Nerd Processor
San Diego Comic-Con Is Overcrowded. Let’s Make It Bigger
The world’s biggest pop culture convention has become its least enjoyable, but it doesn’t have to be
San Diego Comic-Con is a one-of-a-kind experience that everyone who’s excited about pop culture — which is just about everyone — should attend once. And that should be the last time. One visit is all you’ll need to realize that despite the stars, the festival, the crowds, and (to a much lesser extent) the comics, the event has gotten so big that it’s not just bloated — it’s broken.
But it doesn’t have to be. And it turns out that the way to fix a big and bloated pop culture mega-event is to make it even bigger.
To anyone who’s waited hours in line in hopes of attending a hot panel at Comic-Con, or tried to find a place to have dinner in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter after the show, this may sound crazy. After all, the world’s biggest pop culture expo’s main problem is that there are simply too many people here. The issue goes beyond long lines, of which there are plenty. The con draws a reported 135,000 attendees to the San Diego Convention Center, which has a capacity of 125,000 — and this attendee number doesn’t count the thousands of guests, exhibitors, staff, and media personnel…
