About time I give another convention status, eh? Second half of my year flew by and brought a lot of events with it – I’m almost happy Hydracon was cancelled, or I would have had 4 weekends in a row with conventions!

Gamescom 2018 

Gamescom is one of my highlights of the year, and this year was no exception – on contrary, it was one of the best! Instead of the usual 3 days, we decided to go all 4 public open days this year and it was really nice, because it meant we could have some shorter days and spread out the walking and combine it with meeting friends for dinner in the city.

The convention felt as huge as always, and even with 4 days, I felt like we didn’t see everything. I wore cosplay for 3 of the days. I had planned to wear all 4 days, but we wanted to do a day where we could focus on seeing the con as well. We visited the Darkmoon Faire-area at the Blizzard booth and stood in line for an hour. It was ok, though, because we had a great view to the dance contest, which was fun to watch. We also saw the Video Games Live concert, which is always an intense and beautiful experience.

Friday a couple of our friends participated in a contest, so I spent most of my day helping them out and keeping them company for prejudging. It was cozy, and they looked amazing on stage!
Saturday, both my boyfriend and I were lucky to have been selected for the Blizzard contest, so most of that day was spend doing that. Overall, it was fun, but the lack of space was a bit frustrating – the “petting zoo” where we had to wait for our turn for the prejudging was tiny and there were so many benches that you couldn’t walk around there in big cosplays.

There was a prejudging before the show where you could tell judges about your cosplay and they could see it up close. I wasn’t first, and heard from others that I should prepare what to say, as they didn’t really ask questions. I’m glad I knew before going in, because some of the others said that it had been a bit of awkward silence with them. Pfew.

The show itself went great, and I was so happy that both me and my boyfriend made it to top 10 and got to stand next each other on the stage. It was an amazing experience and a memory I will treasure for sure!

NowJapan Lithuania

The next con I visited was NowJapan in Lithuania. My boyfriend and I had been invited as guests, and since it’s his home country, we decided to make a holiday of it and bring his parents as well. In preparation, I made a Melisandre cosplay for his mother, and it was really fun going as a whole family in cosplay.

Saturday we just walked around and saw the convention. It was spread over 3 buildings and a town square. Luckily, the weather was great, so we were mostly outside. It was a bit hard to find the various things, because there wasn’t many signs. It was a pity, because I later saw photos of lots of places and events that looked interesting that we just didn’t manage to find.

But anyways, people were super nice, and it was a fun format of convention – as much a city festival, since the outdoor areas were open to the public, so we had tourists come by and ask what was going on.

Sunday we hosted a panel on cosplay. It went really well, although we didn’t have a full room – most people just couldn’t find the place. But it had it’s own benefits – we had more time to answer questions in dept and had more of a “conversation” with the audience.

Fantasyfestival Esbjerg

A small, local convention that I attended with Warcrafters. We brought a small version of our corner and hosted two events – turtle ring toss and temporary tattoos. It was really cozy to be at a small events, we were busy all the time, spreading the world of cosplay and hosting the games. People were super enthusiastic and friendly.

We finally managed to get a group photo with all of our murlocs, yay!

ArtBubble Aarhus

I visited ArtBubble in Århus with a couple of friends. I wore my Black Cat cosplay, but I was one of the only cosplayers there. It was a cozy little event, but I think more fun for proper comic book enthusiasts – I felt a bit too casual for the place. Still a fun event and worth a visit – entrance is free!