I really just want to give an honest impression of what I experienced at the AAF. Your mileage may vary.

Location wise, honestly it had to be the worst place in Asheville to have a convention. Parking was a fight and my group ended up having to use the McDonalds next-door. Not a big deal normally; but given the amount of people coming and going, I felt there was a bit of a safety issue walking up the hotels drive. There was little to no signage directing anyone to where the con was inside the hotel. We walked into the hotel via the door marked "registration" and were immediately told by a staff member to head around the building. So we walked around and found a pair of cosplayers/staff sitting behind a desk. We asked where we needed to go and were told to go down the hall, right to where we entered the first time. So a bit frustrating there. Registration staff were obviously overwhelmed and one of the volunteers/organizers was in a surly mood while interacting with the attendee ahead of us.

The con itself was shoe horned into a tiny conference room forcing everyone walking in through a narrow hallway with only one way in or out. Venders were stacked up tight to the left wall of the hallway with barely enough room for everyone to file in single file to the convention room. Anyone wanting to exit or shop the stalls on the way in would have to practically suck in their gut to prevent anyone from bumping into them. Once inside the room you really could only go with the flow of traffic so to speak. Everyone was shoulder to shoulder shuffling through. Frankly it made looking at anything any of the artist were selling or to interact with any of the guests very difficult. Speaking of the guests. They were giving it their all trying to work the crowd. So I commend Mr. Atchley, Mrs. Grant, and Mrs. Cihi for rising to the occasion. After 30 minutes of shuffling about and looking things over we hit the small game area on the way out. It really wasn't all that noteworthy.

Overall I really question why I paid $40 for two tickets to what can only be described as an exercise in claustrophobia. I also feel very sorry for the cosplayers that came out today. I saw some great Nezuko, Genshin Impact, Naruto, and Holo live cosplay's. But with how tight things were, I feel like the costumes weren't really allowed to be shown off due to how tight everyone was packed in. Had this been held at a bigger venue, I feel like the AAF would have lived up to it's potential. It was certainly sold as the next best thing to the old AARC days. The Crowne Plaza next to Sam's would have been the ideal place to hold the con with maybe a shuttle to Sam's parking lot. It's an A for effort, but a solid D for execution.

TL/DR: Anime festival Clown car edition gets A for effort and a D for execution.