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We hope you fill find the following answers to our Frequently Asked Questions helpful. We also suggest joining our Facebook Fan Group where you will find help from hundreds of our fans in addition to our “Staph” and post your own questions there.
We don’t always get this posted prominently on the website, but since it hasn’t changed in the last fifteen years we thought we would be safe to include it here:
Yes! We do our best to maintain a family friendly atmosphere on the convention floor. We even devote Sunday to sponsoring activities to entertain the kids. That being said: We cannot guarantee that none of our vendors will have items that someone might find objectionable and some of the cosplay can get a bit risque. Treat us like you would a PG movie.
Sometimes specific seminars will have age limits left to the discretion of the presenter.
Yes, it has been our longstanding policy that kids twelve years of age and under get floor admission absolutely free – no pass required. This does not apply to any paid events outside of general admission.
The convention center is handicapped accessible and we make every effort to keep our aisles wide to assist in traffic flow. As far as celebrity lines, that is usually left up to the celebrity, but we suggest that you bring your particular limitations to the attention of one of our security or staph members so that any help can be rendered. We have no control over the accessibility of off-site events but will try to forward information regarding this as it is available.
Neither the convention center nor we have had mobility devices at our disposal for rent or loan in the past. However, starting in 2024 we have partnered with Mobility Plus to bring you scooters, powerchairs, and manual wheelchairs for rent. Please contact them in advance with your needs at (859)-523-0993.
The short answer…EVERYWHERE! The newly renovated Lexington Center has a catering company that will offer a variety of food and drink kiosks right there both on the convention floor with even more choices just a short ride down one level on the escalator. We have also arrange food trucks on the Vine Street side when we can.
In the event that “concession stand” food (the kiosks really do have many good options) is not up to your standards, we strongly encourage you to walk across the street to LexLive’s Game Day Sports Bar and check out their offerings. And if you want even more variety: it is the 21st century: Walk outside and Google “restaurants near me” on your phone. Many great choices are within a short walk.
But… and we cannot stress this enough… when you eat at ANY Lexington restaurant be sure to mention that you are in town for The Scarefest Horror and Paranormal Convention.
Maybe. Maybe not. Much of our Scarefest merchandise is offered as a one-time souvenir item. T-shirts in our current year’s design almost always sell-out down to a few odd sizes. We usually try to pre-sell as much as possible so that we can best gauge what sizes we need, but we always end up with only a couple of sizes left over.
Absolutely! We bring in some the most talented and reputable tattoo artists in the region for The Scarefest. Their booths are carefully and constantly monitored and inspected for cleanliness and health code adherence.
All passes get you access to the expo floor and all of our seminars and celebrity panels and Q&A’s. VIP level passes also gain early access to the expo floor. Some off-site or special events may not be included with your ticket. For example: Only VIP level passes get access to our VIP Party. All passes will get you into our film festival screenings. Please watch individual event website postings for clarity.
ATMs and cash availability have always been a problem for us, especially since so many celebrities and even some vendors do not accept credit cards. The Center recently added ATMs which will be located around the floor and pre-function areas. The information booths should be able to guide you to them. We hope this helps.
Most do nowadays, but some don’t. That is totally up to the individual vendors. Center provided services such as concessions and parking no longer accept cash to add to the confusion.
It’s always a good idea to have extra cash on hand lest that special item eludes you.
Oddly no. The Central Bank Center has a NO CASH policy. While we thinks this is a wildly bad policy – it is what it is. The concessions, parking, and anything else that they control requires using a credit card.
That’s a good question and we are darned happy you asked! Lexington KY is not known for it’s availability of visible parking spaces. It’s not that they aren’t there – they just aren’t really marked all that well. In reality there are over 10,000 parking spaces within easy walking distance of the convention center. Eventually the reconstruction of the center will include a convenient parking garage next door. Until that is finished everyone’s first choice is the High Street lot in front of Rupp Arena and the convention center. But since that can get filled up during peak times here are some resources that should help.
Welcome to the big city. Yes, most of the downtown public parking has a charge. The convention center parking lot is run by an independent contractor and we have no say in what they charge.
Our fans love to get various slashing and pointy objects autographed. If you have ANYTHING that constitutes or can be confused with a real weapon, please check it in with a member of our security and they will instruct you on what you can and can’t do. Usually they will instruct you to keep it wrapped, get it signed, and then return it to your car or hotel room immediately.
ABSOLUTELY NO FIREARMS ARE PERMITTED IN THE CONVENTION CENTER.
While our staph is loaded with animal lovers and even some farmers, please understand that a convention hall loaded with thousands of visitors is not the best place for your pet. Most pets are not really into the convention scene anyway. Plus we often have a charity come in that brings a wolf with it and…well you get the picture.
As soon as we can get them ready. We usually try to get a good portion of our celebrities announced before we start selling photo ops. This is mostly to save labor. Also we understand that people have limited budgets and might have to make a choice between celebrity A or celebrity B. We think it is better if you know about B before you purchase A.
ALSO group and reunion photo ops (those with more than one celebrity) often change as guests are added. Every time we add a celebrity the photographer has to refund that group’s photo ops that have been purchased up until that point, so that everyone can pay the new higher price (more celebrities means more celebrities expect to be paid).
We usually cannot post the photo op schedule until one to two weeks before the show. This is because the photo ops schedule has a lot of variables to take into account including flight times, celebrity panel schedules, and even the preferences of the celebrities themselves. Finally, it is VERY hard to put together until we are finished announcing celebrities, and we are famous for adding guests at the “eleventh hour”.
Our most frequent question is one we can’t answer! The Scarefest does not include an autograph price in our celebrity contracts. Most will run between $20 and $100 but we have found that many of our celebrities do not even set their price until they see what others are charging. While we may try to collect and post this information ahead of time, it is sometimes “wildly inaccurate” and you can guess who get blamed. HOWEVER…If you will post about a specific celebrity in our Facebook Group, many of of fans will have some guidance from experience, so you will know what to expect.
Most do. Some don’t. Most that choose not to, do it that way to avoid holding up their lines longer than necessary. For a specific celebrity, we suggest posting in our Facebook Fan Group. Most of the time some of our fans will know how a celebrity has handled selfies in the past.
Generally, no. All photos and videos of the celebrities require their permission and participation. Even authorized media (those with a Media Pass and our own Staph photographers) must first obtain permission from Star’s Row Security before taking pictures and filming. If you are caught photographing on Stars Row without permission, don’t be surprised if you are asked by security to delete them immediately.
Don’t count on it. While some may, it is still not common practice. You’d be surprised how many people will go home and file a “charge back” to beat a guest out of their money.
It varies. Celebrities are generally expected to be at their booth during the expo hours while they are in town (less breaks and meals of course). Most will make their way onto the floor during the VIP early admission period.
Sometimes flight scheduling requires that they arrive a little late on Friday or leave a little early on Sunday. We try to announce this information as it becomes available. Some celebrities, by contract, will only appear on the expo floor during set times. This information will be clearly posted on the website and announced as it becomes available.
If a celebrity, due to other obligations, is not scheduled to appear all weekend we will post this information as clearly as possible on our website. Watch our website and social media posts for updates as this information can change as the date approaches.
Also keep in mind that sometimes circumstances are out of our control. We can never absolutely guarantee appearance times.
Maybe not, but you really should. Stars attend conventions such as ours as “part of their job”. For some, conventions sales are a major source of their income. While there may be opportunities through the course of the weekend to converse with them, if you approach them at their booth they are “on the clock”. Good manners dictate that you never hold up a star’s line if you are not at their table to purchase something. Most of our celebrities over the years have been more than happy to spend generous amounts of time talking to their fans. But one should not abuse that generosity.
The parties and events are another story. Many of our celebrities will attend the VIP party and usually a few make an appearance or two at other events through the course of the weekend. Those that do are there to interact with their fans. But remember, the parties and events are not photo ops! Always ask if it’s OK to take a picture with them. Heck, if they like you they may offer!
We can’t tell you until the contract is signed. Period. As soon as a celebrity is officially booked, we announce them on the following Friday night via Scarefest Television and post about it on our social media. We do NOT announce celebrities on verbal commitments. We even have to be careful about letting staph members know who we are in negotiations with because it invariably gets into the public as “I know something you don’t know”.
Our annual game plan is to announce a few (usually between 2 and 6) celebrities leading up to the holiday season following the expo to spur Christmas sales. Then we take a step back and really look at what direction we want to take the lineup and start contacting agents the first of the year.
As contracts are finalized (usually a 30-60 day process) we start announcing our lineup for the coming year. Because we have to allow so much time for the celebrities to check their schedules for such things as other appearances, filming schedules, and even family events we usually start seeing the results in March and April and then on into early summer. Once we have a good idea who is not going to be able to appear from that initial round of contacts, we then reach out again on a smaller, more focused scale to fill in our lineup. This is why we are more often than not announcing celebrities right up to the week of the convention.
Unless our announcements and announcement banners say otherwise, all celebrities are expected to be on hand all three days. Schedules change of course. Sometimes a filming schedule might change and they have to cancel Friday or decide they need to fly out Sunday to meet other obligations after we book them. When a celebrity’s schedule changes we do our best via updated website banners and announcements via our social media accounts.
And of course sometimes due to flight delays they arrive late on Friday or decide they need to leave early Sunday to make it through airport security in time to catch a flight. Such schedule adjustments will be announced over the public address system at the expo.S
There’s probably nothing we can do about it. If a guest cancels early enough, we will try to replace them with someone of similar stature. This sounds easy until you remember that most celebrity contracts take a month or more to get finalized. If they cancel close to the expo date we have very few options.
We hate it as much as you do! How can we say that? Because we hate disappointing our fans… and we buy non-refundable plane tickets. In the end though, ask any seasoned convention goer and they will tell you never to attend any convention based only on the appearance of any single celebrity. All conventions experience cancellations and we have been blessed to have relatively few over the years. There is a lot of life going on out there in the real world.
Any off-site event that is part of The Scarefest (excluding Launch events) and too far away for the average person to walk will have shuttle service.
Our shuttles usually start from the pickup/drop-off area in front of the convention center High Street entrance. If this changes one of our Staph will be standing there telling you where to go.
It depends on the specific event. Some of our parties and events serve alcohol and therefore may be limited to ages 21 and up depending on the venue. Whenever we know of an age limitation we will do our best to post the details on the event’s page ahead of time.
Not unless you feel like it or are one of the dozen people in the country still using a flip phone. If the email with the QR code is on your phone, we can scan it from that. If it is easier for you to find it, feel free to screen shot the QR code. As long as we can see it, we are good to go.
Funny story. The human based staff inside the venue cannot tell a REAL ticket QR code from a fake, copied, or already used one. The QR code is scanned when you arrive and then you are given a lanyard and/or wristband that allows us to easily see that you in fact showed up with a legitimate ticket.
First off, let’s make this very clear. Everyone on this end is really, really busy the week of the convention. Let’s try to have this taken care of well in advance of your arrival. Now that we have established that, email your information to [email protected] and someone will try to help you.
Day passes do NOT always sell out, but admission is left up to the Fire Marshall and not us. Weekend passes can and do sell out. Our VIP passes are sold in very limited numbers and always sell out (usually months) before the expo dates. Special event passes easily sell out since we keep the numbers on sale low to add value to the experience.
For our Platinum Pass packages, we purchase blocks of rooms in our host hotels. The price of the rooms are then passed on to you via the purchase of the pass. The hotels literally have no record of your transaction at that time.
As the expo approaches we then turn in our lists to the hotels and rooms are assigned. Even then, the rooms are not held under their normal reservation system. Instead they are handled by people assigned specifically to our blocks. If you think you need to check on the room reservation from your Platinum Pass package, please contact us directly at i[email protected] and we will help you.
This suddenly became a thing in 2022. Sometimes people click the wrong ticket link. Sometimes schedules change. Regardless, this is something you can do yourself: Our ticketing platform does allow this. Just email [email protected] for instructions.
In general, the answer is “no”. We hate to be mean, but we try to make it very clear that all ticket sales are final. You are welcome to resell your tickets, give them to a friend, or even exchange them for a different day (see above), but our policy is pretty much standard for fan conventions. Our new ticketing platform offers “insurance” so you CAN get a refund if you are unable to attend for any number of reason.