Mayday aka a huge dumb

This year's show at Anime Blues Con was our last at this convention.

So I want to take a moment and truly say, from the bottom of my heart, Thank you.

Thank you to the convention staff who took a chance on me by letting me run a vocaloid concert over 10 years ago despite being a teenager armed with PVC pipes and bug netting. And to those staff members who continued to support me as the show grew into what it has become.

Thank you to everyone who has come to one of the shows at Anime Blues Con. Those of you who gave us a shot and sang along to our setlists.

None of what I have accomplished would be possible without you.

Since I live near Memphis and I want to continue looking for possible alternatives near by, I'm sure we'll meet again.

Context

So, for context, Anime Blues Con was bought out by a company called VXV events.

Prior to this, I have been working Anime Blues Con since 2014. I was doing a Concert every single year they had the convention, and sometimes doing them at Anime Blues Remix in winter as well with an entirely different setlist. Effectively single handedly put together a customized concert for them each con. I was also occasionally running / helping run other vocaloid themed panels. Because they gave me my first chance at running a Vocaloid Concert and the various other support the staff gave me behind the scenes (like helping pay for a new screen at one point and giving me opportunities to work with other cons) I gave ABC my highest priority. I turned down other conventions BECAUSE they were too close to ABC.

It's also worth mentioning that starting in.. i believe 2023, we were also given a booth by ABC in the dealers hall (usually near the guests) in order to promote the concert and speak to attendees after the show.

Because I had become such a staple for the con, my show was considered a "main event" and was usually put in either the main ballroom or the second largest panel room, which always included two extra screens, proper sound systems, tech support, and enough space for the large crowd it always drew in. It's worth mentioning that my panel was frequently the most "scheduled" panel on the app only after the cosplay contest.

I knew with the new owners, things would probably be different. But I had hoped that when the existing ABC staff explained the demand that usually came with the show, the new VXV staff would take that into consideration when dealing with our treatment. They did not.

The Table Trouble

I will start by saying the majority of the issues revolving around the table were eventually resolved, but I'm still mentioning them as they were a prelude to how the rest of this weekend would go.

Vendors / Artists were suppose to receive information about load in two weeks before the event. Allegedly, some of them DID receive this information when they were suppose to. Others (myself included) did not receive load in information until the Monday before the event. Because of this, some of them were forced to drop out last minute because of the lack of communication. On top of that, when we received this information monday, we were also given table assignments. Some Vendors / Artists (myself included, again) were not ON the table assignment list.

I emailed the organizer back immediately after receiving the table asssignment, asking where I was. I got a response on Tuesday night at 11:30 pm, informing me that the only reason I wasn't on the list originally is because "things were in flux" because "some people dropped out." I was then informed we would be in the hallway - a table placement that wasn't even on the original vendor map we were given. We have never had hallway vendors before. It is my personal belief and speculation that VXV may have overbooked the vendor hall, and the hallway was being used as overflow. The hallway containing tables WOULD eventually lead to it's own problems I won't get into here as I did not experience them first hand.

The table assignment I got initially was H6. When I arrived at the venue on thursday for setup, I was then told H1. H1 was directly next to the gaming area, and we would be hidden by a wall of their merch which was displayed by extremely tall mesh walls.

Friday morning when we arrive for final setups, we were (thankfully) told we could move into the vendor hall afterall as another artist had dropped out 20 minutes prior due to car troubles. I'm extremely grateful for this turn of events, because if this hadn't happened and we hadn't been able to move, we would have been absolutely screwed at H1.

Like I said, this DID work out for us, but it was an extremely stressful and disorganized lead up into the event.

The Concert

As previously stated, our show is usually placed in the second largest room with the stage and audio setup that would be required for our event. This year, that room was called Second Stage.

However, this year we were placed in Panel Room 2. Panel room 2 was about a third of the size of Second Stage last year. It also only contained a very small TV in the center of the back wall and speakers sitting on the floor. There was no stage, and there was a table with a sound board that we couldn't move from the front of the room due to their awful cable management. There was NO tech help whatsoever offered by VXV.

Thankfully a group of friends were able to come help us setup the screen and move the chairs to give us space. I was also thankfully able to get help from a previous member of ABC staff to help dim the lights and get us properly connected to their sound system.

However, since we only had half an hour for setup (which normally would have been enough time), I was unable to really test anything before we began letting people in. We even had to delay the show slightly, as the only way we could fit everyone into the room was by cramming people into seats and not leaving a single space opened. That, naturally, took some time.

After the show began, it was immediately obvious something was wrong with the sound system. We dealt with the speakers randomly muting, which I had to try and fix on the fly since again - no tech support. We ended up having to skip the first three songs before it began working again, and even then it would occasionally mute the first few seconds of a song before playing. It was all very strange, but I did find out later that I was not the only panelist who had those issues in that panel room.

Due to the room size and the speakers BEING ON THE FLOOR, sound also didn't travel well. in the back half of the room, people struggled to hear despite the volume being as loud as I could make it without hurting those in the front row. This negatively affected the experience of those who sat further back, and that really kills me.

This is, of course, all on top of us not having a stage. We raised the screen as high as we could without it being too dangerous, but naturally there were some people who still couldn't see from where they were sitting. This is why it's usually better for us to have multiple screens and a stage, so everyone can see and enjoy the show.

Needless to say, it was a bit of a disaster. The only main positive I can say is that the attendees were extremely understanding during the technical issues, and most of them did not hold them against me specifically. The panelists who came after us were also extremely understanding about us running a few minutes over, and I made sure to get them fully settled and ready for their panel before leaving.

I should mention there will be no recording of this show posted outside of the few clips I posted on the instagram story. This is BECAUSE of how bad the recording turned out due to the room itself and the tech issues.

Sunday's panel

For the first time this year, we held a bingo panel on Sunday. This was suppose to be a relaxing wind down for Sunday and a way for people to earn some prizes and have fun. Of course, this was also screwed up.

We were in the workshop panel room - which is totally fine by itself. I think I even suggested it in my application. However, This panel room's tech was even WORSE off than Panel Room 2's.

The TV was about a third of the size (which is saying something, as the Panel Room 2's TV wasn't that big to begin with) and was turned off when we arrived as none of the VXV staff had set the room up before we got there. Even after plugging up my laptop to it, there was no way that I could find to change the input over to the laptop. It was stuck on the main TV menu, so we were unable to use it.

The speakers ALSO didn't work! The mics worked fine, but plugging the speakers into my computer lead to the speaker on the right not making any sounds, and the speaker on the left only making a garbled mess. I can only describe it as "what if you turned the bass all the way down and then stuck the speaker underwater."

We ended up having to just use the computer speakers at 100% volume. Which, naturally, was difficult for everyone to hear unless they were sitting close.

The original intention was for us to not call the song names out, but due to the audio issues we did have to call them out as they played.. making the game significantly easier.

Thankfully, people did still have fun despite everything. But it was a real solidifier of how bad this mess was.

Honestly, all of that was enough for me to decide this would be my last Anime Blues Con. Frankly, I don't care if VXV suddenly gets better and their heart suddenly grows three sizes. I won't be back to the con unless it's sold to new owners. There are many others who had MUCH worse experiences from VXV than me, including sexual harassments / objectification, outwardly rude treatment, and labor abuse. (legally, i have to say all alleged.) I won't go into those as they're not my personal experiences, but there are those who have shared their experiences on instagram and tiktok that you can find.

One of the effects i'm trying desperately to use broke for an unexplained reason so I'm taking that as a sign to finally stop for the night...

One of the effects i'm trying desperately to use broke for an unexplained reason so I'm taking that as a sign to finally stop for the night...

【KYO V6】 Interstellar Flight / 星間飛行 【VOCALOIDカバー】

Check our next show out at Anime Blues Con in Memphis, TN July 10th-12th!

We’ll be hosting our Vocaloid FanLive on Saturday Night, as well as having our booth there all weekend !

Voca Live Party has decided to open up volunteer positions for anyone interested in contributing to future shows!

I would love to see us become a concert that is built more on community, so when you watch it you can say “We made that together!”

If you’re interested, check out our recruitment page here.

Happy anniversary Kaito!!