A couple of weeks ago, I went to Mag-C in Germany. The week leading up to the event was very intense, because Zibartas and I decided on last-minute con-crunch costumes. He already had his Mantis Blades done, but he wanted to make the rest of Sandayu Oda’s outfit to wear with them. Since he was wearing Mercy wings and Mantis Blades, I in return had to wear small, practical cosplays, so I decided to make a Cyberpunk 2077-inspired outfit. Since I mostly focused on helping Zibartas with the sewing parts of his cosplay, I just stitched up a crop top-thingy and then added random clothes and belts to it. I made some vectors from in-game signs and ironed on to my pants and belt bags to tie it up. I also borrowed the little glove from Zibartas’ Doomfist, since it kind of fit the theme.

We managed to pull together our outfits in time, and thursday we started the journey to Erfurt. For us it’s around 9 hours driving and breaks, so we had 1 day dedicated for travelling. Friday morning, we went to the venue and set up the table and greeted our hosts. We had the afternoon off and walked around a bit in the area near the hotel. It’s a beautiful town and I think I’d enjoy visiting it again as a tourist.

Both day’s schedules were packed tight with both panels and cosplay judging, so it was a blur of rushing to the convention, getting cosplays on, getting to the panel, barely any break, then pre-judging and cosplay show. Especially saturday was very intense. But it was a fun intense and I did manage to talk a little with some of the other cosplayers and guests and I met some old friends, too! 

Sunday was slightly less intense and I managed to see a little bit of the convention (mostly the things that were next to the cosplay area) and also got a few photos of my Cyberpunk assistant costume with CosPixCreation. I do wish I had had more time to experience the event, because it seemed like there were many interesting things to see. Among other things, they had these little themed photoshoot areas that were free for people to use, which I thought was a really great idea. There also seemed to be lots of photographers willing to do photoshoots in the hallways and such, but apart from the photos from CosPix I didn’t get any – but I also wasn’t really wearing my best cosplays, anyways.

One of my highlights from the trip was definitely also getting to meet the other international guests and our evening after-con meals. Sunday we stumbled upon this wild restaurant that was just down the street from our hotel, which was completely medieval themed, complete with live music and staff wearing costumes. It was definitely an experience! 

I also want to have a tiny fan-girl moment: When I started making my own cosplays in 2013, I was unsure if I could fit into this community. One of the things that gave me courage to try making cosplays was finding Yaya Han’s webpage and reading her blog and seeing her cosplays. And now, more than a decade later, I got to spend some time with her and she is just such a nice, down-to-earth person. As were all the other guests we met and got to spend time with. The cosplay community truly is amazing and I am so happy and proud to be part of it!