Colossalcon East 2026 Gallery And Writeup Part 3
Before I get started on the main topic of this, my third and final article on Colossalcon East 2026, I’d like to take a moment to log the weather we experienced over the course of the convention, as I have done for the past several years. We had rain in the early morning hours on Thursday, prior to the start of the convention, with a high of 75 degrees. Friday was clear all day, with a high of 80 degrees. On Saturday, we had a brief period of light rainfall, with a high of 75 degrees. On Sunday we had some light, but steady rainfall during the morning and early afternoon, with a high of 75 degrees. Overall, we had pretty nice weather during the convention, with temperatures above average for the area every day, and only a very short period of light rain during its peak hours. The threat of rain during the event could end up being a greater concern for some attendees in future years due to the situation with parking at the venue, which I’ll get into now.
Prior to the convention, Colossalcon East shared some info in regards to a new plan for parking at the Kalahari, mentioning that there was an overflow lot that some attendees would be directed to. When I arrived on Friday morning, there were Kalahari staff members stationed at the entrance road to the hotel. One of the staff members would ask each driver if they were staying at the hotel, and if they were not, they were directed to the overflow lot. This lot was located in a field in the woods that was a somewhat long walk from the Kalahari. After seeing the location and state of this lot, I immediately envisioned some potential problems, but before getting into what could happen, I’ll discuss my personal experience this year.
After parking in the overflow lot on Friday morning, I walked up to a gathering spot at the entrance to the lot, where shuttles were transporting attendees to the hotel. After waiting about 10 minutes or so, a Kalahari staff member in a Chevy Suburban picked some of us up and started driving us toward the hotel. I overheard someone on a walkie-talkie, presumably a member of Kalahari management, stating that they did not want staff members to continue to use the Suburbans to shuttle attendees to the venue any longer, and the Kalahari’s trolley would be the only vehicle that should be shuttling anyone to the hotel. That aside, my ride to the venue was uneventful, and if I had a similar experience during the next days of the convention, I’d be content. However, this would not be the case.
After exiting the Kalahari on Friday at around 8 p.m., I waited at the designated pick up spot outside of Redd’s Piano Bar. My understanding was that the trolley’s round trip time was around 20 minutes. After waiting around half an hour, I wondered what was going on, and asked some of the other attendees that were waiting, but no one had any idea. I got a message from a friend that I wanted to meet up with during the convention, so I went back inside for about an hour. When I came back outside and went to the pickup spot, one of the attendees said that they had heard that the trolley stopped running an hour or two earlier because its lights were not working. Did Kalahari management then decide to start utilizing the Suburbans again to shuttle attendees to the overflow lot? Nope. So there was no other option for us but to make the long walk.
Arriving on Saturday morning I was directed to the overflow lot once again. When I got to the shuttle pick up spot, there were around 30-35 other attendees waiting. I overheard some conversations among attendees that indicated that the trolley could only hold around 20 people. As waiting for an open trolley would have meant a long wait, I, along with numerous other attendees that were just arriving, decided to make the walk to the hotel. After exiting the venue on Saturday evening, I did manage to catch the trolley back to the overflow lot.
There were no Kalahari staff members directing traffic on Sunday morning. I decided to drive straight up to the hotel in hopes of finding a proper parking spot. Since some attendees leave for their trip home early in the day on Sunday, it didn’t take me too long to find a spot.
Before getting into some of the potential problems with parking at the overflow lot, I want to say that I certainly do understand why something had to be done. There simply are not enough parking spots at the Kalahari to accommodate the number of vehicles driven in by attendees during Colossalcon East, and this has been the case for a few years. In the past, there have been issues with people parking in places that were dangerous (parking on the side of the entrance road to the venue), potentially destructive (parking on the grass) and/or inconsiderate (parking in the area designated for Kalahari staff). I believe the Kalahari’s plan for parking during the convention was well-intended, but its implementation left room for improvement.
Let’s now discuss some of the problems other attendees experienced, as well as potential concerns for the future. First, parking in a field in the woods comes with some inherent risks. If there’s ever a heavy rainfall during, or just prior to the convention, there’s the potential for cars getting stuck in the mud. I heard this happened at Colossalcon’s Ohio venue several years ago, which ended up being a disaster. There is also the chance of encountering snakes (I actually saw one on Friday), and ticks (Lyme Disease, anyone?).
The long walk to the venue could be very challenging to both people in cosplay, and people with mobility issues. If the shuttle trolley were to stop running, which as I mentioned did happen on Friday, that could be a major problem for some people.
One attendee mentioned that some of the lighting in the field was not on during the late night hours on at least one of the nights of the convention. A dark, secluded area, at a venue where, unfortunately, there are reports of assault just about every year? Yeah, that’s definitely a safety concern.
Kalahari management really needs to make an investment to alleviate some of these problems in the future. Getting the lot properly paved would certainly be a big improvement, but I realize that is a large financial investment, which likely won’t happen for at least a few years. If the Suburbans are really needed for other venue functions, then I believe they should rent a few for the event. Honestly, just doing that for Friday and Saturday would probably be fine, and the cost would be a small drop in the bucket in comparison to the huge sum of money that the convention brings in.
That wraps things up for my coverage of Colossalcon East 2026. I hope that everyone in attendance had a great time, and that we may see some improvement to make an even better experience next time around!
Cosplayers in this final gallery include katwaiicc, maiacat.cosplay, aranea_venenum, ga.bean_, pearl.cos, peavypeachy, lizas.nonfiction, zadrabug, ry_anyone, cosmic_lils, feralspacegirl, pasionphetamine, arada.cos, youwannabett, rikuplz, kels.cosplay, kidkryptonite89, marsyorke, moyucore, magnaxai, mymelocosplay, giostigma, allisun.cos, lawlietigerpony, sakuraharunogirl, wildcardcosplay, salemsstudio, coffincarriedart, and many more.
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