Four days at Närcon, great! And this year it was beautidul, with giant banderoles, fences all around the area, and loads of movies to watch, games to play, and a lot of other things to do. I spent quite some time in the karaoke room, even though I didn’t sing anything. I’m too shy, I guess…
The cosplay was a highlight as always. So many beautiful costumes! Many people had dressed up like robots from Transformers – and they didn’t walk around easily… Walking in those cardboard costumes looked really difficult! There were many sketches too, most of them were fun. I liked the one from Ouran High School Host Club! The only thing that made me a little frustrated was that the room was so small. They are only allowed to have 240 persons in the great hall, but with 1 400 visitors to the conventions there are more people who want to watch the cosplay show too.
The karaoke contest was pushed back, from 7 pm to 11 pm, and then it lasted for two hours. I was really tired afterwards, but many of the contestants were good at singing and it was fun to listen to them.
The anime music video contest was also an important event on my schedule. But I didn’t like that the audience didn’t get to vote this year. Luckily the jury picked the right winner – the same video I wanted to win! It was really good.
I met many old friends, that was fun. Particularly fun was it to meet a guy from Örnsköldsvik – he was in 6th grade when I was in 5th, and after that year I haven’t met him again. Then we met at Närcon, nine years later! Really fun!
I had a lot of hamburgers this year. And I tried a “drink” in the juice bar, I will try it at home too! I made sure to remember the ingredients. I will try one of the others as well, it looked good.
The only bad thing about Närcon this year was that the arrangers told us at the end that there might not be any more Närcons. They have economic problems and also staff problems – there aren’t enough people wanting to arrange the convention, and with so many visitors there’s too much to do for so few arrangers. But I’m crossing my fingers that there will be more Närcons – and maybe I’ll even be an arranger.