TrotCon 2025 Review:
So, I decided to stop by TrotCon this year. I already posted my initial higher-level thoughts about the con, but now I wanted to write a more standard review. As I just went for one day (on Saturday), my review will be limited to whatever happened on Saturday.
General Stuff:
- Location: The hotel was easy to get to, which is always a plus. The parking lot had plenty of space and there were a lot of different parking spaces you could choose to park in.
- Hotel: The hotel layout for the con was the most unique of any con I had been to before. The Mane Events area was located behind the front desk, after you walked in, which was balanced out by a courtyard on the opposite end of the hotel. There were a lot of passageways in the hotel, which made it more fun but also easier to get lost. As the mane events area was in an open area, there weren’t too many corners to hide in (although I was able to make-do with a spot away from the mane entrance in the back corner of the “room.” At one point, one pony tried to push a wheelchairpony up the ramp to the “room” (you had to go up a ramp towards the front of the room but off to the side, along a glass rail-type thing and around) to get into the room area, but there wasn’t really any space off to the side for them to go back to because of the chairs in the way so they turned around.
- Front Desk: Helpful.
- Courtyard: This was a nice place to relax — didn’t seem like anyone was ever really there.
- Hotel Rooms: No data.
- Hotel Staff: …hardly noticeable.
- Bathrooms: A lock on one of the stall doors was broken, so it had to be held shut manually. Toilet paper was stocked when I first arrived, although it seemed to be running out in the early morning. In terms of style, it was nice; it also had full-length mirror. Even though the con put up a sign that said the bathrooms were gender-neutral, there were no gender-neutral signs covering the signs on the doors, making it possible to tell what they originally were, thus making them feel less gender-neutral. I suspect many people who were either male or female ignored the gender-neutral sign and went into whatever gender bathroom the sign on the doors said that they identified with — because of what the original sign said.
- Heat: It was really hot during the con.
Con Stuff:
Registration: Fine. There was no con book unless you were a sponsor, however. And receipts could only be obtained digitally. The badge design went from the traditional plastic casing with piece of paper in it to just a piece of paper, resulting in the badge coming unclipped from the clip on the lanyard a couple of times.
Panels: There wasn’t a lot of room in some of the panels, so if a panel was fairly popular, you couldn’t just hop into a room midway through, as there was no room. If you had wanted to join late, you would have had to have either found somewhere to sit either on the floor or amidst the crowd of ponies in the room — or stand in the back in a crowded room. Some ponies just stood outside the door.
Rave: The ponyrave was interesting, due to the location of the Mane Events hall (as described earlier). In addition, however, I think there were too many chairs in the ponyrave. I think it would have been ideal to have allowed for some space in the back to sit on the floor, as well as to have reduced the number of chairs towards the front, allowing for more and easier movement across the audience area. As it was, there was no way to really move from one side of the room to the other without going around the outside of the room, as the pinkiepieponies were concentrated in the middle, and chairs were blocking the possibility of any non-extremely-awkward passage around them. There was some A/V equipment set up in a makeshift way in the back and a cable that wasn’t taped down, if you wanted to walk that way to get to another chair — like I said, it was kind-of a small space. The rave was also being recorded, and there wasn’t really a way to dance outside of the recorded area because the space was so small. All of these things would discourage anypony who wasn’t already explicitly there to party from joining in. On the other hoof, for those that were, I think it caused the energy to feel more concentrated.
Musicians, etc.: The musician lineup for Saturday was very nice. After having taken a quick glance at all of the musicians’ music online before, I had a pretty good idea of who I wanted to see. The first and last musicians in the lineup were out, while the must-sees included Sound Bandit & Evershade along with Foozogz. The rest, I thought, would probably be pretty good but I just wasn’t sure about staying at the rave that long. While it was awesome that Foozogz had decided to perform a set again after I think it was 8 9 years or so, I was a bit different he didn’t play his newest song, “Space Hoofsies.” It definitely brought back some memories of BronyCon, I think — especially with the bundles of balloons that were being tossed around the pinkiepieponies. The ponies who went after Sound Bandit & Evershade were surprisingly good, and IvoryBrony was pretty good, as expected —
I had wanted to stay for Neighgative_ this year, but needed to get back to my car and get something to eat, walked around the courtyard, and then ended up in the Ponydrome, which has always been one of my favorite panels — if only because I remember back in TrotCon 2014 it was a place where a few ponies would lay down in the chairs and fall asleep late at night while watching pony PMVs. This year, however, the sound was turned up very loud for some reason — I wonder if to prevent that — but, luckily I had brought my noise-canceling earbuds and was able to reduce the sound from what was about 62-70 decibels down to what was probably 48-55 — low enough to doze off a bit, if I had wanted. I left around 3:10 A.M. because I had a long-ish drive back home.
Other Stuff: There was the fursuit/cosplayer parade, which was neat. Some cops wandered by me as I was about to take a video of the doodle book in the hall — seemed like they were headed towards a hotel room to arrest someone; I assume not a congoer.
Much of the con was spent shuffling things around in my small backpack, which I thought would be easier and less hot to carry around than a regular sized one (as well as look more fashionable). While it was all of those things, it was so difficult to access the stuff I needed that it may not have been entirely worth it. This was further complicated because I only had one pocket on the outfit I was wearing to store stuff in. So, I was going pretty minimalist in that regard.
The alcohol aspect of the con was interesting — the hotel itself actually had beer for sale (although I brought my own). The hotel said alcohol could be drank anywhere in the con, and I assume the con was ok with it too (although I didn’t see any official policy). The bar seemed to have closed early — only being open for a few hours (if that, I think), and you could sit in any of the outer restaurant seats (or maybe they belonged to the hotel?) At any rate, in some hotels, you’re not allowed to sit in the restaurant seats unless you order something, but this didn’t seem to be the case here. But then again, I’m not sure if the restaurant even opened at all on that Saturday evening and night.
Other things that happened included a pony from Discord giving me some stickers, as well as me taking some videos of the con. There was the traditional cosplay contest, and I briefly checked out the Jazz ponies (room was full, but the song was excellent — a pinkiepie song). It was cool that the con had a quiet room like BronyCon did. There was water there, and the only thing missing from the room was the beanbag chairs — and unfortunately, the room wasn’t open late at night.
Overall, I feel like the con did a lot of things right this year. It almost felt like a mini BronyCon, actually. This was probably because of the unique venue (along with the heat, of course –lots of that in 2015/2016 (can’t remember which year it was especially hot)) — it had long hallways (and a courtyard) that allowed for multiple way to get to places, the courtyard, which was something BronyCon kind-of had as well, a quiet room off to the side, and the open Mane Events stage which in some ways made the room feel a lot bigger and like more ponies were there than there specifically for the mane events panel or rave than there actually was. The more myriad energy in the Mane Events area made it feel kinda like a fair …a fair with mares in it, even — but not too much. It still felt like a rave. Oh yeah, and the various activities and such spread throughout the convention space, like the doodle books, the free bracelets depot, and I’m sure there was a lot more that I didn’t see — helped the con feel more welcoming. The display of the schedule along one of the corridors was a good decision. And I know I already mentioned the gender-neutral restrooms, but a lot of cons had those back in the early days, which was a good move, I think — except the original signs needed to have been covered up as well — preferably with smaller gender-neutral signs.
In terms of the congoers themselves, there was definitely the brony vibe there — especially depending on the panel. But in more general spaces at the con, it was a little bit different than a decade ago. Having watched a little bit of G5, I could definitely feel the G5 influence on the ponies at the con. There was definitely more energy compared to older cons. I mentioned last year’s con felt like there was a lot of ADHD-type of energy; this con I think it was a little less noticeable because of the smaller convention space …but definitely more energy. Comparing the energy to anime cons — vaguely, still. I don’t think anime cons have the brony vibe much at all. The energy of Whinny City ponycon comes to mind, but it’s not quite that kind of energy, either. It’s really a lot of different energies, I think — brony, furry, gen z, digital …etc. One thing I noticed in particular is how ponies seem to be less shy about who they are in general. I think the bronies of a decade ago were generally more shy. And yeah — the move Hasbro made of going back to trying to appeal to little girls again with G5, as well as all the short clips they made — seems to have attracted more of these kinds of ponies, so there was slightly more a feeling of being in a convention where there were maybe a little less guys who watch my little pony and a little more girls who watch my little pony — that G1-G3 vibe, I suppose, interlacing the con. …and shorter attention spans, as well as the intrusion (or perhaps enmeshment) of the digital environment into real-life con activities… Bronies are also older now, so I guess many of them have more life and social experience than before, which is interesting …there’s just less general awkwardness, I think — I mean, it seems like they have developed their own unique form of awkwardness, that is. Or, maybe that’s just what happens to everypony as they age.
At any rate, the con was nice. I wish I could have stayed Thursday through Monday to have really been able to settle in — one-day cons are never really enough for me to really fully relax into the environment, partly because I need to be able to drive home after the con is over, so I need to maintain my focus throughout. Even a hotel stay for just Friday and Saturday isn’t great because you still have wake up early on Sunday and get everything packed and/or moved out while the con is still going on. And if you wait to arrive on Friday, you can’t check in until later in the day, which is never fun to be at a con and then have to deal with checking into your room in the middle of the con. My ideal con would probably actually me something like: Arrive Wednesday and leave Tuesday. But that’s not realistic, due to how much it would cost. So, Thursday to Monday is probably optimal. Going multiple days also allows you to wear different outfits for each day, which is always nice; and having a hotel room allows you a place to get away from the con for a while if you want and even change outfits that same day.
Good con — probably entering a new generation of cons, I think — although I would have to attend other cons to confirm. Back in the day, there was a pony who did a survey of the average age of ponies — am wondering how much that may have skewed upwards since then, as well.