PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Steel City Con has quickly become one of Pittsburgh’s most consistent and populated conventions. Emanating from the Monroeville area, this pop culture celebration gathers about four times per year. In a world full of over-saturation and parody, the Steel City Con continues to grow in size and stature with each passing event. Let’s take a look at what makes this year’s convention such a rousing success.
Steel City Con has a space of over 100,000 square feet and houses over 750 vendors and celebrity guests every quarter. One of their main attractions is the robust lineup of celebrities that come in to sign autographs, take pictures, and do curated photo-ops. This con has already seemed to grow since April 2022 (read my review of that event here). Some of the notable guests at the the most recent convention from August 12-14, 2022, were John Carpenter (Halloween 1978), Ric Flair (NWA, WCW, and WWE Wrestling), and Zachary Levi (Shazam! 2019). The name value has been drawing such a crowd that they had to move certain guests into the adjoining hotel to space out the lines. It seems as though this may be an ongoing tradition, as they’ve already announced Charlie Hunnam (Sons Of Anarchy TV series 2008) and Elijah Wood (Maniac 2012) for the December lineup, among others.
But celebrities aren’t all that the Steel City Con has to offer. They have a giant vendor room filled with hundreds of sellers of collectibles, rare vintage items, and handmade crafts. They have an artist alley, which boasts hundreds more authors, sketchers, painters, etc. They sell food and beverages, and host a room for celebrity Q&A sessions and reunions of former cast-mates. They host a costume contest for the thousands of cosplayers that walk around the convention, and record interactive videos for the younger costumed guests. They also give away signed items and do charity drives there as well.
Steel City Con is a convention that’s expanded at a tremendous rate, yet still hasn’t forgotten its roots. While the crowds have gotten massive, there’s still a connectivity and groundedness shown there by the staff, celebrities, and social media presence. This is certainly a convention that any pop culture fans won’t want to miss in the future. The next convention is December 9th-11th and they’re currently offering discounted tickets and three day passes.
