Eduardo Duran read this piece I wrote about what the crew on a TV show has to do to set up the studio…
Reading your description of the set tear down reminded me of Comic-Con tear down on Sunday night, since most times everything has to be out that night unlike set up taking, in some cases, two and a half days. Having experienced both, just wanted to share.
You know, that thought occurred to me but I didn't mention it. A couple of times at Comic-Con, I've for some odd reason had a badge that allowed me to stay in the hall after 5 PM on Sunday, after it was being cleared of everyone but Exhibitors. It was fascinating.
Like most conventions, there's a rule in place that if you exhibit there, you can't start breaking down your booth and packing to go before the hall closes — but once it does, watch out! It is amazing to see that wonderful, vast display begin to disappear. Displays come down, rugs are rolled up, forklifts start rolling in.
There's a whole group of people who spend much of their lives going from convention to convention with their wares. I've spoken with dealers who do a dozen in a row, criss-crossing large parts of America in a van, being away from "home" (wherever that is) for months at a time. We forget how selling old comic books is not an easy profession. It can be rough the same way moving pianos is rough. I know dealers who have sustained physical damage over the years from lugging around crates of comics and the hardware they use to sell them. Until you see that part of the business for yourself, you just don't realize.
The last time I stayed after in the hall at Comic-Con was a year — a couple back — when another convention was booked to load-in the following day. Everyone and everything had to be out by a certain deadline so everyone was moving at a rapid clip. I was stunned by how much of that Comic-Con was crated and being moved outta there by 5:30…well more than I would have thought physically possible.
I also noticed a lot of camaraderie with exhibitors helping other exhibitors. A couple of guys who'd wound up with a lot of empty boxes were announcing loudly that anyone who needed them could have them and other exhibitors came running and politely divvied them up.
I've heard attendees say that Comic-Con is like Disneyland with so much to see, so much to do. I think a better analogy would be Brigadoon, the fictional Scottish village that disappears and then reappears for one day every hundred years. Since Comic-Con looks roughly the same each year, from the standpoint of an annual attendee, it kinda disappears and then reappears for 4.5 days every year…but it's the same place with the same people roaming about. All that's happened during the past year is that the dealers have marked the prices up.
I've never been there for the setup. Each year, it's hard enough just to get my work done and my bags packed so I can get down there by the time it opens. I occasionally think of going down a day early and watching Brigadoon "appear" but I never seem to be able to finish early what has to be finished before I can go. Maybe one day I'll make it. I'm sure it will be just as fascinating and magical.