Mermaid Fin Fest. June 7-9th Terrell TX

[Siryna mermaid]

I know it can seem a bit pricey but everything is included except food. Having run cons before we usually break up the prices so you pay X for tickets, X for dance X for certain workshops etc but this is all done up and you can either bring your own food/buy or sign up for the weekend meal plan which is a nice added bonus.

I really am so excited I have never been to Texas before!

girl we’ll give you big ole’ Texas welcome. Lol!

i say that even though i’m Also not from around here xD

[Mermaid Delphinidae]

FinFest just announced on their Facebook page that the date will be changed to August 30 - September 1. I don't know if I'll be able to make it now, bleh. It will depend on whether I have a half-decent job that will give me the time off. I'm not counting on that, but if it happens, I'll do my best to make it!

[AniaR]

Oh I forgot to update here. Yes they changed dates so they could accommodate some more special guests. Mermaid Linden will be making her first con appearance! A few others yet to be announced too

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[Mermaid Delphinidae]

Oh I forgot to update here. Yes they changed dates so they could accommodate some more special guests. Mermaid Linden will be making her first con appearance! A few others yet to be announced too

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Yeah, it looks like it will be even cooler! I really hope I'll be able to make it.

[Mermaid Delphinidae]

Looks like FinFest got cancelled due to low ticket sales. What a shame! I probably wouldn't have been able to go anyway but if my finances and scheduling lined up I definitely would have made the trip. Oh well.

I guess it's not too surprising. Mermaiding is a really niche hobby, so the buyer base is already really small, and the high ticket prices (while justified) are an obstacle to a lot of people. I wonder if a more inexpensive event would have more luck.

[Satine]

Looks like FinFest got cancelled due to low ticket sales. What a shame! I probably wouldn't have been able to go anyway but if my finances and scheduling lined up I definitely would have made the trip. Oh well.

I guess it's not too surprising. Mermaiding is a really niche hobby, so the buyer base is already really small, and the high ticket prices (while justified) are an obstacle to a lot of people. I wonder if a more inexpensive event would have more luck.

Yeah the participation was to low! Don’t think people wanted to travel to Texas! But the tickets where actually a grate deal for everything you got for them! I stayed up till 3am waiting for the sight to go live so I could be the first one to buy tickets! So sad this will not be happening now! Meeting raina and Sean would have been a dream come true for me! It was also going to be my very first mer event and meet up the first time I would have met another mer face to face! This feels like a very big blow to my mermaid dreams! My life is like the Black night sky mermaiding is
Like the tiny little stars of happyness and finfest was gonna be the moon! A great big joy and a break from the drag of my every day life!

And i know the creators of finfest and all the speakers are very sad it has had to be cancelled to! The master mind behind it told me she has spent weeks crying about it because it was her baby and it meant so much to her!

I really hope she will try again next year! And that I will be able to attend !!!


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[AniaR]

Yeah I am so bummed !!! I think they need a year's notice for people to plan and save.

[Satine]

Yeah I am so bummed !!! I think they need a year's notice for people to plan and save.

Yeah I agree! I really hope it happens some time in the future !!!


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[Mermaid Delphinidae]

Yeah the participation was to low! Don’t think people wanted to travel to Texas! But the tickets where actually a grate deal for everything you got for them! I stayed up till 3am waiting for the sight to go live so I could be the first one to buy tickets! So sad this will not be happening now! Meeting raina and Sean would have been a dream come true for me! It was also going to be my very first mer event and meet up the first time I would have met another mer face to face! This feels like a very big blow to my mermaid dreams! My life is like the Black night sky mermaiding is
Like the tiny little stars of happyness and finfest was gonna be the moon! A great big joy and a break from the drag of my every day life!

And i know the creators of finfest and all the speakers are very sad it has had to be cancelled to! The master mind behind it told me she has spent weeks crying about it because it was her baby and it meant so much to her!

I really hope she will try again next year! And that I will be able to attend !!!


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The tickets were a great deal (so many events!) but a high price is a high price no matter how good a bargain it is. If they try again next year, hopefully I'll have a better job and I'll be able to go! If I'm doing better money-wise I'll definitely prioritize it.

Yeah I am so bummed !!! I think they need a year's notice for people to plan and save.

I think you're right. I bet lots of people would be able to save enough money if they had more advance notice.

[Trade Winds]

I am not surprised it was canceled. That price needed to come down. All the other cons in the area are not nearly that much - furry, anime, comic, pinba, horror, etc. We have a big mer community in Texas that could make this a great con if the price is right.

[AniaR]

The price was all inclusive and on par with other mermaid cons including mermania when you added up the individual ticketed events. As a bonus this also included the camp site rental in the fee. This is a pretty average cost for mermaid cons when you add up main entry + ball w/meal ticket + workshops and for this event you actually got more. The thing with cons is people demand more and more, but more and more comes at a cost.

It cost us about 45,000$ to put on mermania 2 - despite over 500 people attending we didn't break even.

[Mermaid Delphinidae]

The price was all inclusive and on par with other mermaid cons including mermania when you added up the individual ticketed events. As a bonus this also included the camp site rental in the fee. This is a pretty average cost for mermaid cons when you add up main entry + ball w/meal ticket + workshops and for this event you actually got more. The thing with cons is people demand more and more, but more and more comes at a cost.

It cost us about 45,000$ to put on mermania 2 - despite over 500 people attending we didn't break even.

Does a convention/festival have to be all-inclusive? Maybe more people would have gone for a lower cost option if it didn't include as many things. I dunno. Maybe there's just not enough demand for big events, at least in Texas. With how big this state is, a lot of mers have to travel pretty far to go to things, I'm wondering if that's a factor. (but probably not cause it seems like a lot of the Texas mer community is based in the Dallas area anyway) Whatever the case, guess we just have meetups in the meantime.

Do you think something that appeals to a wider, more general audience could have potential to succeed? Then maybe it could build into having more stuff for the hardcore mers, even if those events and activities cost extra. Lots of conventions and festivals expand to more mainstream appeal to keep things going. Maybe it's not ideal, but it's better than not having those events at all. Or is that what you already did with Mermania and it didn't work out? Sorry if I'm being annoying, I'm just interested in how these big events are run. Like Fyre Fest and Dash Con have shown, they can go very very wrong if they don't have enough work and money and realistic expectations.

Oh well, at least we have the San Marcos event for now.

[AniaR]

In the instance with this is was required in order to host the event at that location and have some of the events.

I think if people had a 10 months to a year to plan that would help, but also there's like eleventy billion mermaid events happening in the span of 3 months so the timing wasn't great either. I think far less mers are interested in conservation events as well than let on. So yeah I think the mainstream appeal would need to be a bigger focus.

I think this event was just a little ahead of it's time and given a few more years of community growth I think it could work.