Fan Expo Chicago 2024 - Highlights
Fan Expo Chicago was held August 16th-18th at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL. There, I was lucky enough to cover the event as “press” and in doing so I was able to capture a lot of cool stuff ranging from intricate cosplays to unique vendors to celebrities and everything in-between that Fan Expos have to offer. This was my second out of state convention I had ever been to. The first one being Fan Expo Denver in 2023, so I was excited to check out what Chicago had to offer.
Friday after I checked into my hotel I went over to the convention center and picked up my “press” badge. I made it just in time for general admission to be let in at around 4pm. One thing I noticed right away was how incredibly busy it was for it only being a Friday. Fans from all over showed up to participate in this weekend’s event. There were a lot of locals but also people visiting from other nearby states like Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan. Someone asked me if the fans at this convention were the same or different from the ones in California and I said, “They’re all the same. Nerds are nerds.” The feeling of inclusivity and community is universal at these events which is what I love about conventions. It was kind of fun being the “out of state” person for once. Friday I spend most of my time on the vendor floor checking out all the merchandise. Because I’ve been to so many conventions, I’m used to seeing the same vendors or the same type of merchandise, but here it was refreshing because there was a lot of unique stuff I had never come across before. For instance, I really liked the vendor who was selling handmade wooden signs from films like Jurassic Park, Star Wars, and even Disneyland parks. They had detailed wooden maps from the different lands or areas from those movies that were framed. They had a velociraptor paddock sign I really wanted. There was a woman selling a bunch of sparkly art, dresses and jewelry that had a Renaissance look to it. You would definitely stand out at the Ren Faire if you shopped there. There was a guy selling a bunch of vintage trading cards. I swear I stood in his booth for 30 minutes looking at everything trying to decide which cards I was going to take home as gifts for my family. I ended up going with Jurassic Park, Casper, Beverly Hills 90210 and Jaws 2 cards. They also had Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Smallville cards which made me laugh because I still own those cards. I never got rid of them. I told the vendor, “This is an impressive collection.” His prices were fair too. I was expecting each pack to be like $20. The most I spent was $14 on the Jaws 2 pack, but everything else ranged from $5-$7. Pretty reasonable considering you can’t find these cards anymore. When it comes to Artist’s Alley, I’ve become more sensitive to filming those vendors because of the issues regarding people stealing their art and recreating it with AI. I saw one or two vendors that had signs up saying “No photos/video”, so as I was perusing if I saw something I had to capture I’d ask the artist if I was allowed to film it. These people put a lot of work and heart into their craft and it shows. I enjoyed seeing the wide range of art they had in terms of the different techniques and tools they used to create it whether it be chalk art, pencil, ink, various paints. If I had an infinite amount of wall space I would buy art from every person at every convention I went to.
Later that afternoon/evening I decided I needed a break from the main hall and ventured into where the panel rooms were. I hadn’t looked at the schedule for Friday night so I kind of stumbled upon “The Mark Hamill Experience” line that was growing by the numbers. This was a separate ticketed event, the highest ticket tier price was at a whopping $600. I knew there wasn’t a chance of me being able to cover the panel, but I figured I’d ask. Shoutout to the female staff member who helped me. She wasn’t 100% sure so she went and found the man who was head of “Press” to ask him. He came over and asked me a few questions. I told him I didn’t plan on staying for the full show. I just wanted to grab some shots and leave. He said that we could work something out. He gathered some other press photographers who all wanted to do the same thing and we all “squad up”. He escorted us into the room and had us sit on the floor in front of the stage. He said he would come get us once our time was up and we had to leave. They did a little pre-show where they had the audience answer Star Wars trivia on their phones and the top winners got a prize gift bag. Giancarlo Esposito came out on stage with some Star Wars characters and spoke to the crowd a bit. He was great. I loved that he would go back and fourth between being in character as Moff Gideon and being himself. He introduced Mark Hamill and the crowd went wild. I only saw the first ten minutes of Mark, but I love that he talked about working with Mike Flanagan. Mike was supposed to appear as a guest at the con but had to cancel. I really wanted to meet him so I’m happy Mark took the time to talk about his work and how he got involved with The Fall of the House of Usher. It all worked out perfectly and I’m so happy the staff let us do this. When I left the panel room I went over to the female staff member who originally helped me and thanked her. They didn’t have to do that for us.
On Saturday, they let me into the vendor hall early. Somehow I wandered into Matthew Lillard’s line. There, I met 2 women in line and it was fun talking to them as well as to the staff member who was working Lillard’s line. She was cool. It’s always nice when you get staff who are super chill but also go above and beyond at their job. I saw Matt and had him sign a Without a Paddle poster. I’ve been meaning to have him sign one of those for a while but had to get the Scream stuff out of the way first. He told me the film is having their 20th anniversary and that he, Seth and Dax were going to be doing a reunion podcast together. I told him I saw his Faster Purple Worm Kill! Kill! Show at the Comedy Store and I think he was surprised to hear that considering it was a small event in LA and we were at a con in Chicago. I’m excited to see where else they take these live shows. I have to praise the staff yet again because on Friday Matt’s line got so long they had to cap it, so what they did instead of just saying “screw you” they created a “virtual” queue for people so that they wouldn’t miss out on the con and could return to the area once their number is called. No guarantees obviously, but that was great they were able to pivot and deal with the situation in an efficient way with the least amount of drama as possible.
The next person I met was Wayne Knight. For some context, I am a huge Jurassic Park fan. That movie is everything to me. Nobody from the film does conventions except Wayne who played “Dennis” so I was stoked to meet him. I picked the 8x10 photo of him with the dilophosaurus and the Jeep during the rain storm. He signed it in a yellow paint pen which was perfect because it matched his yellow rain jacket. I said to him, “It’s so nice to meet you. I love this movie so much.” I wanted to say more, but I couldn’t find the words. I was just happy I got to have something Jurassic Park signed. Also, his character is iconic. I was hoping to meet Patrick Warburton but his line was super long all weekend. This was on Sunday, but I tried to get in Linda Hamilton’s line but she was away at photo ops and I didn’t want to wait another hour and a half plus the wait to get through the line once she arrives, so I’ll have to catch her at the next con. Another considerate staff thing I noticed was that her fans who were in her line that had to get out of line to do the photo ops were all given tickets to return to their spot in line. I’ve been in that situation where I’ve waited in line for 2 hours only to have to leave and when I came back the line was capped. So to see them doing this was super thoughtful. It should be like that, but it doesn’t always happen.
Others I saw in passing were Cole Sprouse, the rest of the Scream Team: Jamie Kennedy, Skeet Ulrich, Lee Waddell, Rose McGowan and Laurie Metcalf. As well as people like Mario Lopez, Michael Biehn, Sean Gunn, and Rosario Dawson. From the look of how long everyone’s lines were, they must have had a pretty successful weekend.
I took a break from the autograph area and went to the Community Zone which was where a lot of cosplayers were and the food vendors and exhibitors that had fun photo ops. The Windy City Ghostbusters were my favorite. I’ve only ever seen the Los Angeles Ghostbusters at conventions, so it was cute seeing the Chicago version. There were Star Wars sets you could take photos in front of with some of the troopers, mandalorian and Darth Vader. The food vendors I never shout out at conventions just because I end up eating convention center food, but I did notice here they had a wide range of food options. They had smoked pulled pork sandwiches, hot dogs, popcorn, Asian food, chicken fingers, ice cream, bundt cakes and more. I had the smoked pulled pork sandwich and hot dog the days I was there. They were pretty good. For a snack I had popcorn. While food lines did get long on Saturday, they had enough options where you could find a short line and still get food that sounded good depending on your cravings. In the same area they had a cosplay red carpet setup. They had those setup in two locations. The second one being in the hall where the panels were. The red carpet in the Community area was for anyone and was kind of a mashup of different cosplays. They had a DJ playing music and a photographer to take your photo. I enjoyed seeing all of the different cosplays. The most popular stand alone cosplays I saw that were not part of an ensemble was from the hit Amazon Prime series Fallout. I also liked seeing the different variations of Ghostface. I saw a family where the dad was dressed up as Shaggy, the mom was Velma and their kid was Scooby from Scooby Doo. There were quite a few Five Nights at Freddy’s cosplays as well. At the panel hall area they had a red carpet but I believe those were organized photo shoots. Those contained large groups of cosplayers ranging from Marvel to Star Wars and even Baldur’s Gate.
After grabbing all of the cosplay shots I needed, I decided to call it a day and go back to my hotel room. I wanted to experience some real Chicago food so I ordered Nancy’s deep dish pizza. Shoutout to Chicago native Todd Stashwick for the recommendation. After a long convention day I was starving so this was perfect. I didn’t feel so bad about my diet being garbage considering I was constantly moving and hauling heavy camera gear around all weekend. I burned a lot of calories. I earned this delicious pizza.
On Sunday, I decided to grab some shots of fans lining up and waiting to be let into the vendor hall. Crowd shots are always fun. I switched lenses so I could grab more vendor and cosplay shots. I met up with a friend from Wisconsin who is a professional makeup fx artist. It was nice to see someone I knew in a place that was foreign to me. I usually see them at Monsterpalooza in Pasadena when they’re vending there. This time, they drove down to enjoy the con and meet with friends. I went over to Lee Waddell’s booth because he told me he wanted me to help him shoot some stuff for his social media. I didn’t know what exactly he had up his sleeve but riding in a golf cart with the Scream cast to their panel was not on my 2024 Bingo card. I shot a behind the scenes video for him at the convention. The Scream Team was all there: Lee, Skeet, Matthew, Jamie, Rose, and Laurie Metcalf. They were all pretty chill. I didn’t really talk to anyone except Lee and Jamie. The golf cart ride to the giant elevator was fun. I did not realize how dangerous golf carts can be. Good looking out Matt and I’m sorry you had to hold my backpack so I didn’t fall out. When we got off the cart and into the elevator, when the doors opened we bumped into the Seinfeld cast so I got to see Patrick Warburton after all as well as Wayne Knight again. They were coming back from a panel. At the Scream panel it was cool to see everyone backstage getting ready for their name to be called to go up on stage. I had never been to a Scream panel and always wanted to experience one, so getting the VIP treatment was pretty insane. After the panel, I was about to head out. I was five feet from the exit before I was like, “I need to go see Jamie Kennedy.” I saw him earlier when we were figuring out the golf cart situation but didn’t have time to really talk. I ran to the opposite end of the convention center (the con closed in 1 hour). I got to say hi and we talked for a little bit. I was in communication with him maybe like 4-6 months ago but hadn’t spoken since so it was nice to chat face to face. He was asking me questions about my video work. I’m surprised he remembered details from our last conversation. Shoutout to Jamie. He’s a real one.
After three jam packed days of running around filming stuff, I was exhausted. I felt like I worked the hardest I’ve ever worked at a convention but in a good way. I had planned to interview a vendor on Sunday but unfortunately I could not find them. Note to self: booth numbers aren’t helpful when you can’t find them on the actual booths. Overall, I’m very happy with my experience at Fan Expo Chicago. It was by far the most organized convention I had ever been to. Also, the people there are cool. I don’t know how to explain it. They don’t even have to try, they just are.
