AyaCon
The best con quite possibly ever. Loved the company, venue, accommodation, events...even the weather was good. So time to report on the fun that was had, mostly using the magical Nert’s photos!
Friday
Everyone seems to want to turn up on the Thursdays of cons now, but as I was flying, I could avoid paying for an extra night’s accommodation. I don’t feel like I miss out too much as things usually only get going from Friday afternoon onwards. I turned up in Glasgow on Thursday evening, stayed over and got up relatively early to head off to the airport with tom_kun. Flight was on time, and everything went perfectly. Met up with tigertigeruk at arrivals, got a train to Coventry immediately, and then a quick taxi trip over to the University.
There was no queue to get con badges (given to me by tellezara, who is a suitable stand-in for the usual nert there) or accommodation keys, but took a while to get anywhere dragging our suitcases since we kept seeing people we knew :P After lots of greetings, we eventually set off to the accommodation to ditch our stuff, and for me and ashechan to change into costume.
It was Tink and Wendy daaaaay! Lots of fun, even without our Peter. New Tink wings were much neater, wig better, and everything successfully stayed up without straps, apart from the double-sided tape needing touching up occasionally at the front. I also had my own bells this time, and could be even noisier than before. (it amused me when people couldn’t figure out how I’d hidden them) The answers as to how I'd done parts of the costume were variously: magic, pixie dust, faith and trust. Obviously.
This is where tape fail is a problem. The dress does stay up fine, but the sweetheart neckline doesn't
I think I might have needed to stand further away…
Wandered about a bit, ventured into the awesome Cosplay HQ and stuck around there until the opening ceremony. Was nice to meet lillyxandra and lordmasamune there. I never usually make it to opening and closing ceremonies now, and in fact, I never usually go to many events at all at conventions. Aya changed all that, partially because there were a heck of a lot of panels I wanted to go to, but it was just plain fun anyway going to stuff like the opening ceremony.
I had to sit sideways and take up two seats to accommodate my wings. I found photos from someone sitting behind me, which I had destroyed with wings invading every shot, oops, sorry! Ran around the con for a bit afterwards, then went to princess_mark’s skit writing panel, which was entertaining. Sometime after this, we got photos with Nert and redkun_arc, then retreated to get out of costume. I had to wash thoroughly to remove all the glitter, tape residue and latex from my ears. And we all know how tenacious glitter is, nickel_dust was still covered in it the next day, but I don’t think she minded.
By the time we’d all met up again at the con, it was getting on for 9pm, and everywhere had stopped serving food. I’m not complaining about that, but it would have been nice if we’d been warned about the opening hours earlier. Also not impressed with the Dirty Duck who failed to close the queue for ordering food, instead letting people stand there for 15 minutes, only to be told the kitchen had closed. Luckily, our foraging skills extended to phoning directory enquiries and getting the number for Dominos.
After obtaining food, it was karaoke times, which later migrated to the slightly quieter bar for the rest of the night. Ran into a girl who used to attend Aasoc and amazingly remembered me from waaaaay back at that GA Christmas meet in 2004, so that was plain awesome.
We’re all so pretty
Saturday
I was awake early enough to have plenty time to get into Himeno then wander along to takuropop’s make-up workshop, collecting some coffee along the way and visiting my wonderful Scottish friends! The workshop was lots of fun, doodling on each other’s faces. We then ventured into Jo Ellen’s cosplay business panel, which was informative. No idea if I’d ever put it to any use, but it was interesting regardless.
Having spent all morning in events so far, I went to socialise instead for a while, had some lunch, explored the dealers’ room, and at some point today I got photos with Nert outside, and also Redkun in the nifty studio set-up in the HQ. The next panel I went to was faerie wings (as in, the panel I ideally needed before I attempted Tinkerbell). It was great getting an explanation of techniques in person, since it’s much easier to understand, and I certainly learnt a few new tips.
One day it won’t be windy when I wear this
Gems!
I went to get changed into Velvet, since there was only an hour before the masquerade stuff began and I intended to help out backstage. Odin Sphere group kind of failed with all of us being busy, and the masquerade, which just means we’ll have to repeat the group yet again! Since Velvet was easy to change into, I managed to get in some pictures with usagi_half before she went to get changed, but Eli missed out.
I did some signing-in of contestants, ran around backstage with water (I like this job, cos I get to talk to all the waiting cosplayers and see their costumes close-up) then during the masq itself, I was showing them to their seats after they came off stage. This was great for letting me have a good view of everything on stage whilst helping out! I liked how the catwalk arrangement forced people to spend a decent amount of time on stage, and it did seem to work out well for bigger groups too. People were really putting thought into their walk-ons and making them enjoyable to watch (Silent Hill group especially :P). I liked the taiko drumming and Momoi’s performance to break things up a bit too, especially as I hadn’t seen the concert the night before.
The seating in the audience went fine in the end, but it’s amazing that persuading people to sit where they’re meant to can be so difficult sometimes. It is actually ok to sit next to people; you don’t need your own row. And it really did matter since we needed every seat that was reserved there. I know it’s not ideal when people couldn’t necessarily be seated their friends, but I really did my best not to split up groups as far as possible (I was counting groups while they were on stage and figuring out where to put them). I didn’t bother with my psyphers since they’re kind of fail, and I knew I’d be running about during the masquerade, so I thought they’d just be in the way. But seeing as I ended up playing usher, having obvious glowy things to show people to their seats might have helped!
Having learnt from everywhere closing the previous night, we headed off to get fed immediately, with only a brief stop for some Velvet photos beforehand.
Tried the Fusion bar tonight, which was ok, and coped well considering the numbers ordering food, but the chicken teriyaki really didn’t taste of teriyaki. Not that I minded, food was food, and it was great having a whole bunch of tables together for us to all sit in a big group. Then on the way to get changed out of costume, there was a visit to the magical Ben and Jerry’s vending machine, which eventually accepted my money. After getting into wonderful normal clothes, it was party time....but I ended up ignoring most of the J-pop party in favour of simply sitting around chatting, which was equally enjoyable! Also, my glowsticks, which went all the way to LA and back, were finally put to use.
Sunday
Awake early again for Maz’s Phoenix Wright panel, which was loads of fun! I think the big turnout and enthusiastic audience really made a big difference, and added plenty humour, but the content was great too. Seeing the new game, and things like the musical and concert made it interesting for everyone since they’re certainly things most people hadn’t seen before. Then it was time for Jo Ellen’s make-up panel, which was enjoyable and a good counterpart to Nia’s from the previous day.
I decided just to spend the day in costume since it was comfy enough, so I was a solitary cheerleader (not from Lucky Star, sorry Redkun) for most of the day. But after I’d had lunch with Maz and her friends, I wandered about and ended up in Cosplay HQ again, I persuaded odangochan and Eli to join me in costume as the Ouendan cheerleaders. These were our mostly-secret costumes, and they were lots of fun to wear (pom poms!) We got a lot of group shots whilst being entirely incompatible with the studio set up, then some which were easier to arrange outside.
Running into this Eyeshield group was hilarious
There was a lot of spack in these costumes
After photos, Eli, Nert and I dashed into the Brawl panel and caught the last half of it, which seemed to be as fun as the AX one - loved seeing the blooper reel again! And of course, there was Matt in a dress.
I then had my scheduled couple of hours in Cosplay HQ, which flew by since so many people were hanging around there anyway. It was great having such a large room, the displays, repair station, Nert's magic photo slideshow and the photo studios. Definitely doubled as a social base for us all too! Then we got some coffee and chocolate as fuel to get through Thingamabob Live (also known as Sunday Night Live), locked up the HQ and wandered over.
I loved the show overall. As ever, the quality of the performances and the extent to which they appealed to me personally varied, but the general standard was possibly higher than any omakes or masquerades I’d seen before. Any act I didn’t particularly like at least didn’t drag on too long, so even for performances I wasn’t enjoying, it wasn’t a problem to sit them out. I thought all the singers were impressive, (and finally managed to chase down the Der Tod afterwards to compliment her), and liked Team Rocket, the poi performances, poisoning the cat girls, the FMA magic show, and most of all, Team Giblets. Was also nice to see more taiko drumming although that went on for longer than I needed. Mark and Matt presenting the event really added a lot too! The auction was also hilarious, as these things always are (lol Team Rocket).
With it turning into the auction and closing ceremony, that was a long time to be sitting around in total, so it was nice to escape and get out of costume. After getting my comfy clothes, I zoomed back to the con for food, and had it pointed out that all of us were entitled to go to the gopher party, gopher badges or not (I think everyone at least did their bit in the Cosplay HQ over the weekend), so we enjoyed the food there and raided the free stuff. Seeing as everything was closing up at midnight, I didn’t actually venture beyond the gopher party, especially as the majority of my friends were there anyway.
Monday
Finished packing and stumbled over to the cafe. Stayed there for a while for breakfast, then went to join everyone else in the Cosplay HQ. Eventually migrated downstairs and managed all my goodbyes before heading off to the airport. Once again, transport went perfectly, getting a train and monorail (which may or may not have more than one rail) to the airport instantly. That left us quite a bit of time to kill at the airport, but lunch, cookies and coffee filled the time. Plane was on time, and the rest of my trip back to Edinburgh was fine too.
Friday
Everyone seems to want to turn up on the Thursdays of cons now, but as I was flying, I could avoid paying for an extra night’s accommodation. I don’t feel like I miss out too much as things usually only get going from Friday afternoon onwards. I turned up in Glasgow on Thursday evening, stayed over and got up relatively early to head off to the airport with tom_kun. Flight was on time, and everything went perfectly. Met up with tigertigeruk at arrivals, got a train to Coventry immediately, and then a quick taxi trip over to the University.
There was no queue to get con badges (given to me by tellezara, who is a suitable stand-in for the usual nert there) or accommodation keys, but took a while to get anywhere dragging our suitcases since we kept seeing people we knew :P After lots of greetings, we eventually set off to the accommodation to ditch our stuff, and for me and ashechan to change into costume.
It was Tink and Wendy daaaaay! Lots of fun, even without our Peter. New Tink wings were much neater, wig better, and everything successfully stayed up without straps, apart from the double-sided tape needing touching up occasionally at the front. I also had my own bells this time, and could be even noisier than before. (it amused me when people couldn’t figure out how I’d hidden them) The answers as to how I'd done parts of the costume were variously: magic, pixie dust, faith and trust. Obviously.
This is where tape fail is a problem. The dress does stay up fine, but the sweetheart neckline doesn't
I think I might have needed to stand further away…
Wandered about a bit, ventured into the awesome Cosplay HQ and stuck around there until the opening ceremony. Was nice to meet lillyxandra and lordmasamune there. I never usually make it to opening and closing ceremonies now, and in fact, I never usually go to many events at all at conventions. Aya changed all that, partially because there were a heck of a lot of panels I wanted to go to, but it was just plain fun anyway going to stuff like the opening ceremony.
I had to sit sideways and take up two seats to accommodate my wings. I found photos from someone sitting behind me, which I had destroyed with wings invading every shot, oops, sorry! Ran around the con for a bit afterwards, then went to princess_mark’s skit writing panel, which was entertaining. Sometime after this, we got photos with Nert and redkun_arc, then retreated to get out of costume. I had to wash thoroughly to remove all the glitter, tape residue and latex from my ears. And we all know how tenacious glitter is, nickel_dust was still covered in it the next day, but I don’t think she minded.
By the time we’d all met up again at the con, it was getting on for 9pm, and everywhere had stopped serving food. I’m not complaining about that, but it would have been nice if we’d been warned about the opening hours earlier. Also not impressed with the Dirty Duck who failed to close the queue for ordering food, instead letting people stand there for 15 minutes, only to be told the kitchen had closed. Luckily, our foraging skills extended to phoning directory enquiries and getting the number for Dominos.
After obtaining food, it was karaoke times, which later migrated to the slightly quieter bar for the rest of the night. Ran into a girl who used to attend Aasoc and amazingly remembered me from waaaaay back at that GA Christmas meet in 2004, so that was plain awesome.
We’re all so pretty
Saturday
I was awake early enough to have plenty time to get into Himeno then wander along to takuropop’s make-up workshop, collecting some coffee along the way and visiting my wonderful Scottish friends! The workshop was lots of fun, doodling on each other’s faces. We then ventured into Jo Ellen’s cosplay business panel, which was informative. No idea if I’d ever put it to any use, but it was interesting regardless.
Having spent all morning in events so far, I went to socialise instead for a while, had some lunch, explored the dealers’ room, and at some point today I got photos with Nert outside, and also Redkun in the nifty studio set-up in the HQ. The next panel I went to was faerie wings (as in, the panel I ideally needed before I attempted Tinkerbell). It was great getting an explanation of techniques in person, since it’s much easier to understand, and I certainly learnt a few new tips.
One day it won’t be windy when I wear this
Gems!
I went to get changed into Velvet, since there was only an hour before the masquerade stuff began and I intended to help out backstage. Odin Sphere group kind of failed with all of us being busy, and the masquerade, which just means we’ll have to repeat the group yet again! Since Velvet was easy to change into, I managed to get in some pictures with usagi_half before she went to get changed, but Eli missed out.
I did some signing-in of contestants, ran around backstage with water (I like this job, cos I get to talk to all the waiting cosplayers and see their costumes close-up) then during the masq itself, I was showing them to their seats after they came off stage. This was great for letting me have a good view of everything on stage whilst helping out! I liked how the catwalk arrangement forced people to spend a decent amount of time on stage, and it did seem to work out well for bigger groups too. People were really putting thought into their walk-ons and making them enjoyable to watch (Silent Hill group especially :P). I liked the taiko drumming and Momoi’s performance to break things up a bit too, especially as I hadn’t seen the concert the night before.
The seating in the audience went fine in the end, but it’s amazing that persuading people to sit where they’re meant to can be so difficult sometimes. It is actually ok to sit next to people; you don’t need your own row. And it really did matter since we needed every seat that was reserved there. I know it’s not ideal when people couldn’t necessarily be seated their friends, but I really did my best not to split up groups as far as possible (I was counting groups while they were on stage and figuring out where to put them). I didn’t bother with my psyphers since they’re kind of fail, and I knew I’d be running about during the masquerade, so I thought they’d just be in the way. But seeing as I ended up playing usher, having obvious glowy things to show people to their seats might have helped!
Having learnt from everywhere closing the previous night, we headed off to get fed immediately, with only a brief stop for some Velvet photos beforehand.
Tried the Fusion bar tonight, which was ok, and coped well considering the numbers ordering food, but the chicken teriyaki really didn’t taste of teriyaki. Not that I minded, food was food, and it was great having a whole bunch of tables together for us to all sit in a big group. Then on the way to get changed out of costume, there was a visit to the magical Ben and Jerry’s vending machine, which eventually accepted my money. After getting into wonderful normal clothes, it was party time....but I ended up ignoring most of the J-pop party in favour of simply sitting around chatting, which was equally enjoyable! Also, my glowsticks, which went all the way to LA and back, were finally put to use.
Sunday
Awake early again for Maz’s Phoenix Wright panel, which was loads of fun! I think the big turnout and enthusiastic audience really made a big difference, and added plenty humour, but the content was great too. Seeing the new game, and things like the musical and concert made it interesting for everyone since they’re certainly things most people hadn’t seen before. Then it was time for Jo Ellen’s make-up panel, which was enjoyable and a good counterpart to Nia’s from the previous day.
I decided just to spend the day in costume since it was comfy enough, so I was a solitary cheerleader (not from Lucky Star, sorry Redkun) for most of the day. But after I’d had lunch with Maz and her friends, I wandered about and ended up in Cosplay HQ again, I persuaded odangochan and Eli to join me in costume as the Ouendan cheerleaders. These were our mostly-secret costumes, and they were lots of fun to wear (pom poms!) We got a lot of group shots whilst being entirely incompatible with the studio set up, then some which were easier to arrange outside.
Running into this Eyeshield group was hilarious
There was a lot of spack in these costumes
After photos, Eli, Nert and I dashed into the Brawl panel and caught the last half of it, which seemed to be as fun as the AX one - loved seeing the blooper reel again! And of course, there was Matt in a dress.
I then had my scheduled couple of hours in Cosplay HQ, which flew by since so many people were hanging around there anyway. It was great having such a large room, the displays, repair station, Nert's magic photo slideshow and the photo studios. Definitely doubled as a social base for us all too! Then we got some coffee and chocolate as fuel to get through Thingamabob Live (also known as Sunday Night Live), locked up the HQ and wandered over.
I loved the show overall. As ever, the quality of the performances and the extent to which they appealed to me personally varied, but the general standard was possibly higher than any omakes or masquerades I’d seen before. Any act I didn’t particularly like at least didn’t drag on too long, so even for performances I wasn’t enjoying, it wasn’t a problem to sit them out. I thought all the singers were impressive, (and finally managed to chase down the Der Tod afterwards to compliment her), and liked Team Rocket, the poi performances, poisoning the cat girls, the FMA magic show, and most of all, Team Giblets. Was also nice to see more taiko drumming although that went on for longer than I needed. Mark and Matt presenting the event really added a lot too! The auction was also hilarious, as these things always are (lol Team Rocket).
With it turning into the auction and closing ceremony, that was a long time to be sitting around in total, so it was nice to escape and get out of costume. After getting my comfy clothes, I zoomed back to the con for food, and had it pointed out that all of us were entitled to go to the gopher party, gopher badges or not (I think everyone at least did their bit in the Cosplay HQ over the weekend), so we enjoyed the food there and raided the free stuff. Seeing as everything was closing up at midnight, I didn’t actually venture beyond the gopher party, especially as the majority of my friends were there anyway.
Monday
Finished packing and stumbled over to the cafe. Stayed there for a while for breakfast, then went to join everyone else in the Cosplay HQ. Eventually migrated downstairs and managed all my goodbyes before heading off to the airport. Once again, transport went perfectly, getting a train and monorail (which may or may not have more than one rail) to the airport instantly. That left us quite a bit of time to kill at the airport, but lunch, cookies and coffee filled the time. Plane was on time, and the rest of my trip back to Edinburgh was fine too.