Colossalcon Texas 2025
Feature 1
Colossalcon Texas returns to Kalahari Resorts in Round Rock, Texas for its 5th appearance. It was held Aug 15, 2025- Aug 17,2025. The cosplay consists of cosplayers favorite character in swimwear or outfits used in “Beach episodes,” Five nights of Freddy, Fairy Tail and the current popular Marval rivals/vtuber. My favorite part of the convention was the Flea Market, walking by and seeing the wrestling match. Other main events are the ballroom dance and the water rave in the indoor water park.
Cost
Parking was free which was mind blowing!!! The resort can make thousands of dollars a day from the local people just coming to swim at the resort with their family. Even if you park in the way back of the parking lot on the convention side it does not take more then 5minutes to reach the front doors to the lobby of the resort. It was not hard finding parking either as we arrived on Saturday around 12pm, 11pm and on Sunday around 11 am.
We opted to stay at Austin Marriott North which is about 6miles away and was a 15minutes drive through backroads. The cost of the hotel was about $130 a night and breakfast there was $14-$17 per person. So, if you are on a budget and are not local this is your best bet. The only downside to this is buying an all-day pool pass to get into the indoor water park which cost about $119 at the door or if you buy online using the Colossalcon exclusive deal it was about $59 for Friday and $89 for Saturday. The outside pool does not require anything to use. The pool pass was not’ worth it for photography reason so if you are a photographer. I recommend just one person get a pass and if there are cosplayers in there to get one, unless you are booking people. The normal population outnumbered us since we are so close to the city. The night water rave is a cheaper alternative which will have only attendees from the convention and last from 11pm to 3 am. The cost was around $50 and sold by the convention staff at the water park entrance. It looks like you can also buy water park pass in admissions as well per the website and the map but a colleague asked while we were there and was redirected to the water park entrance.
Convention Layout and Entrance
The convention was located on the right-hand side of the resort. If you enter the lobby and take a right turn you will walk down a long hall way with restaurants on the right-hand side and get a view of the pool on the left-hand side.
The convention has two floors. It has an easy layout to understand and had staff checking badges at serval location entering the building making it very secured without having to have a staff member at every door. The only gripe I had about the map is it did not include the Itasha. I was lucky to stumble upon it as I was walking around and do not see a lot of people walking that way unless they know it is there.
Meet ups were held at the event barn outside the con but some meet up maybe the ones set up on Facebook were held indoors on the lower level of the lobby which had good lightening and AC. It was out of the way and did not feel like we were bothering normal guest.
Pros:
Security was very reliable at the convention with minimum manning. The staff utilize choke points vice stationing someone at every door. Event 1 room was changing every day; this room held the wrestling match on Saturday and then the flea market on Sunday. The flea market used normal attendees to man the booths so this was a different experience, each person had a limited time slot at the table so it was worth coming back and checking it out on Sunday. The whiteboard sign drew my attention so props to the staff for having it outside the market room and flea market. An abundance of free parking. The Kalahari resort website announced that they were having colossal con this weekend to normal family. The resort allowed swimwear cosplay throughout the entire resort without any issue. Colossalcon had rules for what not to do in the pool area in cosplay such as swimming in mermaid tail and some photography rules. The resort has the best free weight area in the gym I have ever seen at a hotel. I bought a pool pass on the wrong date online and the resort just made me pay the difference even though all sales were final. The resort was built in 2020 so it has a very modern design. Attendee discount for the water park and rooms is a plus
Cons:
I did not get the colossal con experience I was expecting which was pool side pictures indoors and outdoors. This could have been caused by the heat which was not your friend, but people were having meet ups at the event barn outside. The weather was in the 90*F. There were not many attendees going to the indoor pool either or arcade area on Saturday. We shoot ourselves in the foot by buying a pool pass online early but since it was not worth the purchase, we decided to sit out of the after-hours water park rave. The outside pool closes at 5pm or earlier. This was heartbreaking as it started to cool off and the building was casting a shade on the whole pool area. Sundown is around 8 o’clock this time of year as well. Camera/phone overheating is something to be aware here so beware of direct sunlight with your gear.
Overview:
This is an amazing con for cosplayers. It has a flea market if you are trying to sell old cosplays or anime merchandise. If you can book a photographer and willing to deal with the sun you will have the whole resort to take pictures. Sunday literally had a small population at the pool so maybe book a hotel for another day. The normal attendees will not be phased by a cosplayer doing a photoshoot, Remember Austin catchphrase is “keep Austin weird.” They will also try to give you space to take photos. So overall the convention was a positive experience.
Recommendation:
The map should have the Itasha parking lot label. It is so out of the way that not a lot of people know it exist. Showing a friend the photos, I taken. He was more interested in the cars then anything else so they do draw a crowd to admire them. LED lighstands are more common now a days and look great with the cars in the background as the sun is going down or for night shoots so the cars may have a crowd if night lightening is provided . Maybe since we have a whole parking lot we can pay for one of the drivers to peel out with us riding shotgun in the car or they can bring a beat-up car to teach people how to drive standard transmission around the parking lot.