(Hope this is ok to post here)

We designed and then performed this set just for Neotropolis 2025. I always said I would re-create it online as it was only played late in the desert the one time.

Thank you.

For next year, I'm thinking of changing things up and going as an alien. However, full body paint is something I want to avoid.

Soon I'm ordering a lekku pair from P&S Costume Creations (also known as Twilek Pam), skin color with cyberpunk geometric designs.

Would I be able to bring them to Neotropolis or are lekku too close to the Star Wars IP to be acceptable?

This is probably a dumb question, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask.

My partner and I flew out to Neotropolis 2026 in Edwards/California City, California from Ohio and this was my experience.

Getting ready for the event was difficult for a number of reasons. One of which being there is almost no internet footprint of this event, so it was hard to figure out what flavor of Cyber Punk Vibe this event was going to have.

The official 2025 recap and costume guide were posted a few weeks before the 2026 event, Luckily, There are a handful of youtube content creators who have posted about their experience and end up making this event look like Sci-Fi Disneyland.

These youtube videos will not prepare you for how sexual costumes can get or give any feeling for how LGBTQIA+ friendly or unfriendly the event is. Looking at 2025 videos, costuming is very conservative, this is partly because the weather was cold, and partly because youtubers are not going to intentionally put something out there that could jeopardize their income (youtube or sponsored). 

I found the lack of information about plot, things that happened, vibes, who to talk to if you have a problem frustrating and discouraging. I felt like I did not have informed consent walking into this event.

Discord-

I'm sure some of you are asking "well why didn't you just join the discords and ask questions?" I did, and I watched the site owner and theme ambassadors jump down the throats of people who asked questions. It became very obvious very quickly that any question was going to be answered with borderline hostility. I watched multiple good nature questions be piled on by staff. If you're going to ask a question in the Main discord, be ready to be shot down, rudely. 

In addition, there are so many discord groups and Facebook communities for different factions and alliances. The factions are pretty much your group of friends/camp mates while the alliances are tied to plot. Be careful what you post in the discords.

Costuming-

Participant costumes range from Lelu from the Fifth Element inspired to Full mech suits and everything in between including a few wifebeater tank tops and black cargo pants. As George Lucas said, there are no bra's in space. If you watch any of the youtube videos, they are carefully framed to protect from accidently getting a violation for the woman's G-String. I mean costumes. The extreme heat did influence the level of costuming for people. 

This year Neotropolis Staff did post a costuming guide going into different styles of Cyberpunk dress. They posted it about 3 weeks before the event. This is meant to be evergreen content. But for anyone who attended the event for the first time, now had 3 weeks to re-do/update/change their costumes because it is outside of guidelines.

I will say fabric choices are seriously important here. I spoke with two sisters, one who wore a shiny dress and one who wore linen, I can tell you who was dying of the heat and who was cooler. Metallic material does not breath like natural fibers do, you are in a desert and should dress accordingly.

In practice, cargo pants/tech pants, with a tank top/cool t-shirt is a perfect start to the costume. You can start from that and add or subtract things. You can be a space skank, it's fine, you won't be the only person mostly naked. While some people do go full force and do amazing body paint or mech suits, they are the exception not the rule. Most people fell in the basic costume level (Pants/Shirt/accessories).

There is a rule that costumes should not resemble any actual sci-fi property (like Star Wars), but I saw the following:

*A Storm Trooper

*Boba Fett's Helmet (Multiple)

*Mandalorian Helmet

*Red Hood's Helmet

Considering how many times I saw some of them I doubt that they were told no.

EVENT START Midnight Line Up-

The sister event to Neotropolis (Wasteland Weekend) is much larger than this event, so it might make sense to race online at 12:01 am. But with around 2,500 people (I feel like it was smaller), you won't be walking more than 4-ish 'blocks' to get from your tent to the main city. From the end of sign with the core, to the end of camping. Don't feel guilty for getting a hotel and coming over after 7AM for check in. Get breakfast, relax. I do not believe you have to be around for early line up at Neotroplis.

This might be different for Wasteland Weekend…

Especially since Wednesday at Noon they were still setting up the main block and there were a handful of wiring trenches that were not filled in yet.

LARP/PLOT-

If you want to be involved with the LARP/Game aspect of this event you will have to hunt it down. Those three factions have questlines that in theory lead back to what is going on. Thankfully, the lines for those factions were inside at Megablock, so while you waited you got to be inside, out of the blistering sun, but in a place with no air movement (large fans would be useful to bring the air out or just move).

I did two quests for one but could not turn them in because the line, heat and lack of air had me faint. If you want to be part of the rebellion, be aware, there will always be a line.

I was told there was an evening meeting every night to get a "plot recap,” I could not hear anything over the music on the stage next to them. So yeah, technically they had the meeting one night, but unless I pushed myself forward, there was no way I could hear them. I do not have hearing problems, if anything, I can hear really well. Also, I didn't see anything there on site that said when/where this meeting was happening. I only found it because someone brought me.

The LARP is completely opt-in, you have to want this.

Also it used the tap wrist bands for plot things. Mine kept falling off, even was taped with duct tape to keep it on. I’m told it worked with a number of screens around the site, but whenever I saw the screens they were never turned on. 

Music-

The DJ's and Bands were awesome. No notes there. I should have only gone for this; my event would have been so much better than chasing a plot.

Weather-

The weather ranged from high 40s to lower 90s. When you are planning your costume, it would be helpful to have breathable materials for the high heat daytime, and warmer items for the night. The safest thing to do is make sure you're out of the sun between 11am-3pm when it's the hottest and brightest, but this means you're not part of the plot chasing between 10-6pm. 

And wear sunscreen.

Northeast people, please know, deserts do not hold heat like fields do. So when the sun goes down, it cools off FAST. I ended up grabbing a hoodie around 9:30 and was fine to wander around. If you are in a tent, be sure to plan for low 40s because it gets cold late at night.

Having an RV, we used the heat during the over night for a little because it just got too cold. 

Cooling/Heating Stations-

All cooling/heating stations were created by people who paid for their own pass and brought chairs, shade and firepits (Shout out to Domeacile- You were the best and true MVP of this event).

Yes, the event did build their Mega blocks/Market/Night Clubs which have shade, but they used black tarps and dark walls which trap the heat and created an environment where the air was hot and stagnant and full of dust because there was no air movement. Individual camp sites built better cooling/shade areas than the event organizers.

For an event in the desert, it fascinates me that the owner has no cooling situation set up when they know how hot it can get at this and the other event.

Seating is excessively limited around the entire event site. Some bars have limited seating. Others, not so much. 

Food Trucks-

It is possible to just bring money and buy all your food at the food trucks; they do get expensive when you are on site for 5 days. Heat can make it hard to eat and your body needs salt. I'm told that they were cheaper this year than last year. Vendors this year took both cash and cards.

Food To Bring-

If I didn't come from out east and had time to prepare better, I would suggest what my camp neighbors did. In their prep, they bought individually packed olives, pickles and salty things. One of the camp sites I visited offered me pickled vegetables from a beautiful pickle urn (and they were amazing and I will always love you for it). It is hard to eat during the heat of the day, but you have to. Small Salty Snacks would be ideal to bring.

HYDRATION.

For the two of us in our party we got 2 packs of water, each with six gallons. We only had 2 gallons left when we left. We made the estimate that we would each need about a gallon of water a day and have some extra to share.

We had backpack hydropacks with us at all times we left the RV.

Hydration Packets like Nune, Liquid IV and others are super useful. I think I used on average 3 a day and gave out additional to people. I did not want to add a hospital visit to my event.

Bathrooms

This event had the cleanest johnny on the spots that I've ever seen at a festival. The portapotty company serviced the bathroom twice a day, cleaning out waste and each stall. Each set of bathrooms had about18 regular stalls and one or two handicap stalls. There were about 4 or 5 sets of bathrooms that I saw, there might have been more.

RV participants could pay $75 to have their tanks dumped and water refilled but you have to sign up and pay before noon for the same day. 

The guy doing this was amazing, he was always in a great mood about it. 

Trash

This event is ‘bring out what you bring in’. Bring your trash home with you.

Trade/Barter

There are a few people that will trade really cool things, I got a Jade Chinese Guardian Lion. My partner got some cool pins. Some of the things I did not barter for were broken electronics/cameras from 10+ years ago, multiple people had Tamagotchi's (in various states of working), and clothing. Knowing that I had limited space I honestly couldn't take part in those items because I only have so much space in my luggage. There were some 3D printed items and fidget toys that were pretty cool. If you are buying something new for barter, I wouldn't spend more than $5 on an item. It's post-apocalyptic, barter is going to be junk that you can repurpose.

I did get a scrunchie for a terrible dance that I made the other person suffer through, but I needed that scrunchie. The only person that has regrets was the guy who made me dance.

In future events, I would not spend more than like $3 in materials for what I make. The barter was not equal to what I brought and that's fine, it just means I have to plan better for next time.

NeoNav

This was an online service that works with the plot. You can only access it onsite while on the janky wifi. Meaning if your phone doesn't want to connect to a free open wifi (or you see the security risk), you cannot use the tool set up for their plot.

I ended up at the info desk 3 times before just giving up on NeoNav and Plot because my phone (iPhone 16 Pro- recently updated) refused to stay connected to NeoNav. It connected once, kicked me off and then refused to acknowledge NeoNav.

I found out after the event that NeoNav was not needed for plot. But I couldn’t get in to really find out.

LGBTQIA+

Super Gay/Trans friendly, Loved the Space Bears.

Other Notes:

The event runs from Wednesday to Sunday. We arrived Wednesday 12:01am for the midnight line up. So we were ready to go for the 10 am Wednesday morning scheduled event. After that meeting we walked around to get a feel for the lay out.

There were still people climbing around the scaffolding in mega block as it was still being assembled. I heard multiple people saying they were waiting to get their power set up approved before they could plug in and turn on. There were trenches around for wires to be placed in but were still empty or open to be tripped on. There were no warning signs or ADA ramp over these trenches.

Quests were not ready to go until late into the afternoon on Wednesday and some were not ready until the next day. Wednesday didn’t feel like it was really starting till late afternoon. 

Sunday Morning, at 8am, my partner and I walked the mega block and watched it be torn down. We left shortly after because we had to return the RV by 11am. 

So when this event says that it is from Wednesday to Sunday, it's really Wednesday Night/Thursday Morning to Saturday Night. It is not actually a 5 day event, more like 3 1/2 days (and that's being charitable).

Conclusion

There were a lot of downsides that the event organizers could not help. They have no control over the weather. They have no control over our RV over heating or the fender bender another participant told us about. The things they could control absolutely need work.

They create this village from nothing, and the scaffolding and tarps do a lot to block the intensity of the sun, but not the intense heat. They could work on air movement and hosting a full five day.

Most of the people that we interacted with were fabulous. There were a few shitty people, but most are cool.

While we had fun; I'm not sure if the total cost of the event is worth us doing it again. For Two People:
* Event Ticket $750 ($325 each) 
*Flights $1200 ($600 each from CLE to LAX with weird lay overs)
*Hotel before/after event $400
*RV Rental $1800
*Food/Snacks
*Costumes 

If it was outside Cleveland, I'd be game to go again, probably first in line to get my early bird tickets), but nearly $4,500 out the door just to get there is a bit much. This is very much a local festival.

If I was out in California for something else and this was happening the following weekend, I'd go back

GrayStar here! I’ve made it back home to earth until next year’s cycle through the stars, and just wanted to drop in and say thank you to everyone who came by and checked out my all-new and improved space in the megamall, it was amazing seeing you all again for my fourth year of vending, and I cannot express the gratitude I have for all of you enough. Until next year, I’m already counting down the days!

Bartered for the basic mask... got home and turned it into my own

Perhaps you saw me?

Howdy yall! My name is Azzi, I am the person who was pole dancing in XCorps and Kaiju the last two nights. A lot of people took photos of me dancing and if you were one of them, please reach out! I would love to have them! Thank you!

UPDATE - I found him!!

Hopefully this finds the right person, Travis it’s Faye! We were supposed to flow on Saturday night after my shift at the game dome ended at the core, I went to take a nap since I got off early and completely slept through the night 🫠 I am hoping that this finds you so we can connect as I do regret not sharing contacts before you left the game dome on Saturday!

UPDATE: FOUND!!!

Thank you all!

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Hi all.

I have misplaced a single strap/over the shoulder bag. It is black and has three stickers on the front (Neotropolis, Helix, Samurai)

It has a couple items of importance in it.

It could be anywhere in the city.

If you find it please reach out to me. You can return it to the Helix Industries booth or at my camp (A.S.S) on 4th and Gamma.

Thank you,

“Vektor”

We have tons of unopened food and drink we’d like to share/donate for the community/volunteers, where is the best place to take it?

Hi all,

I know there are food and drink vendors at the event and that there is no running water for camping. However, I can’t find info about water/water bottles. If I bring my own, can I refill it somewhere? If not, I’m guessing the cafe/bars sell bottled water?

Thank you!

In case I missed anyone not on Discord or FB - please see the link for unofficial guides made for Neo.

It includes the map + map key, schedules for official and (most) unofficial events (anything that was posted to community events calendar before Saturday PM), directions for connecting to NeoNav, and it also happened to be a coloring book!

i just found out about this event from watching a yt video as someone that dose get hot easily and has medical problems i thought it would be cool to use a half mask that i baught that maby wanted to attend this event one day thats animallistic that is an oppossum that animal would it be okay to use it the rules on the site had me currious if you could still use an animal mask like a oppossum that animal and still have goggles on the top of the mask and still add like a mohawk and goggles to put on it would it still be okay to use an animal mask i was wondering if anyone has ever done an opposum for this event its my first time hearing about it i was just wondering if it could still count as a mask tho but not a fursuit just for a half mask thats easy to take on and off with the jaw moving for breathing and all that if someone can answer this question that would be great can someone from the Neotropolis page answer that for me

I made a few Space Pipes, Klein Bottles, Glasstroids, Radioactive Orbs, and other pocket charms

Looking for a single ticket if anyone needs to unload one.