Worst convention experience

As cosplayers and attendees, we all have those stories of horrible things that had happened to us at conventions from sexual harassment to a panel gone wrong, what's yours?

Pretty much the entirety of the two cons I've been to. First one was more of a disappointment than anything, not that I really expected much anyways. It was at Anime LA, met up with a friend and his group. They were all too hungover from partying the night before to do anything. Most of them apparently didn't even care about the con and were just there to get wasted. Friend I mentioned had to sleep off their hangover so we didn't really get to hang out much. Pretty small con with not much to see or do. Ended up just reading a volume of manga in their rather small reading room, bought a fig, and left. Made plans with some people from my group to go to sakura con, but it fell apart because one person didn't like or trust one of the other people. Not that I can really blame em. Second one I attended was at Anime Expo. Was gonna go with two people from my group (one of them being the friend from Anime LA) and someone from MO. Tried convincing other people I knew but most weren't interested, some wanted to go but were too far. One of those people was gonna be coming from pretty far away, but decided not to go because one of the other people wouldn't give us a solid answer if they were going, and that person ended up not going after all. Me and that friend from before ended up going but not together. I only met them by accident at a burger place a few blocks north of the con, we talked for a few then parted ways and didn't see each other again after that. I got the impression he was hoping to avoid me and stick to his friends. So I hit the con solo, wondered around mostly lost. He claimed that wasn't the case afterwards but all the same he left our group and we haven't really talked much since then. Just about everything I wanted to see/do was canceled, delayed, changed, or moved to who knows where. Spent the night at a pretty run down motel that seemed to be frequented by prostitutes. Next morning got to the con and realized I had somehow lost my badge. Next thing I knew I was in line under the burning sun for four hours standing behind some real douchbags. Got stuck paying $40 for a replacement card. Turned out it was between the passenger seat and the door in my car, which I would have found if not for the weird way the thing unlocks with the remote. Anyways, Got in just in time for an autograph session I was kinda looking forward to with a fig base I wanted to get signed. Took a while to even find where it was being held. Turned out I had to get a ticket or something which they stopped selling a few hours before hand. They were gonna be there the next day too but I had to be back at work. I tried contacting that friend who was there to see if he could take care of it for me and even offered to pay him for the trouble, but he ignored my texts and latter said his phone was busted. Found out another person I kinda knew was also at the con, asked if they wanted to hang out and his response was more or less "eww fuck no". Though I could at least go buy some anime merch, but the vender area closed just as I got there, which was like 5pm (wtf?) Rest of the day was more of the previous day's issues. All in all it was about $600 give or take down the drain and not something I'd ever want to do again. It confirmed a lot of the issues I had with cons and reasons why I never went to them before the recent ones. I was naive in thinking I could meet people and maybe make friends while there, but instead it made me realize how unreliable and worthless the people I already knew really were.

I was dragged around by a less than proper photographer once, though it's partially my fault since I was too timid/polite to simply say enough and walk off. He got too hands on, and insisted he come with me to my room when I said I wanted to change (I was trying to politely excuse myself). He came with me, but didn't try anything while I changed - I locked myself in the bathroom. I eventually managed to escape and met a very nice Scottish lesbian couple, who took it upon themselves to defend me - we kept co-incidentally meeting at breakfast, so we already sort of knew each other. This did, however, lead to me spend a lot of time in my room avoiding answering the door (I was at the convention by myself, though I had a friend attending with a group of her friends). Thank goodness I now have Sherflow!

the last con i went to i was lowkey stalked by some creepy guy during the 3 days i was there, he tried to approach me as i was leaving on the last day but i ran away also at that con i had multiple men make remarks about my "short skirt" and tights + give me extremely disturbing looks as well as general catcalling i havent gone to a con since and its been about 6 months, im honestly terrified to go to another

naeri, I wouldn't let that stop you. Cons are wonderful places, with mostly wonderful people. If you went by yourself last time I suggest you find one or two friends to go with, and if you're worried about wearing revealing clothing because of comments then you can always find a character more covered up, and no one will bat an eyelid.

Not really a sexual harassment incident but a poor experience for me. So it was my first Con ever and some of my friends invited me to go with them. Unfortunately they were late and weren't picking up their phone so it took hours just to find them so I could get the key to the hotel we were staying at. (Cheaper to split a room). After that they decided to do their own thing when I had finally got to the front of the line to the merch area. Not wanting to wait I went in alone to look at stuff to buy while thye went to panels and did random stuff. For the whole weekend it seemed like what they wanted to do was different then me so I wandered around alone for hte whole weekend, and being shy it didn't help make the experience any better. I did meet a random guy there though so we went to some events together but overall my first con was very lonely and awkward. Haven't really been to another one since then

My bad experience was I went to a con by myself and with my horrible social anxiety I was bored and couldn't meet or talk to anyone. I lived on my iPad for 2 days until it was over.