Burbank Marriott Hotel & Convention Center

Above, Frankenstein's Monster and Count Dracula seemed to like the Marriott. I heard no complaints from them.

One more comment on Monsterpalooza, and it really isn't about Monsterpalooza.

The subject here is the venue, the Burbank Marriott Hotel & Convention Center. My first visit to this facility was back in 1999 for G-FEST '99. At that time, the hotel was part of the Hilton Hotels chain and it was the Burbank Hilton. The facility was (and is) a great one for conventions of this type. The hotel is nice and the convention center facility is top-notch.

At the time of G-FEST '99, the hotel seemed to be "in the middle of nowhere" although it is situated next to the Burbank (Bob Hope) Airport. There were no handy fast-food outlets nearby and we were at the mercy of the hotel's restaurant prices. One night at G-FEST, a bunch of us pooled our money together and sent someone out to a Kentucky Fried Chicken to get dinner. That was inconvenient.

Since then, a new shopping center with many fast-food outlets sprung up across the street. This makes the hotel more of an ideal place to hold a convention or show.

Since G-FEST '99, I've been to a few other conventions and shows there. TV Land Convention, Hollywood Collectors Show and the 2008 Dark Shadows Festival immediately come to mind.

If I have to give one critique on the venue, I'd say the Convention Center could be a bit larger. It seemed that Monsterpalooza was a little bit cramped in there.