Back from BUCK · 2:03pm Aug 27th, 2014
Well, I've been back from my first ever convention for a couple days now. The pony high has faded and I can create coherent thoughts again. So, let's see what happened.
First of all, I have acquired pony merch. A decent set of Luna cutie mark headphones, a few bits of art that I'm currently getting frames for and of course my commemorative BUCK collectors coin, number 63 of 100. I wasn't sure what to expect when I first got to Manchester, the Summer Sun Celebration wasn't my cup of tea, so I went to the con first thing Saturday. There were certainly more people there than I expected, including quite a few in the priority queue. I guess a lot of people splashed out for 20% cooler or Celestia tickets.
Getting inside, I was confronted with the huge vendors hall, with roughly 40-50 vendors at the con, there was a ton of stuff for sale. Even better, there was the pony karaoke, I've lost count of the number of times I heard 'Discord' and other great fandom songs blasting out across the floor. The opening ceremony was fairly standard; 'don't forget to eat and drink and don't be a prat'. I'd met up with a few people in the queue outside, so we all wandered around the vendors for a bit.
After that, there were the various events to attend, including Knighty's FiMfiction panel and later the fanfic challenge, a panel on the new Legends of Equestria game, with a good long look at some of the current alpha gameplay and of course the charity auction, during which Knighty paid over £800 for a Derpy plushie and someone else forked out over £1100 for Chrysalis.
Then there were panels for our special guests, including Dave Polsky's Q&A entitled Funfunfun and Rebellion in FiM. This was where we had our one slight bit of trouble. Some irritating upstart who disliked 'Twilight Time' got to the front of the queue and began ranting at the poor guy. Everyone concerned just put their head in their hands and waited for it to be over. Luckily security eventually reached him and took him away, but not before he asked Polsky if he knew whether or not Rainbow Rocks would be shown in the UK.
Things quickly recovered after that though, and Polsky took the ranting like a champ, saying he wasn't going to defend his work just because one guy didn't like it. He actually gave a very interesting presentation which I enjoyed very much. On the off chance you're reading this Dave, allow me to apologise on behalf of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
But the most fun time came on the Sunday, when I got fully involved in playing 'The Game the Princesses Play' based on a fanfic on here somewhere, it was essentially a game of Mornington Crescent. If you don't know what that is, read the fanfic. That was probably the most fun time, just a bunch of us playing and chatting about pony.
Unfortunately, all good things come to an end and on Sunday night, after the closing ceremony and one last sing along of Winter Wrap Up, I had to meet up with my dad and drive back home. I'm certainly sad that there will be no con in 2015, but I look forward to 2016 and I'll definitely be going to that. Now though, it's back to writing, look out for my latest chapter of 'My Family and Other Equestrians' on Friday.
Oh, and I appear to have 50 followers now. Yay!
Wow, sounds like you had a great time!
2406220 I'm just sad there's not going to be a con here in 2015. Stupid knackered economy.
2406732 Bah! I'm sorry.
2406732 You may want to check out/keep an eye on My Little Convention. No idea if that'll be any good, mind, seeing as they only have one announced guest so far, but it's still early days and, hey, at least it is a convention
2499260 Thanks for the heads up.