Pokemon fan convention draws Fyre Festival comparisons as things go horribly wrong X: BintuRita\/The Pokemon CompanyA Pokemon fan convention in the Philippines went horribly wrong over the weekend, so much so that it is drawing comparisons to Fyre Festival and Willy Wonka Experience. According to the Pokeverse website, the event is the \u201cpremier Pok\u00e9mon-themed expo in the Philippines made by fans for fans.\u201d Included in the official breakdown of the event were officially licensed collectibles on offer, Pokemon tournaments, and cosplay contests, just to name a few of the activities. What\u2019s more, the event even promised meet and greet opportunities with Veronica Taylor, the original voice of Ash Ketchum, and Jason Paige, singer of the iconic Pokemon anime theme, However, the event took a turn for the worse when those in attendance began sharing videos and photos of the event online, spurring major backlash due to the complete chaos across the show floor. Before even entering the Expo, fans were allegedly greeted with delayed start times, massive open areas that included very few Pokemon-themed activities, and an individual causing chaos who has been dubbed \u201cthe Ravioli man\u201d by those in attendance. Pokemon fan and cartoonist Rita, who goes by \u201cBintuRita\u201d on X, was in attendance across the whole weekend and shared photos of the person in question, detailing how Ravioli man was \u201ceating sauce off a ravioli jar in his pocket. It seemed to be a filthy frank-style prank where there were children under five running around the space and he smelled ROT.\u201d The same attendee further claimed how \u201csecurity refused to do anything despite several con-goers\u2019 reports\u201d but that the Ravioli man was eventually removed but not after \u201che took a sponge and started rubbing [sauce] on one of the sponsor\u2019s booths.\u201d Day two of the Expo included even more chaos and confusion for Pokemon fans, with open spaces filled with inflatable activities that had no clear connection to the franchise. Furthermore, the nearby resting area that was touted as being a calm area for those in attendance was reportedly swarmed by \u201crelentless\u201d camera crews that filmed any and every moment of the event they could. To make matters worse, the previously promised Cosplay Lounge was nowhere to be seen, with Rita further claiming that cosplayers then began hanging out in the open in the \u201crest\u201d area. \u201cDespite Pokeverse recently being advertised as a cosplay event, there was no lounge. So cosplayers started changing HERE.\u201d As well as the poor security and lack of Pokemon-focused events, ticket pricing for the Expo has also come under fire, particularly after those in attendance found out that Veronica Taylor was not compensated for her time at all. The community was left wondering what the logic behind the high ticket pricing was given barely any of the promised attractions were included. Following the online backlash, the hosts of the event took to X to respond to the criticism. \u201cIt\u2019s our first event with very little time to prepare but we do agree that a lot of things need to be improved for another season,\u201d they said, \u201cbut we appreciate your participation and will continue to take your feedback to do better next time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pokemon fan convention draws Fyre Festival comparisons as things go horribly wrong X: BintuRita\/The Pokemon CompanyA Pokemon fan convention in the Philippines went horribly wrong over the weekend, so much so that it is drawing comparisons to Fyre Festival and Willy Wonka Experience. According to the Pokeverse website, the event is the \u201cpremier Pok\u00e9mon-themed expo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}