My fifth FanExpo has come and gone and it was definitely a convention of firsts that fall into Awesome, Sad, and Truly Unpleasant.
The Awesome
There was noticeably more awesome this year which (in my opinion) is a marked improvement over last year:
- I debuted my Pandaren Monk Cosplay which is the first Cosplay I made entirely myself
- Attended amazing Q&A’s such as Matt Smith, Bruce Campbell & Ted Raimi, Adam West & Burt Ward, and Sir Patrick Stewart & William Shatner
- Learned lots at wonderflex, fosshape, general cosplay, cosplay makeup, and cosplay horror stories panels
- Met some thoroughly excellent people waiting in queues and while sat before Q&As started
- Took over 300 pictures with cosplayers!
- More of the space and rooms in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre were used
- Most of the queues were better organized, and had more volunteers assigned to each
- Volunteers were better informed, and we only encountered a few rude security guards
The Sad
- Union subway station and most of the streets surrounding it are under construction so we were herded single-file, through a maze of detours before reaching the MTCC (sweating profusely the entire time)
- The Blue Jays were in Toronto that weekend so the general traffic to and from the convention centre was double what it would be with FanExpo alone – as the SkyDome (and CN Tower) is next to the MTCC
- FanExpo’s bizarre idea of “crowd control” which included (but definitely isn’t limited to):
- Only allowing people to use 1 of 2 escalators, both of which are running, causing massing bottle necks (we waited over 30 minutes on many occasions just to use an escalator and there were no queues, just a giant group of people)
- Forcing people with re-entry wristbands to queue up along the street for half an hour or more while they allowed people to enter in groups of 5-6 … at 10am when the convention OPENED so the building was empty
- Allowing people to loiter in inconvenient areas while shouting at people who are standing in out-of-the-way areas
- The air conditioning on Saturday was set to Hoth – I wore a sundress and sandals and my feet were actually in pain I was so cold
- Vendor area was hard to move in due to very narrow aisles and an inordinate amount of people wanting to shop – wider aisles are defo needed
- Security forcing people to move in strange directions and causing nearly everyone to: bypass the area they wanted to be in, line up, go to another floor (or two), line up, return to the floor on which you started, line up, and maneuver through a series of cordoned off walkways
The Truly Unpleasant
- Union station having the heat on full blast on the platform
- One of the buildings on Friday didn’t have the air conditioning on and I got heat stroke (first time in cosplay), vomiting spectacularly multiple times while in full costume, and full face makeup
- While trying to find a washroom in which to discreetly barf my guts out, I was about 10ft from a ladies room and a security guard stopped me, told me I couldn’t use that bathroom and directed me down an extremely long hallway and off to the left. While gagging and dry heaving, I tried to explain myself, but I was herded off to the hallway to find the other washroom. WTF. (I made it, btw)
- I was asked by an old man how much it cost for him to kiss me (while I was dressed as the Red Queen and thankfully not alone)
- Literature Soong posed for a picture while in cosplay as a Pandaren Monk; the guy who took the picture then informed Literature Soong that he would be masturbating to his picture that night
Overall, I had a great time at FanExpo this year. You can’t go to a convention and expect everything to run perfectly, and you can’t cosplay and assume you won’t run into problems.
What conventions have you been to lately?
What was awesome, sad, or truly unpleasant for you?
It Takes A Village To Cosplay!
Earla Alara
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