A Pokemon fan convention in the Phillipines has gone viral after attendees compared it to the likes of Fyre Festival and DashCon. The ‘Pokeverse’ fan convention was held over the weekend, promising attendees a Pokemon experience featuring merchandise, panels with celebrity guests like Ash Ketchum voice actress Veronica Taylor and activities for fans to get absorbed in. It turns out the only thing attendees got absorbed in was expensive tickets and a very underwhelming, confused event.
Twitter/X user BinuRita recently posted a long thread detailing her experience at Pokeverse over the weekend. She attended all three days and went into detail (with pictures) about the convention’s disappointing experience. Firstly, the ticket prices were considerably high for a fan convention – Rita even compared the prices to official conventions that were much cheaper. That was the least of everyone’s concerns as the rest of the disorganised convention was exposed.
On day one, attendees who had bought the overpriced three-day pass got three red arm bands. The only problem was that each day featured different coloured arm bands. This was later rectified by organisers who used red star stamps for day two and three – star stamps that anyone could’ve drawn on their hands themselves to essentially gain free entry.
Let’s talk about POKEVERSE PH
THE POKÉMON THEMED WONKA-DASHCON-FYRE FESTIVAL of the PHILIPPINESLet me take you on a day by day journey through the PREMIER POKÉMON EXPO!
‼️A MEGA THREAD‼️ pic.twitter.com/H38b4pLL6T
— Rita WAS @ POKEVERSE (@BintuRita) June 4, 2024
Once inside, attendees were greeted to mostly empty spaces and a poor floor layout of a few merchandise stalls, a “resting” area that was just three bean bag chairs out in the open and a small main stage where Veronica Taylor and Jason Paige, the singer behind the Pokemon theme song, were hosted in panels. Paige and Taylor were apparently good sports about the situation and Rita agreed that their panels were the highlight of the convention.
When the EXPO finally opened, guests were greeted by a large barren space.
In the middle are displays of peoples private collections
The “starter wall” is 1 Bulbasaur plushie, 1 Charizard plushie, 1 Squirtle plushie, and a bunch of Pikachu plushies.
There was no giant Pikachu. pic.twitter.com/NmKvsXp0hJ
— Rita WAS @ POKEVERSE (@BintuRita) June 4, 2024
Beyond that, a plethora of issues emerged. Someone called the “Ravioli Man” was walking around the convention eating ravioli out of his jacket. It apparently smelled really bad and eventually he had to be kicked out. Cosplayers apparently didn’t have any changing rooms so they had to change out in the open while photographers relentlessly got up in their faces. The convention also promised a giant Pikachu plush display that just turned out to be a small table with a few small plush toys on it.
Enter THE RAVIOLI MAN.
This guy was eating sauce off a ravioli jar in his pocket. It seemed to be a filthy frank style prank there there were children under five running around the space and he smelled ROT.
Security refused to do anything despite several congoer’s reports. pic.twitter.com/yi0ml74abT
— Rita WAS @ POKEVERSE (@BintuRita) June 4, 2024
There was even a “game zone” with inflatable stands for attendees to try out, but these stands were generic and didn’t even have Pokemon branding on them. The event ended up being so disorganised that Rita herself, an attendee of the con, was asked by floor staff to help out with some activities and competitions. She was asked a handful of times to sing on stage in between panels too.
Since the thread gained traction online, other attendees in the Phillipines have come forward with their own horror stories while attending Pokeverse. During one panel, terminally ill children were asked to get up on stage, some of which could barely walk, and be exposed to the audience while they each had to introduce themselves. At this point, a lot of attendees were mortified.
The event has since been compared to Fyre Festival or DashCon with how unorganised it was. If you got the time, I highly suggest reading the rest of Rita’s thread as it goes into more detail about each day of the convention and what happened.
