*sigh*
So today, this was announced.
"
We don't talk too much about all the behind-the-scenes stuff in
organizing SFAL, but there were a lot of challenges and this year's show
was particularly difficult. It's really a matter of available dates and
venues and it has become increasingly hard in KC to get exhibit space
at the same time a theater is available and there are enough hotel rooms
for exhibitors and attendees. This year we were forced to change our
exhibit space AND our dates, which put us opposite the city's
long-running ConQuesT in the same hotel; they were gracious and we
worked well together, but we felt like we were intruding on their
territory, so to speak.
Spring has always been surprisingly
crowded for events downtown—we've never been able to rent the Music
Hall, for example, for the awards ceremony because it's booked solid
with recitals and graduations in May—and with the pending construction
of the Hyatt and the completion of the street cars, more and more
conventions have been squeezing our dates. The addition of the KCComicon
to the city in August along with the annual anime and horror cons—not
to mention the World SF Convention in 2016—have made for a crowded genre
landscape.
When we learned just before SFAL4 that the organizer
of the local Planet Comicon had decided on the sly to move his 2016 show
dates from March and secured our traditional dates for the convention
center in May, the decision was sort of made for us. Competing for
essentially much of the same audience in the same narrow time frame
doesn't make any sense: moving to March in THEIR original spot wasn't an
option for us because of a lack of hotel rooms (the Big 12 Basketball
Tournement happens at that time; it didn't affect the comicon because
they draw very few overnight attendees whereas SFAL accounts for over
1000 hotel room nights). Moving to Fall in KC would have brought higher
rental prices for a theater and fewer date options (the convention
center is a busy place). Because of Planet Comicon's tactic, the
negative financial impact on the city, downtown hotels, restaurants, and
businesses will be significant, but…that's the way things are."
(Fenners quoted from Facebook entry, 9/23/2015)
Kansas City at one point and time or another, has always had a myriad number of shows, both big and small, with both niche and mass appeal, that wove into each other here and there, only on occasion tripping over each other. Right about the time I really got into doing shows some seven or eight years back, the first rumblings of growth started coming through. Some might say it was also hand in hand with the rise of the popularity of shows like Mythbusters and Big Bang Theory that started the now current nerd/geek culture craze and brought a lot of casual fans along for the ride. It's no coincidence that the rise of Marvel blockbusters, and cross over fandoms from Dr. Who, assorted Anime, and toy collecting started to rise all over again like it was 1985...
Planet Comicon is certainly the current dominant powerhouse draw in the city for all access comic/pop culture, alongside the ever fantastic and growing Anime show NakaKon which has been around for some years now. SFAL was to enter it's fifth year in KC, and KCCC debuted with a strong entrance earlier this year.
Other shows, stalwart, focused, and feisty like ConQuest, FanCon/FreeState, Crypticon, KantCon, Motaku, KC ZineCon and some of the further out recent bretheren like Air Capital Comicon, TopCon, G.A.M.E., and more, have managed to thrive and keep on going because they fill needs that the other bigger shows do not.
Many of the shows moved venues as they grew, as prices changed, and as demand grew. Chances were, it was going to come to a head at some point, and to be honest, over the years recording and writing about many of the shows that I had attended, which include the majority of the aforementioned, it seemed like we were running out of space in more ways than one, but more importantly with the sudden appearance of World Con entering the scene for 2016,... into an area of burnout.
Convention burnout.
Here's why I say this. Chances are, that if you're an artist, writer, cosplayer or a vendor, more shows means more exposure, more chances to network and meet new people, and find new readers and gain customers. If you're an attendee, it means more media stars, more events that allow you to plan for or choose from, more art, toys, books, videos, etc and so on that one could look forward to. Sounds great right? I mean what could be bad about that?
Well, it could lead to the events, as diverse as they are, to be taken for granted, or maybe overlooked as larger shows outmaneuver and attempt to out advertise each other. Or maybe it can lead to lax shows, and dwindling performance. It can happen. It happened to last year's Wizard show in St. Louis. It's happened from time to time to some of the smaller shows here in KC.
But here is why I think I am wrong.
The greater Kansas City (both sides of the state line) area alone has a population of 1,737,025 people. This part of the midwest has a city that ranks around number 24 in the list of the most populated metropolitan areas. That is not taking into account people that come from the far out towns in the two states, or even from other states nearby like Iowa, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nebraska, Illinois, and Arkansas, that come to the shows we have here in Kansas City.
Now, you're probably asking why am I going on about this? What point do I have?
Well, it's one that beckons hope that many of us can sit back and realize just how lucky, blessed really, we are to have a fundamentally huge array of shows that allow us to celebrate our own unique fandoms and ways of rejoicing in them. I know that today, a fair amount of responses to the above post on Facebook were laced with disappointment, derision, and maybe even frustration, while people out on the West Coast were seemingly the ones most excited, and rightfully so that SFAL was moving.
But it brought out something that made me upset, and truthfully, a bit sad. I know that ultimately, comic or art shows of any kind are attempting to turn a profit, grow, and possibly become career ventures for those that run them if they become successful enough. But, from my own humble place, in helping out with KC FanCon and FreeState, I believe that a passion and love of the genres, the art, and just the overall experience of living in the fandoms, if only for a few hours on a given weekend, is just as important of a service to provide those that attend your shows, as it is to make money putting on that show.
Will the shows that vie for the top spots, or room in a crowded market, remember what makes a show special? Or is the call of the day to push out the competition and winner take all?
I hope not. I'd like to think that if all of the shows were able to work together, maybe SFAL would not have had the inclination to leave, maybe it would not have made a difference. Maybe there's far more to the story than any of us will ever know, and some years down the road, all of this will be an urban legend tale of sorts of when KC was on the verge of becoming what it was grooming to be. A mecca of sorts, for a hell of a lot of pop culture themed events and shows, that put the word "heart" back in the term "heartland".
I wish the Fenners and SFAL 5, much luck, I was a champion of that show ever since a comment was made years ago on the I believe now defunct conceptart.org site, about a show like this happening. I was always truthful in my reviews about the shows on my blog, and have many friends and acquaintances that line my memories from the SFAL shows. I will miss it, and I'd be lying if I said I was not a bit sad and maybe a bit angry. A KC show should stay in KC, but like they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Who knows what the future holds?
Well, I'll tell you. It holds a lot of other shows, that will keep on growing. That will bring new fans, new memories, new friendships, and new shows along. You see, it's not the shows that make the fandoms, its the people on both sides of the tables that make the shows.
Here's to 2016, and future friends, untold stories, and new memories to be forged in the heart of KC.
I bid you farewell SFAL, hello to you WorldCon, and welcome back to all the rest of the shows.
Until next time! - Mario, the Artisan Rogue
