Ancient City Con Review
I almost started writing this the Sunday we closed for this convention, but decided against it, as I always try to sit with my feelings before writing out something that comes across more emotional than factual. I will take the L on thinking that this convention was going to be bigger than it was, but after talking to several other artists/vendors, realized that I was clearly mistaken.
Ancient City Con is a St. Augustine, Florida-based convention with about 2k attendees. This took place over September 25th-27th, 2026. I traveled over 14 hours to be there, and even with my expenses being low for a show this far, I didn't even come close to breaking even. When I had finally arrived, it was Thursday evening, with about 20 minutes left to load in. The staff members were trying to help another person with their location for their booth. It took almost 10 minutes of them looking through their stack of papers to find their location and they told her that she couldn't set up. She asked if she could leave her luggage at her table to set up in the morning and they were a bit snippy with her. They told her they could hold onto her stuff in their office, but she insisted she would be fine just dropping her things off at the table. Even with two people there, they both focused on her, instead of allowing me to also check in. They then told me I wasn't allowed to bring my things in at all, and that I would have to wait until tomorrow. I did convince them to just let me put my things at the table and then I'd be out of their hair. Throughout all this, I never once saw either of the convention runners.
The vendor next to me was a very sweet couple who had their own brick and mortar store for comics, and they swapped between husband and wife throughout the weekend. The folks to the other side of me never showed up, so I eventually just moved my kigu rack (Saturday morning) to cover their booth area, as it looks bad to customers. Sales were very slow on Friday, and I thought that the Noon to 7p.m. open times were a bit long for the amount of crowd they had. I got to chat with Mr. Alex Saviuk, a super sweet and funny comic artist who has worked mostly with Marvel, drawing Spiderman comics. He also, unfortunately, had poor sales all weekend. His wife is also very lovely and told me I was working myself too hard at my booth. I was working on a couple of amigurumi and managed to finish three before the end of the convention.
The customers were all very nice, but definitely not very much of a "spending money on art" crowd. There were a few 3D print booths, a couple of crochet folks, and lots and lots of comics. In my opinion, there were FAR too many vendors/artists for the size of convention. I also believe there were too many guests. Cosplay, Artist, and Actors. There was too many. The ones I got to speak to were wonderful, but I feel it takes away the spotlight when there's so many. I also was completely overwhelmed with the 501st set up. As soon as you walked from the hotel side into the convention center, there was so many props and cosplayers. It got to be a bit crowded and especially the walkways in the vendors hall. People would stop in front of my booth to talk to each other, but not in front of the empty table next to mine (even with my kigu rack, I only took up half of the table area).
Everyone that I spoke to was very kind and were thoroughly impressed with my work. I managed to get Zephyr from League of Legends sewn together later Friday evening and immediately put him up on the little hammock my partner had made for display. I even managed to sell the five Scalemates I had brought with me. I definitely was not expecting the amount of Homestucks to be there. I did not sell any of my kigurumis, or any commissions on those and before you say, "Well, of course you didn't, it's FLORIDA." I have plenty of amazing customers from Florida, and it does sometimes get cold there. When we had closed on Friday, I had made less than $50, which, while it was better than our Friday the previous weekend, was still not acceptable as far as sales. Unfortunately, I was also not the only one who had made almost nothing.
Saturday was when they started doing overhead announcements, telling folks to go to certain panels, cheer on everyone, and let attendees know about the other activities going on. It was way too loud and made multiple people jump each time. I also wouldn't be able to talk to customers if I had them during the announcements, which would sometimes deter people from sales. I finally took a moment to walk around on Sunday to see other people's work and possibly find Warrior Cats merch, but was unsuccessful in that endeavor. I did find AI "art" in the Artist Alley, but being unable to find staff/volunteer/con heads to report them, just really didn't sit right with me. I also don't care for the way the con runner announced as we were getting close to close on Sunday, which was from 11-6 that they were already taking apps for next year. Longer sales hours do not mean that we will make more sales as vendors. I think it was absolutely crazy that we were working for almost 10 hours on Saturday, and 7 hours Friday/Sunday. I also think it's pretty sketchy to ask vendors for money in November as well, with an increase for the table around February. If I remember correctly, I paid $400 for my table, and had I waited until closer to the convention, it would have been incrementally increased if you waited.
It's becoming increasingly common to have shows pay for their reservation with the hotel/convention center using Vendor's table fees, and it just doesn't sit right with me. I don't care for this practice, especially when we're paying so much to be there. This isn't just on this convention, but every one I notice. I made just over $300, and in order to break even, I would have needed to make $1200. That is just for Table, Gas, and Hotel. I again, spoke with several artists and vendors and they all did really poorly. I usually judge a convention by a bell curve, and if I personally didn't do well, but others did, then I know it's just not my crowd and I can chalk it up to it not being my audience. But when everyone does poorly, that reflects on the convention runners.
One of the good things to come out of this convention is that I may have my patterns on retail shelves in St. Augustine soon! I can't go much into it yet as we're still in the talking phase, but I really hope that one of my dreams comes true!
While I personally will not do this convention again, the people I interacted with and spoke to were all lovely people. I also got my partner and I little charms of our favorite characters from Bleach, and I got to make Zephyr, Simisear, and a really cute Deer boy OC commission. I did get to start on Brionne as well, and hopefully will have her pattern available later this week. My suggestion to this con is to slim down your guests to one or two bigger names, and then maybe three comic artists, and two or three cosplay guests. I feel that if you are more than an hour away from the convention, to not try to push your wares because the costs are just too much to justify. I always enjoy going to Florida to visit, and see the ocean and beaches, but not when it puts me at risk of missing my rent payment.
I look forward to seeing how Tsukicon goes in Cincinnati, Ohio in the next couple weeks, but until then, you can use the code: "ANCIENTBUST" for 10% off your purchase of ready to ship items to help cushion the blow of making a quarter of what we needed to break even. The code is good until October 15th, and is good on anything under the "ready to ship" section of my shop! It'll apply to everything in your cart that falls under that category.
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