-->GENERAL INFO
-Convention attended: MAGFest 2014
-City: National Harbor, MD
-Location: Combined with Vendor + Gaming Hall
-Set up time: About 4 hours on Wednesday (5:30-9) and 3 hours on Thursday morning (9-12)
-Convention's website: Magfest.org
-Contact Information: kdsunday@gmail.com, whinges.tumblr.com
-->ARTIST ALLEY TABLE PURCHASE INFO
-Type of Jury: Semi-juried FCFS. As far as I can tell the jurying is mostly to make sure you aren't a bootlegger and your work is appropriate for the show.
-Important Dates: Registration: August 8, 2014 at 12 pm. Previously there have been staff at Otakon who can approve your table right then and there, I believe they are doing this again.
-->MONETARY INFO:
-Total Cost:
----Table/badge cost: I unfortunately don't have the exact numbers since someone else paid, but it was $63 each for 1 table and 4 badges.
----Hotel cost: About 150/night at the Gaylord (the con hotel)
----No unloading fee
----Extra badges: Unsure, I can edit this info in closer to sign-up time.
-Profit/Revenue: Don't feel comfortable w/ numbers but we did pretty well, especially for having split the table between 4 artists. Medium-level sales for me.
-Company/Artist Name: Whinges –
whinges.tumblr.com-Vends/Table Stock: Prints, charms, jewelry and buttons.
-Table Location: I don't have a map on hand, but we were across from an entire block of empty tables. No idea why, and I heard from someone that they've done it before.
-Table Display Layout: Again I'll have to edit this in, I don't have it on hand.
-->OVERALL EXPERIENCE:
-Artist Alley set-up: 9/10, lots of time and the staff was friendly.
-Staff helpfulness: Positive and helpful, no complaints!
-Convention vibe: A good crowd, fun people. Mostly gamers. They mostly went for game-related prints; jewelry was a very low-selling item.
-Worth it: Yes- especially if you have game-related merch
-Comments: Important note: the con is 24 HOURS for the first 3 days. There is an area to lock away your stock at night if you desire. It's not really worth it to be there 24 hours unless you're selling energy drinks or something. We left at 10 pm each day and left our print display up - had no issues with theft, but they don't have enough security to really watch everything, so it could be a pain if you have a ton of bulky stock.
It does run Thursday-Sunday. Fridays are typically kind of slow for me so Thursday was even slower. Took a while for this con to get going but it was worth it in the end.
One interesting thing – they have MAGfest Points which are earned in game tournaments etc. Last year they looked like rupees. They can be used at Vendor tables if you choose to participate and then you exchange them for money at the AA staff table. I thought that was kind of fun, personally.
We were in a room with tons of games (consoles and arcade), which meant lots of foot traffic but maybe it was distracting. I've been told this wasn't the fault of MAGFest but something the convention center kind of forced on them at the last minute, so it may not happen again.
Again the table we were at was kind of facing a weird dead zone. The layout is good otherwise though, very open and easy to get around.
