/u/subjuggulator:

Apparently a large number of attendees at the convention were drugged? And the convention has a history of being unsafe? Does anyone know why/if it was a targeted thing?

Source people in the comments are saying multiple people were hospitalized because entire water jugs were roofied and that the convention has a history of sweeping sexual assault under the rug.

We at Holiday Matsuri have been made aware of social media postings regarding potential safety issues.

The safety of our community members is paramount and we take concerns very seriously. We have had no reports filed (either to us directly or through our security partners) of unintentional ingestion of consciousness altering substances. We are reaching out to the community to request that anyone who personally experienced this to please contact the Orange County Sheriff's office immediately. Anyone who experienced this may also feel free to reach out to us as we can assist in facilitating reporting to both the Orlando World Center Marriott and the Orange County Sheriff's Office.

Thank you

Team HolMat

/u/reddeadjay:

Basically, reports were coming out from the rave as of Wednesday night (the first night of the convention) that people were showing signs of being roofied (mostly females) , going to the hospital, fainting, etc. People started posting about it all over , asking convention staff via email, groomercord, and IG comments : and via groomercord , convention staff essentially said this was misinformation and to stop spreading it until they had confirmation on anything from Orange County police.

These reports continued through Friday, during which some folks reported seeing a Miles Morales cosplayer slipping something into the public water jugs provided for attendees in the halls.

Holiday Matsuri social media continued to advertise raves and convention events without ever coming out to address PUBLICLY people's concerns and claims.

I've attended the convention four years in a row and have always known it to be a “party con.” It's been a hotspot for issues due to that fact. I can't speak specifically as to how safe or unsafe it is, as I don't drink so I don't attend any of the after-hours parties.

HOWEVER, the big issue a lot of attendees have is the existence of something called “The Game.” From what I've read on social media, it was developed by a group of con-attending predators who take it upon themselves to roofie and have “relations” with girls, and they often target people based on fandoms or characters they're cosplaying.

According to some attendees, Holiday Matsuri staff was emailed about these concerns, and they never addressed anything publicly until after the convention, leaving attendees with a bad taste in their mouths about the organizers. I can't say any of this for certain, I'm just reporting on what I've seen reported online.

Source: I attended, as did like 90% of the friends I have in the community. ( )

/u/praguepride:

oh shit. huge if true. makes a scary amount of sense for male feminists to target conventions. lots of targets and with no personal connection it is easy to get shrugged off as a one night stand

/u/2greenlimes:

Yup. So many unaccompanied minors and unaccompanied barely not minors and so many predators - and so many of these young women are staying in hotels right next to the convention center. Many rely on volunteers to check ID and age, so I knew many 18-21 year olds in the rave. I'm sure they could've (maybe even did) get free drugs I'd they wanted them.

I have so many con creeper stories even in broad daylight. I remember my second or third con (I was in middle school) my mom saw a guy photographing girls up their skirts and just generally photographing young female cosplayers without their permission. I think she called the cops on him but he dipped before they arrived. And honestly? Even without the overt creepers there's so many socially awkward men who just do sexually inappropriate stuff to any cute girl in cosplay - unsolicited drawings, uncomfortable shipping conversations, overly sexual talk about whoever you're cosplaying, wanting to “reinact” scenes with you, etc.

ETA: Also, a lot of the people who run these smaller cons (sans huge industry-sponsored ones like AnimeExpo and Crunchyroll's expo) are volunteers who are usually in no way qualified to run conventions, raves, or general events where kids/teens/adults mix. I've heard of embezzling, unpaid wages, extremely unprofessional behavior towards guests of honor (even at animeexpo), and con runners being creeps themselves. It's hard to say here if the con staff was willfully enabling this or just extremely over their heads.

/u/ilovethissheet:

I had no idea comic conventions have merged with raves now

!anime its fricking over, the raveBIPOCs and normgroids have taken over our animu neckbeard conventions

/u/2greenlimes:

They're less true raves in the sense of EDC and more just after hours dances that people go to with glow sticks and EDM remixes of anime music.

At least that's my understanding of it. Of course there's people there that do the regular rave thing with drugs and alcohol or whatever else, but it's not nearly as prevalent as at a regular rave.

/u/reddeadjay:

Yeah. It was freaky. And now the convention is saying they never received any reports (they had previously made comments about “we've received reports from attendees”) and to call the sheriff's office instead. Sort of… absolving themselves of guilt, when they could've definitely tightened up security and been more protective of their attendees. I've been going to conventions for years and am always super careful about that,

I don't drink or attend parties (I'm boring) which helps

but NOBODY should have to worry about literally being drugged and/or assaulted at a convention. It's incredibly sad.

Factcheck: This claim is both true and false.

/u/Parzivus:

Answer: Adding to the other comments, a lot of this is just rumors that got wildly out of control. The idea that entire water jugs were roofied is nonsense, people would be collapsing by the dozen. I can at least say the ones I drunk out of were safe! But as soon as someone sees someone passed out for any reason (lotta heavy drinking at this con!), the hearsay gets crazy. Notice how many comments are "I heard", "my friend said", "this social media post claims," etc. I don't want to suggest that nothing happened or that people are outright lying, but it wasn't an epidemic as some are suggesting.

Another thing is that a lot of this happens in room parties, which is beyond the control of con organizers. I saw a lot of security and even people from the sheriff's department patrolling around the convention itself, but other that trying to shut down every party at the party con, there's not a lot for them to do.

Source: I was there

/u/subjuggulator:

Gentle pushback: in the past twenty-four hours, I've read at least a dozen reports of people corroborating what happened and/or saying they were waiting to hear back from their doctors. Not just people saying “my friend” or “I heard this”.

Additionally, being drunk and getting roofied have different side effects. I'm not discounting that people freaked out and misreported, but there are literally dozens of people in both the post I linked and another Instagram account that is following the event who have said, firsthand accounts, that they had to go or were taken to the hospital after what happened. Including people claiming—emphasis on claiming—they were either approached by, saw firsthand, or reported to the convention that several con-goers were known members of a group of sexual predators who are targeting cosplayers as part of what they call “The Game”.

(Source of what “The Game” is and where additional reports are coming from.)

HOLY SHIT A KIWIFARMS-ESQUE INSTA PAGE THAT EXPOSES PROBLEMATIX COSPLAYERS?

Well, now this is a Drama nest that Dramanauts and Kiwiggers could investigate for some future posts, but I will start with the best example:

why do they always look the same bros? !nooticers

same vibes

I'm not saying I don't believe your take, but there are also an overwhelming amount of people who are both 1. corroborating the event or 2. taking your stance to the extreme as a way of discrediting or downplaying the events, up to and including the convention itself.

/u/LayliaNgarath:

Honest question: What are the different side effects of being roofied vs being seriously drunk?

!boozers chime in on this?

/u/Orwell83:

Being roofied is going in and out of consciousness while being too tired to move your body then feeling sick for several days.