Midsummer Scream 2024 has come and gone once again. It’s the latest edition of the world’s biggest Halloween Convention. This year had record attendance with well over 50,000 guests. Horror fans packed the Long Beach Convention Center in Southern California for three days (July 26-28). Everyone from fans of Halloween, horror and the macabre all gathered for this pre-spooky season celebrations. What once was a great convention has sadly turned into a basic corporation draw where the focus is now money over the fans of the holiday. Like San Diego Comic-Con and many cons before it, people found out and ruined it for the true enthusiasts.
I have been going to Midsummer since its first year. And I have enjoyed it each year after. But this year there was something different about it. The vibe has changed. It wasn’t as fun and there just wasn’t as much as there has been in past years. They still had most of the same booths and panels that you have come to expect. But it was all just dulled. The floor wasn’t set up the same and it was very difficult to move around. They made the aisle smaller, to add more vendors, and at one point the aisles just stopped and became a booth vortex where you would walk by the same booth before realizing you’re in a hell loop of people and pumpkins.
The panels rooms had their standard line-up as per every year: Knotts Scary Farm, Fright Feast, Universal Horror Nights, Haunted Hayride etc. And the returning was the fan favorite Dark Harbor.
Dark Harbor hasn’t been around since 2019. The Queen Mary has always had “issues” and during the pandemic it closed for a few years. But now Dark Harbor is back. And looks better than ever. New houses, new foods and new evil clown carnival things to do. This is one of the better haunts in the southern California area.
The biggest Knotts announcement is that Elvira, Mistress of the Dark is returning to Scary Farm with an Elvira Experience. It will be a retrospective of her 35 plus years of being a main Scary Farm act and attraction, showcasing her shows from years past, costumes and general celebration of her career.
Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights announced that returning to this year’s event would be the Monstrus Nightmares of Latin America, but this time it would be a sequel with some returning favorites and new Latin folklore legends. Accompanying this house will also be a new scare zone featuring luchadores inspired by the Universal Classic Monsters.
With Texas Chainsaw Massacre celebrating its 50th anniversary this year HHN is bringing us a new twist on the Texas Chainsaw house, a multiverse vibe where all the different Leatherfaces from all the movies come together to frighten you. Having gotten a chance to see some of the artwork for the house, it looks promising.
The Hall of Shadows is typically a fun part of the day. A hall full of spooky home haunts to give that little scare vibe during the summer: it’s usually a highlight of the day. This year it was halved. Where this is usually at least 10 haunts, this year was about 5 home haunts showing off their creativity, but now some have been replaced with actual movie studio advertisements and tie-ins haunts: Universal, Paramount and Lionsgate all made their presence known. And way too many selfie installations.
Felt like every 25 feet was another thing you just wait to take a pic in front of where in the past it would have been a regular person trying to make a living showcasing some wonderfully creative things they made. The days where this con was about Halloween are gone, it’s more about Halloween greed instead.
Midsummer Scream has also officially outgrown Long Beach Convention Center. The venue is way too small now for people who attend the con each year, and it just keeps growing. The venue was so understaffed and overworked that the fire system broke on Saturday starting at 10:15 am and they didn’t get it to stop until well after 2:00. That meant that for little over 3 hours there was a high-pitched fire alarm going on all that time continuously. No one could hear, talk or see because of the bright flashes of light that occupied the alarm itself.
I understand that shit happens. But after the first hour I no longer cared. Either unplug it, or I hoped for an actual fire at that point. They cancelled panels which pushed back scheduled panels and so on. So, to say it was a clusterf**k would be an understatement. This seems to happen every year. If this is the case maybe it’s time to upgrade or post more people near the door they shouldn’t be opening.
In the past I have always really liked this con, but after this year I don’t think I’ll be going back anytime soon. Take a few years off and try again later. It just wasn’t the same. I don’t want to be one of those people who says that cons used to be better back in the day. But the truth is, that’s just how it is. Cons are always better before they become popular. But for cons to survive they will need to become bigger. Just the nature of the beast. And it always will be unfortunately.
