The founders of AcadArena have announced the retirement of the CONQuest Festival following what appears to be a blunder with long queues and refunds.
One of the most sought-after events of the year, particularly among cosplayers and gamers, CONQuest 2023 was off to a good start on day 1.
But the event turned sour on day 2 and day 3 as MeetZone struggled to meet the overwhelming number of attendees, leading to astoundingly long lines and some ticket holders not being able to enter the SMX Convention Center.
Day 2 ended with program runner AcadArena calling for refunds to attendees who were not able to claim their wristbands—though some of the affected decry not having received their reimbursement, according to comments on the social media pages of the event.

Via a letter that was posted on June 26, 2023, on Twitter, an official statement regarding the matter made waves on the internet, which mentioned the refund process that has since been closed.
With the letter having talked about the cut-off for reimbursement, many took to Twitter to express their frustrations on the subject.
Aside from the issue of the refund, the community did not take kindly of AcadArena’s claim of having a degree of success with the program, telling how displeased the attendees were with the outcome.
CEO Ariane Lim and COO Kevin Hoang have since taken back their word concerning the event’s semi-successful run by making their respective statements on Facebook.