This weekend I went to Koyocon Aarhus as a guest. It was the first time this event happened in Aarhus and it was the biggest one yet. That meant there was loads to see – more dealers and more artist alley, more people in general. I met many old friends and talked to some new people I hadn’t met before. It was all in all pretty fun! I also very much enjoyed a convention close enough for me to drive home and sleep at night. The one thing i disliked about the location was the fact that it had so many stairs, but luckily I wore costumes that were not too hard to walk around in, so it was ok.

Friday was a pretty hectic day for me, because I had work before, so I stressed a little to do my viking hairstyle and makeup for Lagertha and get out of the door. When we arrived, our host gave us a tour of the convention place, which was nice, because it was good to know where all the things were, but also hard work, because of all the stairs and the fact that my shield (that I was carrying for Lagertha) is made of MDF, so it’s really, REALLY heavy (if I were to make it now, I would probably not use the same material). Despite the heavy shield and really bad shoes, it was fun to wear Lagertha again, and I think the new hair-piece and style was a cool addition.

Friday evening, my friend and co-judge WeaponSmith Cosplayer hosted a really interesting panel on mask-making with silicone and latex. It is such an intimidating and foreign subject to me, and it was very fascinating to learn the process he goes through to make his amazing costumes. It made me want to try it myself. The time of the panel was a bit bad in my opinion – not many people showed up, but I think it was because it was the first evening, so a lot of people hadn’t arrived yet, and those who had were setting up in the sleep hall, meeting up with their friends or getting food. Or they just couldn’t find it, because it was a bit of a maze.

In any case – I hope next time he gets a better time for his panel, because it was really good! After his panel, we got some late dinner and called it a day.

Saturday we were back and since my judging wasn’t until the Craftmanship Contest Sunday, we had time to walk around and see the convention. There was a wide variety of booths in the dealer hall – Anime/Asian merch, figurines, DND things, craft supplies, periferals, Star Wars merch, retro toys, snacks/candy, books and clothes.  Even though it was the biggest day and the visitor count was the biggest ever for Koyocon, the space didn’t feel cramped and it wasn’t an issue to get around with my wide shoulder armor.

We also visited the Artist Alley. They were all a little annoyed, because there wasn’t much light. Fortunately for me, I wore my Astral Warden druid cosplay, which has VERY bright lights, so I had my own lights with me to see everything. This led to a lot of conversation starters of: “Oh stay here and light up my booth!” We did talk with a lot of the booth owners and I learned a lot about their crafts, the materials and the software they used, which was quite interesting. I meant to buy something, but I couldn’t choose and ended up not bringing anything home. That’s just me in a nutshell, haha. 

In the evening, I had a panel on Foam Armor. I wasn’t sure who the audience would be, so I decided to make it mostly for beginners. I was blown away by how many people showed up to hear what I had to say and I was honestly a bit overwhelmed and humbled by that. I always just feel like a regular potato, so to have so many people care what I have to say was quite surprising. I felt it went pretty good, people seemed interested and had a lot of good questions.

After my panel, we got some food and then went home to get some rest before the craftmanship judging Sunday.

WeaponSmith and I were joined by German cosplayer Klavier to judge the Craftmanship Contest. It went really smooth – the organizers had everything planned and despite some of the contestants being delayed by traffic, they smoothlessly managed to get everyone prejudged in a timely manner. We had plenty of time to discuss and take notes both between each contestant and after we had seen them all. It wasn’t a huge show, but every single person in the contest had put in a lot of effort in their costumes and it was very inspiring to see. 

After the show, we walked around for the last hour and said our goodbyes and then the convention was over. It’s always so sad at the end of such a big evening. That post-con blues never gets easy to deal with. But I am so happy I got the chance to go and be part of the event. And I got another owl for my collection! Thank you to Koyocon for inviting me and giving me these great memories.