Fountain City Con 2023

I made an article a few years back that is now buried away, but it was about Fountain City Con. I couldn’t tell you what year that was, but I’m guessing it was their first year. Instead of pulling it up and drawing comparisons to FCC’s old self, I’ll keep it fresh. I’ll instead do what I did with my MoGameCon coverage and just tell you what we did across the day and the vibes we got! So you know that if you’re local to Kansas City, what you can expect to feel while at their event next time.

Elliott is the photographer I’ve been having with me at the last few events. He and I decided to ride together since we live near enough to one another. But honestly, the location of where Fountain City Con happened was only within 30 minutes of either of our houses, so we could’ve driven separately. I think that anything within 30 minutes of where someone lives is a good location and not cause for complaining of distance. This is especially true for when the event can be an all-day excursion of stuff to do (more on that soon). It’s even more true for collectors. Why complain about distance when the event focuses on selling things you collect all in one place and saves you from driving around looking for the stuff? Anyway, I digress, I liked the placement of the event.

We decided to eat at a nearby sandwich shop (Goodscents, for those who are nosey) before heading into the event. We made the assumption that there wouldn’t be food in the event space. We ended up being wrong, but more on that soon enough. Our time finding parking on the Sunday at 12:30 proved to be difficult in terms of finding one up close. The parking lot was also under construction so this meant backing up to get out of a lane with no parking. But once we found one, that was the end of our woes for the day!

Upon entering New Century Fieldhouse, we were greeted with the smell of a gymnasium. Rubber, plastic, deodorizing cleaner; but honestly, it wasn’t overwhelming and shortly we got used to the aroma. We walked up to a table laden with Fountain City Con merch which was all sensible items like cups and mugs, nothing that tickled my fancy though. After finally obtaining our press passes we were in and to our surprise there were a lot of booths and interactive setups.

Our first goal before talking with vendors and artists was photographing and recording the event space. That compiled video is down below at the bottom of this page. There were plenty of attendees on this Sunday afternoon, but it wasn’t stuffed elbow to elbow. Nothing was more abundant than time and space. After recording we went to the booths that interested us the most. I bought some art, collected business cards of people I wanted to follow online, and Elliott got some game pickups. Those are in the video as well, if you’re wanting to see what he snagged. Surprisingly, with the sheer amount of comic vendors, we didn’t buy a single comic!

We saw that there was indeed an entire concessions area and they even had food and drink named nerdy stuff. That was definitely a nice touch, even Planet Comicon doesn’t have concessions with custom-named food! There were plenty of tables to eat at. Up above the concessions was another floor. This was designated as a space for anyone who needed to not feel overstimulated, but it was also a nice view of the goings on below. I wish we’d taken a picture from up high! Maybe we’ll remember and do so next year.

Besides reseller vendors, artists, and authors there were also three different podcast tables that were set up. It was intriguing to see podcasts out at events promoting their work in person. I suppose it makes sense, but why don’t you see more of them? There was a stage for panels on the far wall about 50 feet from the concessions. There were plenty of places to sit and listen in. Adjacent to that were tables designated for tabletop gaming, hosted by Brute Force Gaming. But we didn’t happen to see any of it in our time there, it could’ve been that we missed it all.

To wrap this up, I wanted to also focus on the video gaming available. Since our site is heavily gaming-focused, it only makes sense. Along another wall, KC Game On hosted gaming sessions of various titles. We witnessed people playing Smash Bros and they looked like they were heavily entrenched in the game. Nobody ever glanced away for even a second! KC Game On brought several screens so there was everything they needed to accommodate lots of players. Finally, there were four arcade machines in another corner of the space. Honestly, 5 probably would’ve been a better number. The machines seemed to be busy the entire time we were there and we didn’t get a chance to play. There was space for more, so we’d like to see an additional machine next time.

We left and hit up some thrift stores too. I’ll have those pickups in my pickups video later on. But it was great that so many thrift stores were in the area, which is a roundabout way of saying I hope Fountain City Con stays in its location for the years to come. There’s lots of room to grow in that space and it’s clean!