A few weeks ago, I travelled to Basel to attend Fantasy Basel for the 2nd time! The event took place 29th-31st of May, and we arrived on 28th to set up our booth. Sadly our plane there was delayed, so it was a bit later before we arrived than originally planned, but we got everything ready. We’d met Captain Ghostly in the airport, since he arrived by the same plane as us, so we had some dinner together.

The next 3 days went by in a blur! Our booth this year was placed towards a wall, so we didn’t get as much visitors as last year, but even so it was quite busy. I wore my W.I.T.C.H. Cornelia cosplay the first day, and the shoes are not the best, so we didn’t walk around too much. Zibartas had a Q&A and a cosplay guest presentation on the main stage, so we went there a few times. Luckily this year, they had learned from last year and there were more ways to get from Hal 2 to Hal 1, and it was so much easier to move between the halls.

Our booth neighbours were Lightning Cosplay and MsSkunk and they were good company! We had some fun moments and I had some long hair talks with Lightning. My favourite part of conventions is always the people. Meeting new and old friends, and this convention had loads of that, so it was great!

The 2nd day I wore my new Cyberpunk outfit with the glowing collar. It was fun to light up yet still be somewhat practically dressed. I got to do a bit more sightseeing and went to some of the other halls. I also discovered that there were several photographers and a 360 photo booth in the community hall. It was really sad that it was so far away, since we only managed to go there friday and take photos. You either had to go outside and cross over tram tracks to get to the hall where the photographers were, or go from the cosplay hall (2.0) into hall 1, then up the stairs, then to the other end and then down stairs again. Not ideal in cosplay. I really hope that next year they’ll rethink this. Every photographer has his own vision with photos, so it’s always most fun to get to visit multiple photo booths with the same cosplay.

Friday evening there was an afterparty, and even though we were kind of tired and didn’t wanna get too drunk since we still had a convention day Saturday, we joined up. It was fun with some dancing and some really banger music – everything from Ketchup song to ABBA to Nelly. A fun mix 😀 

Saturday morning was a bit rough, but then again, some of the others partied until 4 in the morning, so we shouldn’t complain, haha.

I wore Rapunzel for the last day, and people seemed to like it a lot. Switzerland is fun, because there’s so many languages. I had to get used to being asked in both English, German and French if my hair was real.

This was also the day that Zibartas had his panel. It wasn’t a full hall, but the people who attended seemed so focused and to really enjoy it. I also thought it was great, even if I already heard what he was saying before.

I forgot to take photos, but I walked around in the Artist Alley with MsSkunk and her lovely better half and I was blown away by all the talent there. There was just booth after booth full of creative things, it was insane! Just in general – I spent 3 days here, and I walked an average of 8 km a day – and I didn’t manage to see all halls and all booths. It was just massive! There was a big area for photo ops – a Harry Potter setting with sorting hat, one with Aragog (the big spider) and also a hobbit house. There were anime cars, merch booths, authors and publishers, tattoo artists, graffiti artists, a medieval market and I heard a martial arts and area as well – but I didn’t see all. I also saw someone eating meat on a stick, but sadly I never found out where they bought them. But it seemed like there were loads of food options, but I didn’t eat lunch, I usually just have breakfast and dinner on convention days. Cosplay and food often don’t mix well.

Sunday evening was the sad farewell. After a shared dinner at the nearby street food, we all hung out at the lobby. Then it was bedtime for us, since we had to get up at 4 am to make our flight home. It really sucked, but on the bright side, we found out later flights to Frankfurt (where our connection was) were cancelled, so maybe it’s for the better – the trip home was mostly uneventful, and after a nap, we picked up the kitties and spent the evening relaxing with them, exhausted but full of great new memories.

Below some impressions from the event.