*editors note: Blerd LLC was a vendor at Blerdcon 2022. We try our best to not let that bias the opinions in our articles*

Blerdcon stepped it up with their 2022 event after being one of the first cons to reopen after Covid with Blerdcon 2021. I think of Blerdcon as the cookout or family reunion event for blerds. Every year it’s great to see all the familiar faces we usually only speak with online. Blerd normally has our standardized rating system for events, but since we were a vendor this year as well we thought it made sense to do more of a recap than a formal review. So how was Blerdcon 2022?

The Blerdcon 2022 Venue

Blerdcon 2022 was held at it’s home base again at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia (pretty much DC), which is a great central location on the east coast. Blerdcon 2022 stepped up its game in a few key areas this year; let’s start with how they rearranged a few things in regard to the venue. Moving the registration/check-in line to a separate area in the Courtyard Marriott across the street, instead of clogging up the second floor was very smart. It made the vendor hall on the foyer feel much more open and kept the traffic congestion way down. Blerdcon added additional space for panels, which to me is one of the things that makes Blerdcon stand out from other cons. You are going to get panels that are more interesting from a blerd point of view. There were additional food trucks and options from last year which added additional variety to the rodeo. Last, but certainly not least, it was significantly cooler inside this year! Blerdcon attracts some of the best Black cosplayers in the country, so having strong AC is critical to the event.

The Blerdcon 2022 Event Schedule

Blerdcon is a 24/7 convention with something to do the entire time! Yes, even at 4AM in the morning you can sneak into an anime streaming room and lay back. The food trucks are also always outside so you will never go hungry. Blerdcon had quite a few new and diverse panels including “Accelerate Your Job Search with your Blerdness”, “Blerd Mental Health 101”, and “BlerdPass NFT Project”. Tabletop gaming made its appearance as usual with Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic tournaments.

The Blerdcon 2022 Special Guests & Vendors

The Capital City All-Star Band marching outside of the venue and doing the opening ceremony was fire and only the type of thing you would see at Blerdcon. Even better was the fact that Orlando Jones (Drumline) was a part of it! I have to assume that Blerdcon had to spend the bag to make this happen. Definitely one of the more prolific blerds out there. There were also cosplay special guests including Scorpking Costuming, J Adore Cosplay, and Kiwi Ninamori. As mentioned in our 2021 review, Blerdcon could take it up a level by having even more special guests stop through as they grow.

Blerdcon 2022 elevated with the amount and diversity of vendors this year as well. There were quite a few new options to choose from this year and I got to pick up many items that I didn’t even know existed. Blerdcon is one of the few conventions where you will regularly see Black and Brown faces on merchandise which is we also appreciate because representation matters. One thing that was a compromise at Blerdcon 2022 vs 2021 was that additional vendor spots cannibalized some of the designated gaming areas.

Blerd also made our first vendor appearance this year! We had a lot of fun figuring out all of the logistics of running a vendor booth and meeting so many members of the community. Since we weren’t able to get as many pictures around the event as we normally do, we threw up a pop-up banner and got some cosplay pictures in front of it.

The Blerdcon 2022 Wait Times

From what we saw…Blerdcon 2022 had almost no wait times…this may have been our first 10/10 given out.

The Blerdcon 2022 Vibe

Blerdcon is going to give you two things in the “vibe” category that are stronger than any other event; the music and the Black cosplayers. There is constant music at Blerdcon that serves as the heartbeat of the convention. The DJ’s sets this year were even better than last and the crowd reacted accordingly. The cosplayers were even better this year than last…and…no cosplay controversy…however Blerdcon 2022 did not leave without its share of controversy.

Blerdcon 2022 Cosplay Photos

Those are my thoughts on Blerdcon 2022. What did you think? Let us know on our social media at blerdofficial