Midsummer Scream- Day 1
Midsummer kicked off on Friday August 15, 2025. In the past my husband Paul and I have only attended Saturday and Sunday. We arrived early enough to check in to our hotel at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach and get some lunch prior to the event starting. We had drinks at Kalaveras restaurant, known for cocktails and birria tacos. While there, I ran into Miranda from @spookylittlehalloween. I have been a fan of her blog, zine, and podcast for many years. She provides content throughout the year to keep that spooky Halloween vibes going strong outside of spooky season.
The doors opened at 6pm for weekend pass holders, which is what we were. We decided we wanted to go inside not too long after that. We headed to the elevators at our hotel and we ran into @mrfloats. I was able to take a picture with him and he really does embody Pennywise. From the look, voice, and overall creep factor, he nailed it. I am a bit of scaredy cat when it comes to clowns but love Pennywise from the newer interation of It, which made this a special experience running into such a great cosplayer that personifies Pennywise.
It’s always overwhelming when first arriving to a con, especially one as big as Midsummer. I always like taking my time browsing all of the vendors before making my purchases. Our first vendor of interest was a table featuring various writers from the Horror Writers Association. https://horror.org/. We chatted with two writers, Paul and Ronan and ended up picking up some books from both of the writers. One is titled, The Pizza Deliveryman’s Tale, written by Ronan Barbour, which has a vampire Santa on the cover. The other title is The Little Coffee Shop of Horror by Paul Carro and his son Joseph Carro, which is an anthology of horror short stories. Both of these books are already promising as I’ve started reading them.
My next purchase came from Deadly Bombshells. I bought a pair of their vintage inspired sunglasses with spiderwebs. I’ve actually seen these on Instagram and have had my eyes on them for a while but wasn’t sure if they would look good on my face. I ended up being able to try them on and I will get a lot of use out of them to go with my spooky and vintage reproduction outfits.
We finished out the night making our way through all of the vendors, making purchases and taking everything in. We also did a walkthrough of the Hall of Shadows and planned on hitting up some mazes the next day.
Midsummer Scream- Day 2
Day two of Midsummer Scream, Paul and I once again got inside not too long after the doors open. This day was sold out and within two hours you could really feel how crowded it was. We met up Nelson @nsccampos who is a cosplayer and photographer that has been a past guest on the podcast. Nelson and I chatted about The People Under the Stairs 1991 and Tourist Trap 1979.
Paul and I picked up a few t-shirts from @teenoevil. We have purchased their shirts before and they have really unique designs, good quality, and they soft through multiple wears and washes. We also made our way through several mazes including Sid’s Twisted Toy box, which featured Sid from Toy Story with a menagerie of demented toys. My favorite maze was Fear Farms maze which was scarecrow themed. This maze was full of get jumpscares and had me screaming and laughing throughout. Mr. Floats had a small maze and photo opp, which included photos with the “TWINS”.
I purchased a pair of earrings last year from Kira’s Lil Shop that I really love so I was glad she had a booth again. I picked up some really cool skull earrings that are lightweight and unique. We also walked through the Casa Calaveras display which as usual did not disappoint. I love that this is a place to walk through in a calm space with beautiful displays in honor of the holiday Dia de los Muertos. It features a story of a family to follow and is very beautifully created. In the same vein, we met the owner of Spook Your Birdhouse, Marsha. While she designs birdhouses with spooky aesthetics, much of her work was also Dia de los Muertos inspired. Paul and I picked up one of birdhouses to use on our ofrenda for the holiday.
Celebrity row is always fun to walk through, Cassandra Peterson, Naomi Grossman, Greg Nicotero, and Linda Blair were all present. These are just some of them that were there. I took a picture with David Naughton, he told me to say, “Hi to all of the Dreadful Dialogue listeners”. I covered An American Werewolf in London with my buddy Brad, you can listen to the episode here as well as we have an upcoming episode about Body Bags in with Celia from Lets Talk Terror.
We ended the night by stowing away our goodies and grabbing some dinner.
Midsummer Scream- Day 3
The final day of the convention makes me sad knowing it almost over and I will have to go back to reality and the real world. The third day, Paul and I were excited to see the Stage Fright Theater perform. We watched them last year and they were so hilarious, so we made sure not to miss them this year. They are hosted by a trio of siblings that are constantly trying to steal the spotlight while presenting a variety show of performers. This year their lineup included: a comedic seance and singing from two women dressed as The Shining Twins. There was plenty of talent and laughter from the audience throughout their performance.
Following that show, we got to see the Horror Nerd comedic performance. Horror Nerd is hosted by comedian Samantha Hale, and travels throughout So Cal giving performances. The lineup of comedians changes frequently but the theme is always horror. For the con, Samantha played a version of The Conjuring Universe doll Annabelle. In this performance, Annabelle is now a therapist and was giving advice to horror icons such as; Norman Bates, Chucky, Jason, and Ghostface. I am a fan of their extension podcast who is hosted by Samantha, Tony, and Bonnie Marie Williams (a.k.a. The Voiceover Superhero). Just like the podcast, there were tons of laughs throughout. Check out a live show of theirs if you ever get a chance.
Bonnie Marie and I have become friends through her guesting on the pod and it was great to see her in her element as a producer of the show. Check out our episode here where we discuss her time producing Spooktacular! 2023, a documentary all about the famed theme park of the same name.
Convention Tips
We have stayed at two different hotels in the past for the convention that are within walking distance. The first hotel we stayed at was the Marriott Long Beach Downtown. This hotel was right across the street to the convention center. At the time the parking was $40 a day at the hotel. The other hotel we stayed at was the Hyatt Regency Long Beach. This hotel is even closer to the convention center. This hotel has a connecting walkway to the entrance to the convention center. The parking was $30 a day for self parking.
We really enjoyed our stay at the Hyatt since so many of the vendors and featured guests were also staying their. We ran into Joe Bob Briggs, Darcy the Mail Girl, and Mr. Floats just to name a few.
If you want to score discounted tickets, make sure to follow the official Instagram for Midsummer Scream. They drop a limited amount of deeply discounted pre-sale tickets (up to 40% off). Additionally, this is where celebrity lineups, panel information, and vendors will be announced.
Check out our video that we made showing some of the highlights of the convention.
As well as this short.