Let’s talk Hall-H Lines

Let’s talk Hall-H Lines

For those of you who don’t know, Hall-H is the largest hall at San Diego Comic Con. Within its mighty belly, 6,500 lucky attendees sit in heavenly bliss as they are treated to exclusive trailers and clips. The lines for Hall H are the most demoralizing lines in all of Comic Con. Think waiting three hours to get into an interactive zone is three hours too long? Try camping out over night. Hell, try camping out in line days before your panel even begins. That’s the reality of Hall-H lines. Only the most loyal fans will ever get to see the inside of Hall-H.

I’ve made it in three times and was hoping to add a fourth wristband to my collection but a number of factors worked against me this year.

The first was Warner Bros. and DC comics. This year the Con was buzzing with anticipation over Justice League. DC fans were in line for Saturday’s panel Wednesday morning according to security guards. Technically, attendees are not supposed to line up for Saturday until Friday night, as per the SDCC line rules, however, rules didn’t seem to exist this year.

Which brings me to fake wristbands.

6,000 wristbands are passed out each night to those who gave up a day of Comic Con pleasures to sit in line all day. Wristbands are meant to guarantee entrance to the first panel of the day. Unfortunately, two full chutes of attendees were excluded from the hall due to fake wristbands. People were tipped off to the color of the bands, and with a little help from modern technology, faked their way into the hall. Those left behind were understandably angry. Rumors that staff members bought wristbands for their friends and family only added fuel to the fire. Attendees with wristbands who didn’t make it to the first panel were given passes to next years Con, but that did little to soothe angry fans who were hoping to get their first look at the Justice League.

Of course, the worst part of Hall-H remains the rampant line cutting. Each person in line is allowed to save five spots for friends or family. The problem is that those five often bring more companions. One person went from number 6 to 200 in a matter of seconds when swarms of people showed up to claim their wristband.

The Hall-H line is an unwieldy beast. I doubt that SDCC will ever be able to completely tame it, however, SDCC needs to do more than just shrug their shoulders at the problem or else angry tweets will be the least of their worries.