Sitting here annoyed that the weekend is already over, the pure rush of a convention gone, and a smack of reality is hitting. But that’s okay! I had a great time at Phoenix Fan Fusion this past weekend and while there were some hiccups (and let’s be real, every con has them every year), the organizers still put on the best convention Arizona has to offer. I go back and forth on how to write these articles, I could get really wordy or I can just break it down in an outline (which I am choosing to do this year, maybe one day I will do podcast).

The Enjoyable

  • Despite more than a handful of guest cancellations, the line up of guests Fan Fusion offered was still terrific. They really hit a lot of the big fandoms including Lord of the Rings, Marvel, Star Wars, Star Trek, Nintendo. As well as a lot of things I am not super familiar with but I know are popular like Hazbin Hotel and The Amazing Digital Circus. The two guest panel rooms were packed, the autograph/photo op area always busy, and TON of people excited to meet Hayden Christensen.
  • Re-arranging some of the space for programming was much needed and I felt it worked very well. Moving the wrestling programming out of the west building (which was always hard to get into as it was at capacity) into the north building was perfect and it was very spacious and allowed people to come and go. The area next to it was then occupied by the cosplay sets/groups which I thought was smart and finally putting the table top gaming (and some vendors) in the 3rd floor exhibit hall was a nice touch.
  • While we are not at the 2015 level of expansion, this was probably the biggest Fan Fusion post-quarantine years and there was a lot to do and see. I don’t think we will ever get back to seeing the con have programming inside the big three hotels but for the cost of entry, you can get your moneys worth.

The Questionable

  • Look, some of these items are out of the convention’s control and this is an example of that… body odor. I am not trying to shame any one (there are deodorant alternatives for those who just can’t wear it) but man, it just seemed to be worse than normal this year. It could be because of my next item…
  • Which is wow, how packed it felt at times. Friday felt like a Saturday in terms of the amount of people and Saturday felt like a much busier Saturday. I wanted to avoid the the escalator area that leads down to the lobby in the north building because it was just so chaotic. Finally at some point, they had security hold caution tape in certain areas to try and get some control of the crowds. That was just the lobby area though, it was just as bad in certain areas as well. The artist aisles in the back of the exhibit hall were just so hard to shop on Saturday.
  • If you’ve read my articles long enough over the years, you know what some of my pet peeves are. One of them being vendors that have absolutely no connection to a pop culture convention and don’t even put in any effort to join in on the celebration. Take for instance the “windshield repair booth” who were just asking passerby’s if they had chips in their windshield. Listen Chad, I’m not here to worry about my windshield. At least this year the window installer booth gave us a cool Stranger Things photo op!

I didn’t think it was worth mentioning above but I do wonder if the first floor in the west building, where all of the youth programing lives, is a good enough return on investment. I walked the area around 1PM on Saturday and there just wasn’t much going on in any of the rooms. Also, this will be the hill I die on but I would love for the half day Thursday to come back, it was a great opportunity to shop. Honestly, besides the crowd being what it was, I still had a great time.

Did you miss Fan Fusion this year or maybe you’re already thinking about next year? Well, mark your calendars as Fan Fusion will be returning June 5 – 7, 2026. Not sure if we will ever see Fan Fusion on Memorial Day weekend again but for now, they are locked in for early June. See you then!

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