After two and half years of waiting Midsummer Scream is back and scarier than ever. Held once again at the Long Beach convention center, the three-day event marked its Fifth Anniversary of Midsummer Scream with special panels, its famous Hall of Shadows, and much more!
Brand-new for 2022 found a variety of vintage collectibles, costumes, and more, alongside original artwork created just for the event, celebrating the culture, and the community for the spooky season.
The Hall of Shadows returns with the theme of “Halloween Comes Home”. The guests got to step into a darkened realm filled with fog, haunted attractions, and lurking monsters. Over a dozen home and pro haunters including CalHauntS, Fear Farm, Reichland Asylum, Temecula Terror, and Corona Haunt will create stunning mazes and displays for guests to explore.
The show floor featured more than 350 vendors and artists, the Midsummer Scream show floor is a stunning collection of shirts and apparel, artwork, masks, posters, toys, oddities, and decorations for all Halloween and horror lifestylers as well as haunted attraction creators.
Panels this year included new spooky and haunt information from Universal Horror Nights, Reign of Terror, Los Angeles Haunted Hayride and brand-new Halloween experience Shaqtoberfest.
One of the best things they did this year was a Museum of Halloween, a collection of vintage costumes and decorations from the 1930-1960s. Some of the coolest and creepiest things all together in one room. To see the difference in how Halloween was once celebrated is mind-blowing for sure.
The negatives: the lack of masks being worn and Covid protocols was a little disappointing. And as usual for cons post pandemic there was a totally lack of organization: no one knew what line to be in, where to go and how to get there. The line to get in was literally a mile long and took patrons over 2 hours to get in and once in the floor was so full of people you could barely walk. And it was pushing over 95 degrees, so that many people in a room, it got very hot. It feels like tickets were over sold. Perhaps maybe don’t do that for next year?
The Positives: Just like in past years the 2022 con was a very fun experience. The Hall of Shadows this year was top tier with talent and scares. And so many new vendors and such amazing things to look at. I lost so much money! Even though it was massively crowed, everyone seemed to be having a good time. It’s still different, but at least it felt a little like the past. Overall, a good time was had.
