Super MAGFest 2023 Convention Report
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The Super MAGFest music and gaming festival returned to kick off the year during the January 5-8, 2023 weekend in National Harbor, MD. After three years of COVID-19 madness this was probably the closest that MAGFest has been to returning to normalcy. Hopefully next year things will truly return to normal.
After cancelling the 2021 con due to COVID, the 2022 event saw a much smaller attendance of just 10.5K due to the high spike in registration cost and the outbreak of the Omicron variant. This year saw an uptick to 19K attendance although I would imagine that a significant amount of registrations were rolled over from previous years so the revenue that was generated this year was probably lower than the 19K numbers would suggest. Registration cost and even merchandise were still higher-priced than normal to account for this discrepancy. Hopefully next year the prices will go back down to a level that is closer to the pre-pandemic prices as I can’t imagine that the current high prices are sustainable for the long term.
Price aside, things did feel as though they were returning to normal. Concerts, panels, and cosplay photoshoot gatherings were held in full force and the video gaming and arcade halls were bustling with players throughout the weekend. The only thing that was a reminder to people that we weren’t quite back to normalcy was the fact that it was still a requirement to wear facemasks at the event. Regardless of how anyone feels about the state of the pandemic or what your views are on vaccination and masks, I do commend MAGFest for sticking to their guns and actively enforcing a policy that they officially announced (unlike Anime NYC a few months ago that announced a facemask policy but didn’t bother to do anything to enforce it). This helps to cement the message that when a convention says that they care about the safety and wellbeing of their members that they actually mean it.
MAGFest is one of those events where your mileage will vary. Whether or not it is worth the price tag is dependent on how much you partake in the options and festivities presented to you. I do hope that things will return to normal next year and see the festivities continue on. On a final note, I don’t know who started the tradition of setting up “shrines” around the con but I’m not sure how I feel about the weirdness of them either.
Check out my Facebook photography page where I uploaded photos that I took at the Atlus/Persona and Chainsaw Man cosplay photoshoot gatherings.
Check out my YouTube channel where I (soon-ish from the time of this post) will post my recording of Triforce Quartet’s “super secret” annual gazebo concert performance.