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It’s being compared to the Willy Wonka Experience, which was compared to Fyre Festival, which was compared to DashCon, all of which brings to mind the Million Lives Book Festival, and at this point, maybe as a society we need to stop going to themed events at all.
Regardless, add Barbie Dream Fest to the list of highly marketed conventions that didn’t live up to the hype.
“I just got Fyre Festival’d by Mattel,” posted an attendee on TikTok who said she spent over $1,000 US to attend the three-day Barbie Dream Fest in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., between airfare, a hotel and her pass.
“I will NEVER live down the fact that I paid $250 [USD] for this. And a spray hand sanitizer was the swag bag,” wrote another attendee on Instagram.
The March 27 to 29 convention was marketed as “the ultimate Barbie fan event,” including demos, live shows, an interactive dreamhouse and an ’80s disco roller rink. On Instagram, posts advertising the event said “welcome to dream life” and described its tickets as the “ultimate girl’s girl gift.”
Tickets ranged from $695 Cdn for a three-day all access “icon pass” (which included a photo op with Serena Williams) and a $592 family pass, down to single day passes at $96/adult and $42/kid.
Barbie-maker Mattel originally backed the event, which was organized by Mischief Management and billed as “something unforgettable.”
Which, to be fair, it may have been, although perhaps not the way they intended.
“We came to this because it was so hyped online … it is empty. Empty, OK?” Alexandria Dougan said in a TikTok video that showed vendors spread sparsely across a huge convention centre, and a few kids roller skating silently over the cement floor in a fenced-off portion of the venue.
“Interactive? I don’t think so,” posted an attendee on TikTok, as she showed footage of a cardboard cutout of a Barbie dreamhouse propped against a convention centre wall.
Another attendee on Instagram wrote: “$450 for hand sanitizer and a brush I could’ve bought on Amazon.”
Other attendees have posted on social media bemoaning what they describe as a lack of vendors and merchandise, having to pay extra for nearly all the experiences, sparse decor, and all-in-all an underwhelming experience.
“Everywhere you look, it’s just disappointment, and your brain starts to go down. It starts to try and find the good in it, and you couldn’t find any,” said Jessica Nova as she described the experience of walking into the convention to CBS News.
“I tried to be excited for the kids. But there wasn’t really a whole lot to be excited for them. I gave up on myself real fast,” she added.
CBS also showed footage of what Nova described as a “sad, deflating B” in front of the cardboard dreamhouse.
CBC News has reached out to Mattel and Mischief Management to confirm media reports that attendees are being offered full refunds, and not yet heard back.
Misfit Toys Communications was involved with the initial announcement of Barbie Dream Fest last July.
When reached by CBC News, a spokesperson said they terminated their contract with the producer of the event in October, “due to lack of payment and our concern that the event was not shaping up to be what was originally described.”
Heather Brown is an associate professor at the University of Alberta and director of the Autism, Neurodiversity and Academic Achievement (AIDAN) Lab. She came into the CBC Edmonton studio to share her thoughts on the new doll.