Remember the hype around Epic Cons Chicago 3? Yup, that was set for 26th and 27th July 2025, but it turns out this event is canceled. A lot of people had already booked flights, tickets for the events, and even many vendors have been preparing for this event for quite some time now. But after the cancellation, sure enough, some suspicions were raised by everyone, and this now has turned into the Epic Events and Entertainment Lawsuit thing. So, let’s just get to the details of it all.
Why Was It Canceled?
What everyone was eagerly waiting to hear is the reason. The organizers of the show, Epic Events and Entertainment, said that “unforeseen circumstances” were the reason. But that’s as far as it went. Even Navy Pier, the venue, was not aware of what had happened. They found out the same way everyone else did, through social media.
Like, a fan had bought the tickets for $500. Another had dished out $200 to have a meet and greet with a celebrity. Other than that, one vendor had invested $830 in a booth, and many others were said to have spent over $1,200, the travel, hotel, and merch production costs not included. That’s really a huge loss.
And Refunds?
The situation really deteriorated at this point. A few spectators who had availed themselves of the PayPal option succeeded in getting their money back. However, what about the others? They didn’t have any.
If you happen to set the question of a refund to the organizer through an email, you will receive an automatic response that will ask only for your name, email, and mailing address. That’s all. No other information was provided, and no updates were given. One of the parents explained that they spent $1,000 to celebrate their daughter’s birthday; thereafter, that figure was reduced to zero since they had nothing left.
Warning Signs We Didn’t Catch
In view of recent events, it is noteworthy that there were several warning signs. One of the red flags was the situation when the event’s participants paid, but the money was not deposited into “Epic Events and Entertainment”. Instead, various individual names such as Anna Owen or Alexis Arnold were used. It was only later that the payments came under the name of the firm.
Numerous people also commented on the team’s aggressive stance to sell tickets last minute just prior to closing. This was too ambiguous a situation, were they perhaps still carrying out the event or only taking the money before canceling the whole thing?
Legal Trouble For The Organizers
Cancellation was not the only thing that happened. Alexis Arnold and Anna Owen (the organizers) are now involved in two legal cases in New York. A company by the name of Kash Advance LLC has filed a lawsuit against them, demanding a sum of more than $611,818.62 (this may sound odd, but it is true) plus interest and legal fees.
According to the lawsuits, it is alleged that the defendants took out a loan and didn’t pay it back.
Can Anything Else Be Looked Into?
At the onset, the feeling was that this was just an isolated case that took place at the Chicago event. However, it was not the case as the outbreak of this issue at the Chicago event was recurrent at all future events. Not even a large one, which was to transpire in Georgia in November 2025, is left on the website, and the Facebook link of the event has also been removed.
