By Gavia Baker-Whitelaw on July 13, 2014 Email
It only took a few hours for DashCon 2014 to degenerate into the most catastrophic fan convention in recent memory.

Over the course of one weekend, the organizers took $17,000 from conventiongoers as part of an emergency fundraising drive, failed to pay any of their high-profile guests, and attempted to compensate disappointed ticket-holders by offering them an “extra” hour in a children’s ball pit. The ball pit only fit around six people. There was apparently not a very long queue.

DashCon was originally known as Tumbl-Con USA, a convention aimed specifically at Tumblr culture enthusiasts from fandoms such as Superwholock, Welcome to Night Vale, and Attack on Titan. If you’re at all familiar with any of these subcultures, you won’t be surprised to hear that many of the eventual conventiongoers were in their teens.

Tumbl-Con USA raised more than $4,000 in startup funds via Indiegogo, before changing their name to DashCon to avoid implying that they were officially linked with Tumblr itself. “We are not in any way affiliated with or endorsed by Tumblr,” reads DashCon’s Tumblr account.

Billing itself as Tumblr’s answer to VidCon, DashCon easily found volunteers and drummed up donations. Tickets went on sale in summer 2013, with the convention planned for this weekend, July 11-13, in the Schaumburg Renaissance Convention Center in Illinois. A weekend pass was $65, with day passes priced at $30-50, plus typical hotel room rental bills. This was a little on the pricey side for a first-time convention (San Diego Comic Con charges $45 for a day pass on peak days), but not exorbitantly so.

On July 11, with most attendees already on site, DashCon staff members dropped the bombshell that the convention would be thrown out of the hotel unless $17,000 was ponied before 10pm.