Coverage of G-FEST 2026 Concludes…
Sunday, July 12th, 2026 7 am – I wake up, pack my things, and start loading the car. No breakfast buffet today; just protein bars, and we all get our rooms in order and prepare for the final day of G-FEST 2026.
8:50 am – We all head downstairs to attend a panel only to discover that it’s been canceled. Dejected, we head downstairs to see who won the model contest.
G-FEST 2026 Coverage Continues…
6 am Saturday, July 11th, 2026 – My three sons and I go downstairs for the hotel breakfast buffet and are the first ones there. We know it won’t be long before there’s a line to get in this place (and we weren’t wrong). The subject of G-FEST may be Godzilla, but the crowd it attracts is the real monster.
I now interrupt my G-FEST (Godzilla Festival) diaries for an interlude on the event’s model room. This has always been one of my favorite aspects of the weekend. There was one year when I actually participated in this contest and won “People’s Choice.” It was my first model and depicted Biollante. I used the wrong type of glue and the wrong paint (this was obviously pre-YouTube), and it looked terrible. Not wanting my kids to think I was a quitter, I ran to the Michaels craft store and bought a bunch of fake plants and Sculpey clay. I then proceeded to cover up and embellish the mess I made. How it won anything is still a mystery, but one thing is for certain – it could never compete with this year’s selections, which were absolutely unbelievable.
G-FEST 2026 coverage continues…
6:15 am Friday, July 10th 2026 – My son, Luke, and I wake up and get ready for the first official day of G-FEST (Godzilla Festival) 2026. One of the hotel’s house channels is playing Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (1999), a pretty good kaiju film, and we each watch snippets while the other gets ready.
6:40 am – We head downstairs for the Hyatt Regency O’Hare’s breakfast buffet. The buffet is $25 per person, but we learned that the best way to conquer a full day at G-FEST is to indulge in a “lumberjack” breakfast since we always skip lunch. The food is decent, and they have a chef on hand who will make you an omelet on request. My only gripe is that they used to have really tasty pork sausage links but have since replaced them with chicken sausage, which tastes horrible!
10 am Thursday, July 9th 2026 – My youngest son, Luke, and I pick up my eldest son, Alex, to kick off this year’s G-FEST (Godzilla Festival) 2026. Technically, this is G-FEST XXXI, but it seems the Roman numerals have been dropped. It makes sense, since COVID screwed up the whole numbering system anyway, but I’m kind of surprised they didn’t do it last year instead of actually going forward with G-FEST Triple X. We kicked off the event by visiting a Japanese market in Arlington Heights, Illinois, called Mitsuwa. I’ve been there before, but this was their first visit. We picked up some Sake’ (this is probably a good time to mention that my kids are all over the age of 21), some Japanese imported snacks, and sushi for dinner. Before leaving, we enjoyed beverages in their food court from a place called Releaf. The kids loved Mitsuwa, and both agreed this should be our new G-FEST tradition – especially since they also had a bookstore with a Godzilla section.
I can’t say how many people attended the New Jersey Horror Con last May, but judging by the number of KISS shirts I saw, it was obvious the majority were there for Peter Criss. As a proud member of the KISS Army, I came all the way out from the suburbs of Chicago to attend, though this would not be my first time meeting him. That moment took place back in ‘94, when my friend, Jason Lucas, the man who indoctrinated me into KISS, brought me with him to a Chicago convention. This was before the band’s big Reunion in ’96 and at a time when KISS’ estranged original drummer was, by my observation, NOT in a good headspace. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that, back then, he was something of a jerk. Even before the days of social media, stories swirled among fans about Criss’s cantankerous nature and his animosity towards his former band. Jason told me a story about how when one of his friends brought a KISS item for Criss to sign, he wrote on it, “F— You! Peter Criss.”
