• Member Since 18th Jun, 2012
  • offline last seen February 16th

Rarity Belle


A Dutch gentleman of leisure, living for pleasure, since mirth is my measure. Writing stories that are (mostly) unique and psychological of nature and visiting conventions whenever I can.

More Blog Posts35

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Aug
5th
2013

GalaCon 2013 coverage (part 1 of 2) · 6:26pm Aug 5th, 2013

(This, is going to be a bloody long one.)

So as of this writing, we are passed August 4th 2013 and that means one thing. That Galacon 2013 is over... A sad fact indeed, especially since it was my first brony convention I ever went too. But with two days of con and two days of travel, things have become a little bit hectic for me and I am not going to lie about it. However, it was the most fun I ever had since I joined the whole fandom.

Ladies and gentleman, this is my personal coverage on the convention and thoughts about it. Yes, the haul will be revealed as well. ...Economic crisis is all you hear, well not in Germany. You will find out later.

So...where to start? Well, how about around 7AM at Friday the second of August?

First day
7AM, the alarm was ringing and I hurried (read: at snails pace) out of bed and began on my breakfast. Which was almost nothing due to my disorder of not being able to eat in the morning... Anyway, packed my bags quickly with the stuff I needed and did the last couple of checks. With everything done, I was ready to hit the road. Problem was that my mother wasn't... So finally at 9:30 AM we finally managed to get in the car and just drive. Drive the 600+ kilometer journey down to Ludwigsburg.

Keep in mind that living in the small country of the Netherlands, we are not used to long travels.

The journey itself was something that was rather pleasant (since I didn't had to drive, no drivers license, yet.), with my pony music blasting through my headphones I thought nothing could go wrong. ...I thought wrong.

Because there were two little things I didn't kept my attention on. The weather and traffic jams. The first one was easy to be dealt with because the whole back chair of the car was designed as a freaking minibar to which I could sit next. It was the second one I had the most troubles with. For, with everything taken into account, I wouldn't make it my hotel in time. Even with the stops we did, even with the quick repair that had to be done, I could make it. But because of certain traffic jams caused by Germans that love to work on the road, it wasn't the best of deals.

I spare you the rage in here. Long story short, I got another hotel that was a lot better than the hotel I originally booked but was around 45 minutes away by walking from the convention, instead of the planned 15. Didn't do my legs any good, I can assure you that. You know old people walk sometimes without bending their knees? Yeah, that was how I walked the second morning after having made a little test walk. Speaking if that...

Second day (Galacon first day)
It's convention time! 8:30AM, I am walking happily into the hotel my friends stayed and what do you know, they were still sleeping. Can't blame them after the journey. But eventually we managed to make it to the Forum am Schlusspark. Let's just say that I was freaking happy I bought a Plus ticket and thus could just skip the lines.

So there we were, three Dutch guys just waiting to go up the stairs and enjoy the con. Yet we had to wait and thus met up with a couple other Dutchman, lovely guys, I do admit that. And a Scootaloo who really makes me started to think she was a chicken. All good fun though, at least it was in my eyes. But then, at 10 in the morning, we were allowed up the stairs and the convention had begun 'unofficially'.

First thing done there was that we went down to the vendor room and, literally by accident, met JanAnimations. A friend and I were just standing before his table filled with prints from his animations and tumblr. I recognized some of them and said they were from him. He must have heard it because he turns around and says, "That's me." My jaw, was almost on the ground when that revelation was made. We shook hands and thanked him before going further over the room. Must admit, that was the most beautiful (if not fastest and awkward) introduction I have ever seen. And he is just one nice and amazing guy as well when you meet him. Just so full of, passion. Though it could have been the convention. Seen +/- 1.000 bronies wanting to buy your things, kinda leaves an impact on you.

It was said that the vendor rooms opened up after the Opening Ceremony which was at 11AM. Yeah, 10:30AM...€105,- just gone because of pony stuff (cover that in the haul). But then came the Ceremony itself. It was a nice one and everyone was introduced. Show guests, community guests, all of them. Never clapped that much in my life! If I only know what was to come.

Of course, with something like Galacon, there isn't just the vendor room and ceremony. No, there were also tonnes and tonnes of panels. But due to time difficulties and delays, I only happened to be going to 4 of the near dozen things on Saturday. Than again, karaoke wasn't really my style and other things fell during other panels. So, where did I managed to drag my arse too?

Game presentation
The very first panel I went too. They showcased 2 games, 'Rainbow Dash Pony Disaster' (if I remember it correctly) and 'Legends of Equestria'. From the first one everything went as it should and, I might eventually play that game when the time is going to be there. They even showed us how they made the levels. it was with Legends of Equestria, that the troubles started. It was hilarious to say the lest but also a shame for the developers. Because the game looks just amazing! I, need to keep an eye out on those two.

Canadian Voice Actors Panel
Do I even need to say more? ...Hm, probably this, suck it BronyCon! For we got Peter New and Andrea Libman. Both of them are just such nice people to see and hear. But were Andrea is more serious, Peter is just insanity itself. But he seemed to love every minute of it and so did we. Words on this blog can't describe the feelings of joy that went through me when I was listening to them. Peter, you said you were coming to 2014, I want to see you there! If you haven't watched the livestream, you missed out a lot. It's just too rich to spoil. (just like the rest of the con, but going too anyway.)

And after that panel, it was time for a quick little lunch with two other Dutch bronies, because I am a herd person and I did lose my friends on the way, kinda. With a fresh and spicy currywurst in my stomach, it was up to the next thing. The Art Gallery. Much to our surprise, there was a course of writing going on. Being an author myself...I just got the hell away. And so we were off to the next one.

Cosplay Contest
I really, really, really, wish I had pictures of this, but my battery was dead because I was too stupid not to charge it the night before. Not as many cosplayers as I wanted to see, but wasn't disappointed either. So what did we have? We had an OC from who I have no idea who it was, a Rainbow Dash, 2 Pinkie Pies (one in Gala dress, one in western showgirl outfit), Vinyl Scratch and Queen Chrysalis. Probably missed one or two here.

Spoiler (?), the OC ended up third, Scratchy second and Chrysalis first. But when you look at them, you can see why. Yet due to problems, the contest started like 45 minutes later then planned yet managed to end at the designated time. *shrugs*

With the contest over, the time was there once more to go and just see wherever the hell we had to go to. We could have gone to the Canadian voice actor signing session, but given the line that stood there...we made the decision to come back later. Eventually, we went to the last panel for me for that day.

The art of John Joseco
Okay, I admit it, I had no bloody clue of this guy even was. Even though I am quite active in the fandom, I just tend to stick to the roleplayers and not to the artists and all the others. ...Which I really should have done. Because John is just amazing! Again, suck it BronyCon! He was doubting, but came to Europe just, for, us~ But with all insanity on a stick, he is just a fabulous guy and quite modest as well. he just so fun to listen to and hear his personal story of how he came into the community. Not to mention the wonderful line up of art that was being displayed.

And so the clock hit 6PM and it was time for me to go back to my hotel. My legs were broken (so they felt), had a big smile and a bag full of ponies. After a rather late dinner the time had come to 11PM and I just laid in my air cooled room. I was ready to fall asleep for the next day. Just waiting, what would happen. And let me tell you, nothing could prepare me for that, nothing.

(click here for part 2)

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Comments ( 1 )

Good for you. I'm glad you had fun.

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