![Crunchyroll Expo Australia Grapples With Capacity Crowds, Long Queue Times On Day One [Updated]](https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/09/17/FPAClUwXEAAuNNw-e1657850170911.jpg?quality=80&resize=1280,720)
Update 2:08pm 21/9/22: Regarding last weekend’s capacity issues and long queues, Crunchyroll has provided the following statement to Kotaku Australia:
Fan safety is priority #1, and we did our best to safely get everyone inside for a fabulous time. We worked tirelessly throughout the weekend with our venue and facility partners for a solution to accommodate all ticketed patrons. We know everyone was excited about celebrating anime together.
We had no issues with guest entry on Sunday. However, for anyone who could not or did not enter the venue, we will honor refund requests. We will offer full refunds to those not able to use their tickets, and partial refunds to those with weekend tickets who are not able to use the Saturday portion of their ticket. Any unclaimed guests tokens will also be refunded.
Original story continues below.
The inaugural Crunchyroll Expo Australia anime convention has found itself with a big problem to solve on its opening day.
The US convention’s first Australian outing was dogged by long queues for entry, leaving punters, some in full cosplay, waiting outside the centre for as many as five hours. Though we were not able to get confirmation on it, this was seemingly a result of the venue reaching capacity limits earlier in the day. After that, getting in had necessarily been reduced to a one-in, one-out situation.
Things worsened in the afternoon as a storm rolled over Melbourne, pushing the lines against the glass outside the convention centre. What had been a relatively organised queue lost its structure, leaving punters unclear on their position in the line or even which way the line should be moving.
Adding to the confusion, at the time of writing, and despite notices stating the show had sold out, punters on Twitter noticed that Crunchyroll Expo Aus still appeared to be selling weekend and single-day tickets for Saturday despite being unable to let more people in. A quick check of Tixr at the time of writing revealed that these passes were indeed still on sale. This was later confirmed to be a systems glitch connected to refunds. As tickets were refunded within the venue, the system considered them available again and so was putting them back up on Tixr. Kotaku Australia understands that this wasn’t actually supposed to happen, and has since been rectified.
As the day wore on, the punters lined up outside began taking their frustrations to Twitter. The #crunchyrollexpo hashtag began to fill with expressions of anger and disbelief from punters caught in the downpour, some of whom had booked hotels and flown in from interstate for Q&As and signings, only to be left stranded outside the venue.
This is so incredibly fucked #crunchyrollexpo STOP SELLING TICKETS OMFG pic.twitter.com/ohN2B706ry
— yianna 🩹❤️🩹 missing yj & hk (@healningz) September 17, 2022
Its bucketing down raining and Ive been standing outside for over 3 hours for #crunchyrollexpo because they sold too many tickets…explain to me why they are STILL SELLING TICKETS?
— Riley_or_something (@Rileyorsmthn) September 17, 2022
Well crunchyroll expo in Melbourne is a disaster. Waiting in line so far since 10. Turns out event was oversold by double the tickets. Huge lines outside which are slowly devolving into chaos #crunchyrollexpo
— Erin Engellenner (@ezza_aus) September 17, 2022
Absolutely horrified and appealed by the conditions at @crx_aus, overcrowding, extremely loud music next to tables, terrible layout of booths. I’ve been going to and tabling at cons for years now and this is by far the worst experience I’ve had #crunchyrollexpo
— Game Boy Mitch (@Lemmy7003) September 17, 2022
Kotaku Australia has reached out to Crunchyroll Expo Australia for comment. We’ll update you when we know more.
Gotta love when you go to their website the the first thing you’re greeted to is:
“CRX Australia 2022, Plan your weekend”
You first, ffs!
“US convention’s first Australian outing”
You mean the third rebranding of MadFest? That’s what it actually is, a rebrand/relaunch of MadFest, with the same team behind it
As someone who was there, they made a lot of the same mistakes as the first Pax. Lines too long, not enough food, not enough seats. I don’t think it was run by the same people, or they had restrictions that made them do some stupid stuff.
I still say bring back Manifest. =P
Maybe there was a push to go bigger since it was a relaunch and rebrand. It was actually run by the same people
It’s possible. Considering there was a decent sized area just for spy x family (as far as I could tell, it was just to get a treasure hunt card), and for Aniplex but not enough for the stalls, it’s pretty sad.
I am a bit confused that they are selling tickets on the day when they explicitly said tux were sold out earlier this week and they wouldnt be selling anymore tix at the door..
Regardless looks like cr aus organisers seem to have utterly forgotten basic con organisation since we’ve had no cons over the lockdown.. good grief..
Re: ticket sales, we answer that in the piece. As refunds were going in, the ticket system was considering them “available” and automatically putting them back on sale, which it wasn’t supposed to be doing.
The refund/resell, still doesn’t explain the original failure when they sold far more tickets to begin with. Like that is gross negligence on the organisers part.
Its a triple combo of normal overselling cause people go in and out during the day but forgetting this is the first one in 3 years, assuming they had more capacity than what they thought, then the fire marshal reducing capacity again after their inspection on Friday
Lol, no different from an anime expo in Brisbane almost 10+ years ago, lines every where, all the dressed-up people on top of others and when you got into the show, good luck tacking a step in any direction.
Good job, Crunchy – managing the forced rebrand of Madman’s con about as well as the forced moves from Animelab.
The hashtag made for sad yet fun reading, after leaving the zero drama Brisbane Oz-Comicon on the train yesterday, at least.
More like Soggyroll, amirite?
“Fan safety is priority #1, and we did our best to safely get everyone inside for a fabulous time.”
Tell me another joke Crunchyroll. If they were actually making safety a priority then we wouldn’t be seeing huge crowds outside in the cold and rain plastered all over TikTok and Youtube.
Fan safety is our number 1 priority… after revenue and profits. So number 3.
If safety is a priority why is it listed in limited liability disclaimer legalese small print.
“Fan safety is priority #1, and we did our best to safely get everyone inside for a fabulous time. We worked tirelessly throughout the weekend with our venue and facility partners for a solution to accommodate all ticketed patrons. We know everyone was excited about celebrating anime together.
We had no issues with guest entry on Sunday. However, for anyone who could not or did not enter the venue, we will honor refund requests. We will offer full refunds to those not able to use their tickets, and partial refunds to those with weekend tickets who are not able to use the Saturday portion of their ticket. Any unclaimed guests tokens will also be refunded.”
I’m not seeing an apology. Or any responsibility. So, it was the fans who decided to stay outside in the hail? I doubt it. Thing is, people don’t just want their money back, they want you to understand where you stuffed up and how you’re going to fix it Crunchyroll.