Conventions » Crystal Fair Post-con-mortem · 3:01am Jul 8th, 2014
I've said this on Twitter but, other cons have a lot to live up to for anyone who went to Crystal Fair over the last few days. I really cannot hand out enough glowing praise to the con committee to express how well I think this con went. Sadly I've only been physically to 2 cons, but I've watched enough streams and heard enough stories to be confident in my assessment that this was probably the best run pony convention that's happened anywhere. Lots of subtle things, combined with *really* big things just make it an excellent weekend. Anyway, with that out the way, I'm going to delve into as much of my experience as I can remember as I did with BUCK last year.
Day One: 72 Hours Remaining
Technically day one was taking the plane to Finland but since that was late anyway, I don't have too much to say there other than it was finally a chance to actually speak to EileMonty in person and meet RainbowCrash88 and his assistant/singer PikC and they were all awesome and we had lots of fun finding out hotel rooms (and thanks very much to our driver who's name escapes me). I was staying with my good friend Zeeraw who had arrived earlier in the day and I got a good enough night sleep in my cheap but pretty functionally good hotel room
The following morning we got some nice breakfast from the restaurant next door (bacon and beans kept me feeling right at home) and those of us who were guests met up to head to the con centre to get our passes. The VIP lanyards were really nicely made, so good work graphics design team. We attended the short and sweet opening ceremony in the main hall before going to see Yami's cosplay panel which was interesting because I know absolutely nothing about cosplay. I went upstairs to go check out the vendor hall and only 2 hours into the con I already had my first plushie.
Whoops.
After that I went to watch the Anneli Heed panel (she plays Spitfire in the Swedish dub) which was cool. I then checked out the indie game panel for "Breach of Harmony" where I planned on heckling them with horrible questions but I was left a bit disappointed there. Fan games need to realise they're supposed to me making games, not pony creators. Next up was the first musicians panel and....actually I can't remember too much about that one. Lastly was Daniel Ingram's Q & A and that was full of interesting tidbits. The panel was run in a chat show format, with the interviewer and interviewee sitting on comfy seats which gave the panel a much friendlier feeling and much more interesting answers because there wasn't time wasted with terrible questions. That was the end of the con for the first day.
I also want to say that I liked the con ending at 5pm because it gave more time to go off and do other things in the city after the con. A bunch of us headed off to a pub somewhat nearish our hotel and our somewhat small initial group kind of exploded into us taking over most of the loft area. I left a little earlier because it was getting a bit much for me and I hadn't eaten but it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed getting to spend some time bitching with Lavender Harmony in person because we're so damn good at it.
Day Two: 48 Hours Remaining
Day two certainly started with a bang, having Tabitha's Q and A as the first panel of the day. Tabitha has always been my favourite voice actress. I think her range of voices is absolutely stunning and she's actually insane. I managed to get a question in of my own about Delilah in Littlest Pet Shop and I couldn't have asked for a better answer honestly, so I was really happy with that. Again, the panel went very smoothly and I have to praise the tech team again on a really solid A/V setup that only had one tiny falter in the entire weekend that I was aware of. After that I went to EileMonty's panel. It was fun seeing what other voices she's done in various things I wasn't aware of and learning that she totally reads clopfics you guys.
Following lunch in town at some southern fried chicken place we went to the cosplay panel. There were a lot of really impressive/gorgeous/adorable as heck (or some combination of the 3) cosplays there, and I was impressed again at the small things that the con did to make the experience better like having a powerpoint of all the cosplayers with their name, the character they were cosplaying and a picture of them.
I was planning attending the 2nd musician panel after this but I ended up playing a fun game which I've totally forgotten the name of and it's driving me mad now.... (It was sort of like cards against humanity but in art form in a way) with a couple of other guys and that was actually a lot of fun. I'd like to pick up a copy myself if I could remember the name of the damn thing. Last up was the blind reading with Anneli, Tabitha and EileMonty which was a basket full of masterfully executed fun, definitely one of the highlights of the con itself for me. That was the end of the con for day two, but this was also the night we had our music event "Operation Pon3" down at the Nosturi club which is (primarily, as far as I know) a metal club that's hosted bands like Nightwish and Sonata Arctica and many other famous bands in the past. I definitely think it's going to be hard to top that venue for any other con honestly. The venue was on two levels, with the bar being on the top level and requiring ID to access so that younger people could stay late because the bottom floor was alcohol free. Definitely a great thing for a con like this.
The first act up was Przewalskis Ponies whom I was really excited to see perform because there's not really much in the way of bands like them in this fandom at all. Honestly they legitimately blew me away in person. Falk, their singer, was great and getting the crowd going and they made great use of props in their songs and it all sounded fantastic. I really encourage you to go check them out.
This was one of my favourite bits of the night along with their Smile^3 rendition but I can't find it on youtube yet. Percussion solo kicked ass too.
Following them was EileMonty and I barely even need to say anything there. Eileen is such a talented singer and it's always a joy to hear her perform live. I particularly liked her singing "Again" by SimGretina.
Next up was RainbowCrash88's set which I'd been looking forward to the most of any of the sets since before the con. RC88, for anyone who isn't aware, is the guy behind half of the Fighting is Magic music and definitely one of the biggest talents in the community but hasn't done much in the way of public performing. He had his custom rigged Commodore and Gameboy setup which caused some complications on stage but it's well worth it to know that you're hearing the music coming from there. He played a bunch of tracks from Fighting is Magic with himself playing the live guitar sections which was awesome to hear, as well as several other tracks with his singer, Emma/PikC and they were great to hear too.
A surprise performance was next to hit the stage, I think I'll just let the video speak for itself.
Yeah....pretty insane...
That was the end of the less electronic-y part of the night and then it was up to the DJ performances. By this point I was pretty mentally tired which tends to happen to me a lot, which meant I kind of just skulked upstairs, looking over the balcony for the next 3 hours and I don't really have too much to say about the DJ sets other than they all sounded well set up and the noise level was about 10x more enjoyable than the SSC at BUCK last year which was just way too loud and uncomfortable.
Day Three: 24 Hours Remaining
Oh no, time for my panel with MidnightShadow! Actually I wasn't particularly worried about my panel content itself because I'd done the one at BUCK last year and all the panels here had been good already. I was, however, worried that nobody would turn up because it was in the morning after the music the night before and the panel overlapped Daniel Ingram's Q&A by 15 minutes. to my surprise however, there were a lot of people there, and most of them didn't even leave to see Ingram at the end. The panel went really well, and thanks again to our lovely host who, again, I can't remember the name of. I'm really glad I got a bunch of Fimfiction specific questions on development/code because I can't answer fanfiction questions really, so thanks to those of you who probed me on that nerdy crap. Still, if I thought I had bad panel timing it was nothing compared to GalaxyArt and MyLittleVisuals who had the seriously rough timing of being during Ingram's panel AND the guest of honour Q&A. I decided to go to their panel to keep them company in case not many people turned up, and sadly at the start there were only about 7 of us there, but as time went on more people came in and it was a fun and cosy panel.
The charity auction followed after a short gap and again, kudos to the con staff for running it better than I've seen before. By having a setup where you just held up a card while you were willing to pay the current asking price it made the auction run really quickly and smoothly. I also appreciate the "tone" of the event too, if that's the right word. It always rubs me the wrong way when people try and push prices up as hard as possible in a public charity auction because it puts a lot of pressure on the buyer and, whether it's for charity of not, I don't like that kind of attitude. I've seen it at a lot of other cons with people slapping autographs on things at the last minute to try and pull more money out of it, and it just destroys the charity aspect for me. Considering I had a limited supply of Euros on me, I couldn't really dump any money on anything this time sadly :( Snowdrop was very disappointed.
Still though, after the auction I went to pick up an album from the Przewalski guys who recognised me from a tweet I put out and we had a nice chat and I got all their signatures and free hugs which is always awesome.
And then it was time for the final curtain, the closing ceremony. I always appreciate a chance to applaud the people behind the work, because as someone who's also largely in a back room position, I want to make sure those that deserve appreciation but don't usually get it are actually noted for their work, and I think everyone got to do that.
With the con done, most of the con guests went to the same pub we went to on the Friday and we had a much more chill affair which I greatly enjoyed. I had a lot of fun hanging out with LavenderHarmony, HMage, RC88, MyLittleVisuals, Tei, Yuukon, Twitch, Zeeraw, Henri (guest organiser), Oskar (con head) and some other people I've forgotten the names of again >_>.
Day Four: Ded
Oh, right, yeah that's today! The last day was really just us leaving Helsinki and going home on our respective flights. I had fun chatting about lots of local english-y things with Eileen on the plane on the way back and we met a couple of other folks on the plane too.
A final picture before we all went our separate ways at Heathrow :(
Final Thoughts
It's going to be really hard to top this con for me. I loved Helsinki a lot, I loved the people I got to meet there, I loved the way the con was organised and I really really want to do it again next year. The music was really stunning. I haven't attended any American conventions but it's not hard to know that a proper music venue is going to beat a hotel room any day of the week, and the selection of music and set list was perfectly done. The con itself was run insanely well. Every single day the doors opened dead on 10am and pretty much every panel started on the dot. There was basically zero audio issues and as I said there were a bunch of subtle visual aids that really made all the difference to how the con felt. For the ticket price, it was excellent value (for those who were paying :V)
I'm probably forgetting so many things but I've tried to remember as much as I can.
tl;dr do it next year fagts
Glad you had fun, yo. Big ups.
Hmm, I think the only better thing we have to look forward to in Australian cons is the lunchtime BBQs...
Looks like you had fun. Awesome, knighty.
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The next pose for your avatar is going to be snap backs and tattoos, 2 chainz and . . . a glass of milk? The rhyme was bad from the start.
Sounds like an awesome experience. That You'll Play Your Part live performance is just fantastic.
Man, it's going to be hard waiting for NMND.
Sounds like you had a blast. Hope I get the same feel good experience at Bronycon next month.
Sounds like fun! You're really lucky.
Please fix the site?
Must have been a blur, given the amount of stuff you forgot. Looks like a fun blur though.
Heh heh, its fun to say "blur".
Love the Majora's Mask references.
Been to two more cons than I have. It looks like so much fun.
I'm going to go cry now...
Everyone's out there talking about the Finland con and I'm just sitting here waiting for one near Ohio :/
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Speaking of Cons, next weekend is the third year in a row I'mma be going to ConnectiCon and NOT sporting a Fimfiction t-shirt...
Any Rarity cosplayers that were trying way too hard and had disgusting stretch marks in the worst places? Those are always a laugh.
I don't do conventions; it'd involve being seen in public with you fuckwits, and I don't think I could handle the emasculation.
Couldn't make it to Crystal Fair myself, but I'm really glad you had a good time and that the con was good!
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How could it be emasculating if you don't have the balls to come hang with us in the first place?
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Oh, Knighty, you magnificent son of a bitch.
I really wish I coulda gone... But the army wouldn't let me ._.
man, this con really needed more niggas
2265893 NMND?
2265893 don't know what that means.
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I was also present during the first day and at Operation PON3.
Sadly I was not present for the other days, I was otherwise occupied.
But I was at the Anneli Heed panel as well. Too bad I didn't recognize you in the audience though.
I would not mind going to one of those conventions just for the experience.
btw...that fluttershy plushie is very nice, but I think her muzzle is a tad too small.
Leave it to Finns to run a well organized event. We're kind of nitpicks when it comes to schedules, and pretty tech-savvy, too. Both very useful qualities in getting things to run smoothly.
I was there for the whole three days and then some. For example, on Friday I ended up playing board games in a park with a bunch of Finnish bronies I met at the event, plus some of our foreign guests.
It was an awesome weekend through and through.
Glad to hear you enjoyed it so much! I enjoyed your panel.
PS: Could the game you played have possibly been Dixit?
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That's the one! Yeah it was a lot of fun :)
2266228 Nightmare Nights Dallas.
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No point having them if I'd just lose them by being in the same room as you.
Shouldn't you be trading fashion tips with someone?
2266571 It's okay, we won't miss you either :)
I can't believe they actually had a fandom VA on the reading panel with show VAs. That's honestly blowing my mind.
Apparently you missed the Overmare Studios panel about the Fallout Equestria game.
Dammit Knighty, I was counting on you to bring back sum juicy info from that one.
2266038 Oh Mees. You're so great.
Damn, too bad I was busy this year. Next year? Definitely.
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Don't worry, we'll be uploading some "juicy" videos of it shortly. Check the website in a few days.
This is making me more and more pissed off for not being able to come, lol. It would've been awesome, honestly.
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Well put.
2266898 If this is the truth, then I am very excited to hear it.
Hoping this tops the mind blowing Littlepip animation.
I think I forgot my portable battery under that microwave.
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I should be so lucky, Darling,
You went to Finland and you didn't go to a sauna?
I am disappoint
I would absolutely love it if you'd be willing to share online some of the information you shared during that panel!
If you were in a nice Octavia car (hardehar, but that's the model) then you may have been in Sharkmachine's Skoda... the pickup at the airport went a bit sideways because a large amount of luggage was lost in what sounds like a sea of airport spaghetti, but we pulled through. Glad you got where you were supposed to be going!
Sunday amazed the fuck outta me because I seriously thought it'd be you and me just bullshitting, but nope, pretty packed! I'm glad you liked Nosturi (Operation PON3 venue) because a lot of people put a lot of work into it (including yours truly, keeping the night's special guest stars performance a secret was bloody difficult!)
I regret not going. I'll live with it, though. With the money I didn't spend I can... buy a nice pair of shoes(?)