Since moving to the current venue they've stopped capping the convention. I know a lot of people wanted this, but the venue can't handle the number of people. Last year(2024) around 9,000 attended. Artist alley has felt claustrophobic for a few years now, and the dealers room had someone suffer a panic attack from being crushed on all sides by the crowd.
A window was smashed in the lobby, people were walking through the dealers room openly drinking alcohol in the middle of the day, and main events that once accomadated everyone, now can't fit the majority of attendees, even if they waited in libe for hours. In previous years these events were shown on the hotel tvs, but that was removed too.
They don't have the staff to accommodate these numbers, but refuse to cap attendance or move to a bigger venue.
I love Anime Detour. I wouldn't have gone to it for so many years if I didn't. However, what was once a nice sized convention with a warm community has turned into an often unruly, overcrowded mess. And no one is doing anything. The price keeps rising, while.thenquality keeps dropping. When people raise questions or concerns they are given the run around, banned from the official social media, or shouted at until they back down. There are goodnthings about Detour, but many of these problems need to be fixed.
And unfortunately, all of the problems I'd like to address in this review have not improved significantly in that notable length of time.
Detour sheds staff like a lizard sheds skin. They are, as far as I understand, currently in the middle of a large staff shake up, so who knows, maybe this will be the change they need to finally get their act together, but at this point, I personally wouldn't hold my breath.
The alley itself has alternated over the years between having its tables crammed too close together, to the point where an artist with a cane would struggle to get back to their table without having to go down the entire row. On other years, the aisles for walking have frequently been too narrow, which is awful for accessibility, and turns the walkway into a traffic jam that attendees are also thoroughly unhappy about. At these times, large portions of the room have also been entirely unused, so this feels like just staff oversight, but that doesn't seem surprising when occasionally their AA staff has been a single person, which does not seem ideal for a con of Detour's size.
But what I really want to highlight here are the proxy selling rules.
Historically, this convention has, like many others, focused on Artist's Alley as a way for artists to sell their own work and for attendees to be able to meet the actual artist. Somewhere along the way, that quietly changed, and as a result, there's been several tables in the Alley being represented by people who sometimes don't even know what is featured in the prints they are selling. I don't think allowing proxies is inherently bad if handled correctly, but overall, it really feels like it brings down the vibe to see attendees frequent disappointment that they went here to meet an artist who turned out to not even be in the state, let alone at the con itself.
Lastly, though, I want to talk about what other artists and I have "affectionately" dubbed the Saturday hell shift. Anime Detour expects artists to show up at 10AM and to work until 8PM without a break. I am aware that some other conventions also do this so they are by no means alone in this choice, but it is an outlier in MN and it feels genuinely ridiculous to work that long of a shift at a convention where the alley is largely deserted until noon anyway.
Even with all of these issues, I would still genuinely recommend this convention. The venue is in downtown Minneapolis, and is easily reached with public transit. I think that the crowd is some of the best out there, the attendees are constantly sweet, sales are great, and that at least overall it feels like layout and several aspects of the artist experience have been slowly improving. Last year especially saw much-needed improvements, including free snacks and tea that were delivered to the tables, which was excellent and I would love to see continue going forward.
Most of all though, I want people to know what the con is like going in without letting my own bias towards the convention cloud the objective facts. In addition to what I have already mentioned, prices have gone up significantly for tables, with an increase of over $70 compared to the previous year, complete with new and exciting added fees. If attendee traffic continues to be as it has been in the past, this is easily made back, but it is still frustrating to see sudden increases in cost all the same.
I wish all AD staff the best. I don't think issues like this are the fault of any individual volunteers so much as they are the result of a disorganized leadership that currently is aiming for growth above all else. Most of all, I hope to see the con continue improve in the future because I have nothing but hope for what it has the potential to be.
Overall, Anime Detour is still one of MN's best anime cons from an attendee perspective, and I hope that someday it can be one of the best from an artist's perspective, too.
