UK PonyCon 2023 con report - Days 0 and 1 · 11:46am Oct 4th, 2023
I'm back from UK PonyCon 2023! Also, I went to UK PonyCon 2023! Maybe I should have led with that second part.
UK PonyCon is the longest-running My Little Pony convention, having started 20 years ago and predating even G3. My understanding is that it used to be geared toward collectors, but since G4 arrived on the scene it has shifted into more of a fandom convention, essentially taking the place of what BUCK used to be. But it still retains plenty of its earlier-gen roots, which made it perfect for this year's theme: a celebration of 40 years of My Little Pony. Here's what went down.
Before the con
I had a nervous breakdown at the start of this year. Wait, that's a terrible way to open a con report. But it is relevant. Those who've followed me for a while may know I have OCD, and it had been getting steadily worse and worse for a long time. At the start of the year, fearing I was going to have a breakdown, I sought therapeutic help, and then I had a massive breakdown anyway while I was waiting for that help to arrive.
I'm now on medication and have since been doing regular therapy sessions to recover, and it appears to be helping. I'm doing a lot better than I was before. Anyway, to get to the point, my OCD is one of the things that has made cons difficult for me in the past, but I felt much more ready to tackle this con head on instead of shrinking away from things like I usually do. So, a few weeks before the con, I decided that I was going to cosplay as my OC.
I am fairly new to cosplay, but not completely new - I first went all in on it last year at UKPC 2022 and really enjoyed it. It's something I could never have imagined doing before finding the pony fandom. I've been using it as a way to explore my gender identity, and thus had to get familiar with female clothing, makeup, and so forth. It's been fun. I'm also having to do it all under the radar, because my dad's moral standards are still in the previous millennium and I don't think he'd understand.
My OC, if you've never met her, is this earth pony, Hyacinth (seen here modelling for Parcly Taxel's periodic table of elements):
She's kind of a nature-loving flower pony, so to humanize her in cosplay form I decided to go for a floral hippie girl sort of look, with a dark green wig. I did attempt to replicate her braids, but gave up on that when I realized how difficult wig hair is to manipulate (at least with a relatively cheap wig). However, inspiration struck when I realized I could add a floral wreath on top in Hyacinth's color scheme, and then when I further discovered I could get a flashing LED flower wreath, I was sold.
The majority of the costume is actually just stuff that I discerningly scoured from charity shops, with makeup to complete the look.
With my costume prepared, I was ready for the con!
Day 0: The pre-con meet up
Having packed the previous day, I awoke and headed to Bushey, a train station on the outskirts of London, as this was where I was being picked up to by driven to the con by electrician and one-man transport hub DC Sparks. In lieu of his usual Volvo, DC had brought a large van to transport his massive plushie collection, and fortunately also managed to find room for a few passengers as well. After a relatively smooth and uneventful trip, we arrived in Nottingham in the early afternoon.
I couldn't check into the hotel until 1500, but I also couldn't check in at all, as this year I was sharing a room with fic reviewer and competition enterer Ghost Mike. We'd arranged to room together and split the cost, as even the worst chain hotels are just stupidly expensive in the UK.
Since Mike was coming from Ireland, he wouldn't arrive until late evening, so I had plenty of time to kill. (Mike did suggest I try to check in on his behalf anyway, but I couldn't be bothered moving after I got settled in The Roebuck Inn). I met Juniper and co in the pub, and we made plans to try to spread ourselves out and slowly take over the entire upstairs area, as in previous years we've found it difficult to get enough space for everyone. This plan was fairly successful, except for one table which remained stubbornly occupied by a small group of "normal" people, who - annoyingly - were consistently louder than our pony entourage by several orders of magnitude.
At some point, kirin afficionado and auction annihilator Frost Flare arrived and I was able to give them a set of MLP CCG cards that I've had lying around for years, as I've never really cared for the game and never used them since getting them.
As is typical, the evening was a blur of meeting fellow ponies and conversation and I can't remember much of any of it. I had decided, at this point, that I was going to commit to my Hyacinth role all weekend by going full vegetarian, and so I ordered some vegan sausages which were quite nice. Mike did eventually arrive, and after the party had dwindled we shuffled back to our Premier Inn to check in and lose consciousness for several hours.
Day 1: First day of UK PonyCon
Misty is too cool for cardboard.
I awoke early as I wanted to give myself plenty of time to get into costume. It was at this moment that I discovered something that would become a recurring pattern for the con: I had lost an item, one of my bags. Annoyingly, I knew exactly where it had been, and that I simply failed to pick it up last night when we left The Roebuck. Because we'd been spreading out over various tables, my various bags had gotten scattered, and someone hung one of my bags up on the side of a booth so that I wouldn't forget it.
It wasn't a huge loss as the bag didn't have a whole lot in it, but one of the things it did have was my floral wreath, which I felt was an integral part of the costume. So, after getting cosplayed up, the hippie girl Hyacinth went out into the streets of Nottingham and headed for The Roebuck.
I was a little self-conscious going in, considering the place was full of gruff old Nottingham men having their early morning whatevers, but I just rolled with it and asked the bar staff if a bag had been handed in. Fortunately, it had!
Unfortunately, some items were missing from it. I don't believe they were stolen - the bar staff said that the bag had been upturned so some things could have fallen out. The biggest loss was a Limestone Pie conbadge I had gotten at Griffish Isles 2022, which is a shame as that can't be replaced. However, it did still have my wreath in it, so that was a relief.
I returned to complete my costume, which involved jamming as many hair grips as I could into my wig to secure it and the wreath to my head. That done, I walked to the venue to line up for the con. Because of the delays, I got there when the line was already long. I found Mike near the middle of the queue, and debated pushing in to join him, but my British programming released several bad chemicals into my bloodstream that forced me to go to the end instead. I did at least get to chat to some people on the way and surprise them with my cosplay - like last year, I deliberately didn't mention it to anyone because I like to subvert expectations. 
Reaching the rear of the queue, I found that I was at least not the latest, as the queue shortly began to snake around the block. Based on what I've heard, I think this might be one of UKPC's highest attendances. I had a pleasant chat with Culdee while the queue was slowly eaten by the revolving doors, and eventually we made it inside!
A nice security woman checked my bags, and it was at this point I realized that I'd been called "sweetie" and "honey" a couple of times today, both times by women. I wonder if it's because they thought I was trans? That was nice of them.
While waiting in the registration queue, I overheard two guys behind me speculating about the convention-goers, and realized they were new, so I asked them if this was their first pony con. It turned out it was! I wished them a good time, although I don't know if I allayed any doubts that they had. Still, I hope they enjoyed themselves.
I swiftly passed through registration and got my con badge. I was impressed with what they had this year - in previous years, the conbadge was a branded piece of card inside a plastic cover, which attendees could write their name on. This year, it was a professional-looking plastic card with custom art for the different ticket tiers, and attendee names printed directly on the cards. Very nice!
It was at this point that I lost my second item, a little Izzy plush. I realized it minutes after entering, but alas, could not locate her upon retracing my steps. If only that was the last time I lost something this con...
The opening ceremony introduced the special guests, Kelly Sheridan (Starlight Glimmer) and Elley-Ray Hennesey (kaleidoscope in human form). Elley-Ray somehow managed to get an explosive device past security, and thus treated us to a confetti explosion before we headed off to the first panel, Catchphrase. Since I hadn't had breakfast, I first stopped at the student cafe and got a cup of tea and a vegetarian sandwich.
Catchphrase was being run by Ember, who last year ran the Total Chaos panel which I really enjoyed. They're a great host and really good at running these game show panels, which risk the danger of falling flat if the hosts aren't up to the job. Here, we were treated to another con tradition - technical difficulties. They were unable to access the internet, and thus couldn't access their presentation on Google Drive. Luckily they had an offline backup, but it lacked the interactivity, which meant that the game was a little more lacking than it otherwise would have been. This is something that seems to happen more often than it should at UKPC - people being unable to access the slides for their panel. Considering that they've been at the venue for several years, I feel like they should really be on top of this by now.
Anyway, it wasn't too much of a setback, and the panel was still well-done and rather cleverly pony-themed, using cutie marks to obscure the image (which actually adds an interesting dimension of challenge that real Catchphrase doesn't have, as the cutie marks can get confused with the image itself). The players were also very good, getting almost all of the catchphrases before I did. That's difficult when you're up there in front of everyone!
After that, I think I wandered the vendor hall for a bit, enjoying the large variety of art vendors and collector stalls. I was expecting to see a decent amount of Misty representation, as she had recently become a more focal character in Make Your Mark, but surprisingly I didn't see a whole lot. There was one vendor selling a couple of large plushies of her, but that was about all I remember. The rest of the G5 Mane Five had a better showing, with plenty of art available of them. I found a stall selling adorable acrylic keychains of the Mane Five, and I couldn't resist getting a Pipp and Zipp for my keys. In fact, I found loads of great acrylic charms this year, and I really like them because they're not stickers.
Okay, a weird aside here. I hate stickers. I've always hated them. I have never bought them, I don't wear them, I don't stick them to things. The idea of securing a thin layer of paper with glue makes me uncomfortable. A sticker peeling at the edges makes me especially uncomfortable, like a scab that's falling off. Sticking stickers to skin triggers a visceral reaction in me. Even if you remove a sticker, it leaves an unpleasant residue behind, or worse, a papery corpse. I don't understand how anyone could like stickers. I have never decorated a single thing in my life with stickers.
So, yeah, acrylic charms are the way to go. They're durable, they're smooth and satisfying to the touch, and they'll last a long time. I found another stall that was selling Limestone Pie and Inky Rose acrylic charms, and since I could not allow best pony and best goth horse to remain out of my possession for a moment longer, I bought them.
It was also at this point that I discovered I'd lost my bank card.
A feeling of panic washed over me which I tried to dispel with calming hippie vibes. I had already noted that I seemed to be losing things this con at a rate that is unusual for me. I am usually very careful and cautious with my belongings, and my bank card was maybe the worst thing I could lose this weekend. This had the potential to ruin my entire day, if not the whole con. Fortunately, I did know where I had last used my bank card - when I'd bought my breakfast - so I went back up to the student cafe and asked them. To my utmost relief, someone had handed it in, and I was reunited with it. Panic over!
Because of this, I was late to the next panel - Jez's Spectacular G3.5 Panel. Generational con, you know. Jez is, as far as I can tell, a fan of G3 and G3.5, and his panel appeared to be largely just him recapping the plot of the G3.5 movie in his trademark dour style, while playing songs from the movie. Then, because he only had enough content for half a panel, decided to just put on the G3.5 movie anyway, which I didn't mind as I haven't seen it and have always been curious to see a bit more of G3. I know G3 gets a rap for being overly saccharine, but I liked it. The writing is variable, but it's not half bad and has a little self-awareness - for example, Scootaloo makes an aside comment about Pinkie Pie's weirdness, Scootaloo and Cheerilee both lie to the Mayor and immediately reflect upon and feel bad about it, because lying is wrong kids. It's decent. Pinkie Pie's obsession with the color pink, less so. G3.5 has a Mane Seven, which may be why they split the group in this movie and have two plots running at the same time. That's kinda neat too.
We didn't have enough time to get to the end of the movie, so after that one I went off to the Closet Cosplay panel, which was about tips for making effective cosplays on the cheap, or even with things you already have. I found it useful and also rather inspiring, as the hosts affirmed the creative aspect of cosplay and encouraged people to find cosplay inspiration in things around them. Sadly, this panel was extremely underattended, with only about 5 of us in the audience. Maybe it's because there were two other panels happening at the same time. I enjoyed it, anyway.
After a short gap, we then headed to the Voice Actor script reading with Kelly Sheridan and Ellie-Ray. I found the reading itself rather forgettable, although Ellie-Ray had a good go at voicing a ponified onion that only exists as the result of a meme from an online con a couple of years ago. (For some reason, food seems to be prime meme material, at least for UKPC).
The script reading didn't last very long, so it quickly moved into Q and A, which was the more interesting part of the panel. Kelly Sheridan tried to get kids to go first in the line, a policy sometimes used in US cons and which I've always appreciated. I'm not sure if it actually worked out that way. I don't remember any kids asking questions. Elley-Ray's answers tended to be rather rambling and wishy-washy, but since I was embodying a hippy for the day I didn't mind.
Very pleased to see Onyx on this list!
Following this I tried to make it to the Prance Tournament, but sadly I arrived too late and the person in charge didn't seem to have any way to insert a late arrival into the tournament. I'm not sure how it would have worked anyway, since it looked like people were playing one-on-one, which seems like it would just turn Prance into an aggressive game of Snap. I didn't fancy that, so I hopped into the Brony Feud panel instead. Brony Feud is a ponified version of Family Feud, or Family Fortunes as it's known over here in the UK. (Given that it's a UK con I'm not sure why they're using the US name, but I won't question it).
In keeping with my resolution to be more assertive at cons, I stepped up for one round, for which the question was "Name a character who would make a good Princess/Prince of Equestria". Unfortunately, I had a bit of a misunderstanding, and thought that one of the answers was a pair of ponies, so I said "Princess Cadance and Shining Armor". The host asked me to pick one, so I said "Princess Cadance". To me, this is a reasonable answer - while Cadance is already a Princess, she rules the Crystal Empire, not Equestria. Nonetheless, it wasn't one of the answers, so I lost. If I had said "Shining Armor", I would have had a chance, since that was on the board. Oh well, at least I got to participate in a game!
After a break, I headed off to The Great Britannia Bake-Off, an event that started during lockdown but has since become a staple of the in-person con too. It's basically a pre-recorded, edited video of the UK PonyCon staff baking some pony-related dessert, followed by an audience vote to determine the winner. The videos are always hilarious and it's just a fun time to watch everything going down on the big screen. Bexi, the events lead, won the event with her cake, although I voted for Laura Kay's because I thought it looked the most professional. I also liked that one of the contestants based their recipe on something from the G5 comics ("cloud beignets"), which is the first time I've actually seen a G5 comic.
Who says comics aren't educational?
I think it was around this time that microfic cultivator and custard advocate Loganberry sadly had to leave us, as he could only stay for the Saturday and needed to get back home. Alas, for there was much con still to go!
With that, the con transitioned into the music concert for the evening, which featured Coltastrophe, Basspon3, Blackened Blue, Prince Whatevererer, and Pagan Pegasus. I took the opportunity at this point to raid the bar, which was selling the usual assortment of lethally sugar-infused cocktails named after ponies, and got myself a Sunny Starscout. After catching the end of Coltastrophe's set, I spent some time rhythmically bopping to Basspon3's thumping beats like some kind of deranged dryad, utilizing the flashing LEDs on my flower wreath to increase the party atmosphere by 120%. I couldn't do this for too long however, firstly because I'm a woefully unathletic computer programmer, and secondly because the Pub Quiz was about to start and I had to be there because it's Worcester tradition.
This year, however, I broke with tradition. Nopony tells Hyacinth what to do! When I arrived at the quiz, I found that the seating arrangement wasn't able to accomodate the usual Worcester team of 54 people, and this left me a bit too far away from the action to reasonably communicate answers to them. I felt this wouldn't be very fun for myself or for Mike and Dodj, who were even further away, so I decided on a new plan - I would get my own quiz sheet and answer the questions myself, with the intention of later combining my answers with the main Worcester team in case they needed help.
However, as the quiz went on, a rebellious fire of greed grew within me, and I considered the possibility that we could actually beat the Worcester team, who were probably just putting down various permutations of Batman and German emperors anyway. Thus, I did the unthinkable, and broke away from the team, officially dubbing our group "The Defective Defectors" and becoming the greatest threat to Worcester since the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. With help from a neutral third party, namely new Worcester attendee Leela Rose and her partner who didn't know anything about MLP at all but was nonetheless happy to be there probably, I was sure that we would prevail
and then Worcester beat us by half a point anyway, never mind
The Pub Quiz was shortly followed by the return of an old favorite, the Cartoon Riff, a free-for-all panel where the audience are shown terrible, weird, or weirdly terrible cartoons and are encouraged to gently criticize them. The hosts had chosen the selection for this year by going to Netflix, selecting Children's Animation, and then sorting the list by rating in reverse order. Thus, we ended up watching some of LOL Surprise: The Movie, Rainbow High, and something else that I forgot the name of (but was apparently the lowest-rated animation on Netflix).
Personally I'm not a fan of the "pause and make fun of" format of commentary, exemplified by series like EFAP. I understand why it's popular and why it entertains people, but I find it too reactionary for my tastes. You can make anything sound bad just by saying it's bad, and that's not always fair. The host did in fact make a mistake this way, by pointing out a supposed goof only to be corrected by the show itself moments later. If a show this supposedly bad is able to run rings around you, you may want to reconsider your approach.
Also, Rainbow High actually looks kinda fun. People complained about the animation, but I couldn't find much to fault about it.
I mean, green hair, goth/hippy style? This character is basically me. Only with fashion sense.
The Cartoon Riff panel was eventually cut short by the venue staff, who needed to throw us out of the building, and thus I walked back to the Premier Inn with Mike, where I was finally able to de-wig and relax before bed.
And that's the end of Day 1 of UK PonyCon. Up next: Day 2!
Cool.
For a second, I thought she'd turned confetti explosions into a catchphrase for the con.
Lost items aside, sounds like you had an outstanding time! Glad to hear it.
Does she have a last name and is it pronounced "Bouquet"?
5749088
Although now I am curious to know what Keeping Up Appearances is titled in Polish...
No, and you're not the first to make that joke
5749090
The Polish title is Co Ludzie Powiedzą? ("What Will People Say?")
5749095
It's perfect XD
Competition enterer? Considering the state I was in, not on this weekend, my friend!
Unless you're getting your wires crossed with the charity auction. 
This is the most quintessentially polite British way of describing one deciding not to chance cutting.
Did they? Could have sworn we both scored 17/40, off our crowd largely floundering on the toy-based rounds.
Anyway, you got this out pretty fast, bud! I've barely started on mine.
And there were things in here I didn't know about your cosplay, its background and your reasoning for doing it, despite being the first to see it in action. That was cool.
An excellent read; thank you!
Ah, I remember being slightly surprised when you got those sausages. I nearly asked whether you'd actually become a vegetarian, but I didn't, partly because I thought it wasn't really my business and partly because I couldn't have heard your answer anyway as the "normal people" were being especially loud at the time.
I didn't get to stay for any of Bake Off, sadly. I hung around after the VA Q&A for a little while, which allowed time for semi-humorous crossed wires resulting in fewer actual goodbyes than I'd have liked. Also, it strikes me that custard barely featured this year. I must do better next time!
Well, this is shocking. Shocking, I say. That said, I remember one UKPC where the seating arrangement was similar but the careful setup was broken by us Worcester louts anyway...
A controversial choice, but I suppose UKPC does encourage individuality.