention. The party was a separate ticket purchase from the convention itself.
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| Oingo Boingo Dance Party |
On the exhibition floor was a very cool interactive area with spooks and frights galore called the Hall of Shadows. I only went in once (I hate people or things jumping out at me), but it was fun even for a fraidy-cat like myself.
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| Tiny part of Hall of Shadows |
There were demonstrations on applying prosthetic makeup, foam fabrication, skull painting, etc. on the Showfloor Stage on the exhibition floor.
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| Scott Ramp demonstrating full prosthetic makeup in under an hour |
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| Completed 1-hour Prosthetic makeup |
The art gallery was incredible, and there were quite a few items I wish I had the money and space for to purchase.
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| This was an animatronic…and it\’s awesome! |
I\’ve never been to Scare L.A. (which was being held in Pasadena the following weekend), but I would definitely recommend attending Midsummer Scream even if you aren\’t into horror or Halloween (like me!).
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| This girl was in character the whole time!! |
The only thing I would recommend (and I\’ve had this problem with a few other conventions) is to add better signage when \”renaming\” rooms for your convention. There were signs listing the events for the day at each room, and those were great and could have been better if a larger type was used at the top with the room \”name/number\” at the top. I had to stop at each one just to see which room I was at. It would be quite easy to print \”Classroom B\” on standard letter size paper and tape it over the convention center room number sign.
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| Jim Henson Creature Shop panel on Sunday |
Midsummer Scream was held the weekend following San Diego Comic-Con, and my back was still killing me from SDCC. It would been have been much more fun being able to rock out at the party Saturday night if my back didn\’t hurt. I\’m definitely interested in attending MidSummer Scream next year, and I hope you will join me!
TTFN,
V
Weird Life of V 