UK Ponycon 2019 Part 2

Part 2: Sleep Deprivation, Plushiecon and Gongs

I haven't felt up to doing pretty much anything the last couple of days, thanks to illness. But today, after a spot of hoovering (such is the glamour of life here), I suddenly found some energy. So I'm churning this out while I can! Picking up where I left off:

I awoke around 7am, the first day of the convention. I slept OK, although at the time I wished I'd gone to bed sooner. Conventions being the tiring things they are. A quick check on Twitter revealed that I was actually one of the lucky ones. Sadly Nottingham had lived up to its usual reputation of being bonkers after dark, and this had kept some people up . Spirits still seemed reasonably positive however. I headed out from my room around 7:30, and passed by a quiet NTU. Just a lone Rainbow Dash fursuiter in sight, and the trams drifting by.

Strolling into town, there was a calm, pleasant atmosphere that portrayed the hijacks of the previous night. I went into Wetherspoons by Market Square where we'd pre-arranged to meet. Logan and Hawthorn already had a table grabbed for breakfast (the place was fairly empty anyway). I ordered myself an enormous fry-up, because that's just the way these things are done. Plus we managed to work out how to obtain tea and milk after a short bout of confusion.

Food mission accomplished, we boarded our special UK Ponycon transport service; a 3 minute tram ride. The only way to arrive at a con in style. It dropped us off just passed the venue, and I nipped back up to my room for a quick brush of the teeth. I also opted to have Luna plush with me for QueueCon this time, to go along with my new Luna shirt. Thankfully, by the time I walked up the steps of the Nottingham Conference Centre, the lines hadn't grown much. I slipped in to meet back up with Logan, Hawthorn and Mike.

We watched with anticipation as the VERY IMPORTANT PERSONS filed in for registration. Zen and Ace were there sporting a fantastic pirate getup. It was also nice to see Somerset Cider appear out of nowhere. As always, we purchased our lanyard upgrades, and registration itself was a breeze. We were in! Well, mostly. The vendor hall was still only open to VIPs, but since we were let in early that didn't matter. I watched a few people head in, and Somerset soon returned holding his new Build-a-Bears.

Before we knew it, 09:30 swung around and off we went! The most peaceful, friendly, magical stampede of pony fans ever. I for one had a particular goal in mind, and it didn't take too long to find. Ever since my first Ponycon, I've admired the custom plushies made by Sewpoke. I particularly like their slightly 'chunky' nature that makes them seem to cute and cuddly. As predicted, her stall was attracting plenty of attention, with many ponies already sold. I didn't have any particular character in mind, so was happy just to peruse the selection.

One pony did catch my eye; a Sugar Belle placed prominently on the stand. I like Sugar Belle quite a bit, not just from the episodes she's been in, but also from Fanfics I'd read. Not to mention, she featured heavily in the last 'normal' episode of FiM: The Big Mac Question. I wasn't 100% sure, so went to have a quick wander round the other stalls. But the more I thought about it, the more I knew I'd be disappointed if someone else grabbed her. Decision made, I joined the cue now growing at Sewpoke's stand. Cue a few tense moments hoping no-one in front of me wanted her. Mike was also there, his eyes set on the AJ. Happily things all worked out fine. Sewpoke explained that the little pompoms on her mane/tail were hard to source. I love the details she put in, and overall I'm very pleased!

My biggest purchase now complete, I headed over to another stall of interest. Jowy had put in a tremendous effort making loads of canvases. After looking through them, I picked out a pretty cool Daring Do /Indiana Jones piece. Now I was doubly happy, as I'd managed to get both of the things I was hoping for. This was all happening before the opening ceremony had even taken place! Carefully packing things into my bag, I met up with the others at the tombola. They seemed to be having good luck with that. Then we headed over to the Mane Stage for said ceremony, pony music pumping out through the sound system.

The normal proceedings followed, including a warning about NO SPOILERS and a strange rendition of a Shark song meme I didn't really know. After that I needed to pop back to my hotel room again, to offload some of my swag. There weren't any panels I immediately wanted to attend. Although in hindsight, 'Room 101' might have been fun to try out. Instead I had a bit more chill time to browse the merch hall and also catch up with friends. It was at this point I also picked up a pre-ordered item from the official UK Ponycon stand. One of their exclusive sea-pony Britannia plushies! I blame their promotion video entirely for this; Maz really sold her well. I received number 88 of 151.

My first 'proper' event of the convention was the 'UK Ponycon Through the Years' panel. Interestingly, this was colour-coded as a 'mane event' in the con-book. It was held in the large LT2 lecture theatre, and I really enjoyed this one. Archer and Bexi teamed up, and were well placed to give us a tour through the convention's history. I really enjoyed this, both from the interest in the subject, and from the many audience questions that were answered throughout. Having my new Britannia sitting on the desk in front of me seemed quite fitting too.

After that, we went in search of lunch. Thankfully this year they'd opened the 'refectory', a dining hall tucked away in the corner where you normally wouldn't even notice. The place was well stocked and surprisingly quiet (probably because lots of people had failed to notice it). So we jumped at the chance and got some good grub going. Various members of our group gradually joined us, and at one stage I jokingly suggested a round of 'Chase the Ace'. Even though Ace wasn't there . Then there was the Cosplay Competition, which a bunch of us went upstairs to watch. The standard of costumes on show was brilliant as ever. The weird ('Manikin' ??) and wonderful were prevalent.

The fun continues next time. There were singing, and drinks, and John Cena. Stay tuned.