Attendees of last years Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention (MANC) were greeted with unfortunate news during its annual Saturday night banquet. The news, given by Convention Organizer Martin Grams, stated that this would be the final year for the convention at its home for nearly 2 decades. The Delta Hotel, owned by the Marriott Corporation, would cease operation at the end of October making way for future development in the area.
For Grams, this could have been the indicator that it was time to end the convention. After challenges faced with the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, along with a host of issues plaguing the 2021 convention the writing seemed to be on the wall. However, with a complete turnaround of the event, fantastic attendance numbers, and overall positive spirits from all involved, the convention would live on. The future seemed bright for MANC. That is, however, until the convention began searching for a new home.
MANC was not the only convention to be affected by the closure of the convention hotel. Farpoint Convention, Shoreleave, and Monster-Mania were also affected with Monster-Mania being the final convention in the facility. As the search for a new event center raced on, eventually a new contract would be signed with one caveat, a move in date to June of 2025. The convention responded last week with this notice on their Facebook page:
As you know, the hotel in Hunt Valley permanently closed down. We spent seven months seeking a new venue and it was an uphill battle, even after negotiating with more than 20 hotels. We wanted a venue that offered FREE parking, and large enough to host the 200+ vendor tables and celebrity tables. Well, we finally have a new venue for the convention, the APG Arena, which has experience hosting comic cons and science-fiction conventions!
https://www.facebook.com/MidAtlanticNostalgiaConvention
The new venue is just like a convention center, located a few minutes off I-95 and easy to get to using public transportation. The earliest they can get us in is June 2025 so we apologize that 2024 will not happen. We thank everyone for their patience and we promise to make 2025 the biggest bash we ever had… and 2025 will be our 20th year!
We have three (count ‘em THREE) surprises to celebrate the 20th year. As for the celebrities, we already have Vicki Lawrence and Kristy McNichol confirmed… with more icons to announce soon!
Undoubtedly this will leave a huge void in the convention schedule with some folks planning all year to attend this event. But with the change in venue, more attendees will have the opportunity to experience everything the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention has in store.
A quote given by Martin Grams five years ago still rings true for the state of the convention:
“Success is relative,” says Martin, “but in my view success is based on the size of the attendance. If the attendance continues to grow in size every year, we did our job. And we must be doing something right because our attendance continues to grow every year.”
Martin Grams: https://wearesecondunion.com/mid-atlantic-nostalgia-convention-2019-september-12-14-2019/
You can find out more about the convention and purchase tickets for 2025 at https://www.midatlanticnostalgiaconvention.com/
