They had *some* lolita programming in the past. I'm friends with a lot of people in the DC/Baltimore lolita community, so I've heard a lot about the struggles they've had with it. Mainly, they had fashion shows, but most of the programming came from people submitting panels and then hosting our own swap meets. Of course those were always on the DL and we were just pretending to hang out with dresses and trade, and then secretly just send money via paypal. :p And then for a number of years, people would organize a fancy tea party in a nearby hotel. It wasn't run or organized by Otakon, but it was something the community in general wanted to do since there were so many of us there at one time for the con.

Kinda sucks that they had to put it on hold again. They don't really seem to take that area of programming seriously, and well honestly, they aren't obligated to. It's an anime con. But it just feels shitty when they do have something up and then "well nope sorry it's cancelled"

But then much smaller cons can have full j-fashion tracks in their programming. Even at the con I staff, I single-handedly handle most of the lolita programming except for panels that aren't mine. IDK.

That said, I'll probably just wear the fashion rather than cosplay. I got back into cosplay for a little bit, but all my cosplays right now are dudes in tight pants and I'm not down with wearing a full binder and tight pants all day in the heat. But somehow a frilly dress with lots of layers is ok? IDK. logic what is it. XD

...As a completely different sidenote, the active user list has dipped under 160. There's now .14% of all users still active here. I know this number goes up and down and some might be mules (with no events, no sense in getting on your mule I guess?) :(