Sastamalan cosplay-päivä 2023

 Hello everyone!

I attended a mini cosplay event at Sastamala's library this past Saturday (27th May) and thought I'd do a quick summary about it. The event has also been called "Sastamalan cosplay-tapahtuma" but it's the same thing – dear child has many names and yada yada. This was a rather spontaneous trip on my part as I happened to be dwelling in a nearby town at the moment the event was held. 

 

Let's go!

Event poster.

As this was a one-day event (roughly 6 hours duration) it didn't really require any planning except for waking up during a reasonable time and driving there. As I'm quite far from home I also didn't have any costumes with me and so I went in casual gear. My company and driver for the day was Firith. It took us roughly 50 minutes to drive to the library on this bright summer day.

Sastamala library entrance.

I'll admit I've never been to Sastamala's library before – heck, I've literally only briefly visited Sastamala once before for a friend's after-wedding party. So it's almost completely unknown territory for me but yeah, it looked like a comfy town. 

It was easy to find a free parking lot just outside the library and after I had Pokémon Go'd the immediate surroundings (the library was conveniently a blue gym with space for us xD) we walked in. My instant reaction was that it didn't look that much livelier than it would on your average library day, except for some kids in colorful outfits. And I gotta say I almost felt like a fossil in comparison to the age group of the other visitors – mainly school-age children. There were some who looked like teens, possibly young adults but fuck I felt old lmao. That, or transported back to 2009 when you'd still see kids in Naruto cloaks and Miku Hatsune outfits running around. It was charming though and weirdly nostalgic. The kids will be alright. :')

General view of the location.

We actually arrived just in time to watch the cosplay competition. They had some technical issues and yeah, the contestants who were mostly small kids were obviously very shy to be on stage and to speak into the mic so, umm, it goes without saying that the whole competition was over very fast considering that a full hour had apparently been reserved for it on the schedule. I can't blame the kiddos though, they were clearly nervous and intimidated to be in front of a lot of parents and other visitors watching them. Heck, I have stage fright too I once almost fainted the one and only time I tried to sing karaoke in front of my mom and cousins. xD There were four winners and I gotta say I was surprised by the quality of the prizes – huge plush dolls were given out to at least the second and first place I think? I mean.. *prepares old man voice* back in my day you'd get like a pack of poker cards if you placed in Kemi's manga day. For real, for real.

No but really, the contestants were all adorable and I think it's great that there's this kind of first-timer friendly events that are aimed at the younger population. A lot of cosplay competitions in other, more well-known events are very high-threshold and it can feel like there's a lot of requirements placed on you. Small and free events like this cosplay-day is a great gateway for newcomers to try out competing with almost no pressure, few to no restrictions (bought costumes were clearly allowed) and in a fun and stress-free environment. 

After the cosplay competition we checked the little spot reserved for the Artist's Alley and merchants. I was surprised there even was any sellers at all because the event was so tiny. And I was even more surprised to see a big-shot like Bard & Jester here, I mean these guys are famous and tour events outside the country borders! I've seen them in Närcon in Sweden.

 

A combination of Artist's Alley and merch sellers.

Bard & Jester had some sick steampunk gear etc for sale!

There were two Artist's Alley tables, of which one of them I immediately recognized from Kummacon. I did notice that there was a third table that was completely empty, which made me wonder if there had been a last minute cancellation? I did buy a few things too from aroaava.

I gotta say I liked the overall feeling of the event, it was really chill and casual. There might not have been a lot to do, when compared to a more typical con, but that's to be expected. There were plenty of different kinds of crafty stations like a table for perler beads, decorate a sakura tree with origami flowers, a lucky wheel and there was also a much appreciated table with free coffee, tea, cookies, pocky sticks and even popcorn. Now that amount of generosity gets two thumbs up from me!

Some kind of lucky wheel thingy?

Decorate the tree activity booth.

The snacks and drink booth, all free. #bless

I read that there was supposed to be a place where you could try on a VR headset but I didn't find it. Was lowkey bummed out as that did interest me a bit and it would have been fun to try out. Then again, maybe I should just have looked through things a bit more thoroughly but yeah, we didn't stay there for very long in the end.

Just for fun me and Firith participated in a lottery draw where you could win event merch (like those mugs on the picture below) just before we left.

 

Event merchandise. This had me surprised as well.

I gotta give compliments to the library workers who went all in on this day. There was this tattooed dude with amazing spiky punk-rocker hair and he was dressed at some point in a lab coat and something that looked like a homemade mask that resembled some kind of creepy green-eyed mosquito or something. Yes, it had the sucker made out of like part of a vaccuum cleaner or something lmao. It was weird, intimidating and awesome at the same time. 5/5 best outfit.

I don't have so much more to say. I enjoyed the event and how relaxed the atmosphere was. It was fun to watch the reaction of ordinary library visitors (grannies unaware of the event etc) when they saw youngsters roaming the area in fursuits and colorful wigs lol. I also gotta say that considering the scale of the event I felt like it must have had a decent budget to have as much activities as it did. I know libraries are often short on money as they're funded and dependent on the municipality and are sadly a very low-priority instance at that too. But libraries are one of the few safe havens left for (vulnerable) people in society – one of the few remaining welcoming public spaces where there's no pressure to buy anything. So yeah, it's very nice to see events hosted in libraries too to give these important places some much needed visibility and traffic. I definitely approve of the so-called "kirjastoconit", aka 'library cons'. These small events are great stepping stones for newcomers to enter the geeky community of cosplay and anime so yeah, let's keep these in the future too. <3

Thanks for reading, see y'all around!

~ Shiro Samurai out.

Kummacon 2023 – Stop, working time!

Hello geeks!

This year's rendition of Kummacon was held this past weekend in Oulu again, during 20-21.5.2023 and yes, this effectively means that I've attended Kummacon back-to-back with no other con inbetween. :'D That's because last year's Kummacon was held so late and this year's was pushed forward to be on the first half of the year! Anyways, as most people probably know by now Kummacon is a small, low threshold anime and literature convention held annually in Oulu and it's one of the few popular culture events with a free entrance.

Let's dive in!

Kummacon host building, aka Oulu's International School.

Kummacon is one of those cons that change host building almost every iteration and where it ends up comes down to things like budget and such. This is the second time (I think?) that it's held in Oulu's international school – last time was back in 2018. And I gotta say that this is one of my favorite locations because of how well-lit it is and it's very close to the train station and centrum as well, which means it's easy to find and to get to and from.

Kummacon info desk. Very visibly pro-LGBTQ+ vibes.

Already by the end of last year's Kummacon I had signed up for to return as a con worker this year. I figured why not as it gives me something fulfilling to do and well, non-profit free events like these need all the extra hands they can get to be able to go around; no people willing to donate their time equals no con and that is big sad. :'( And I knew from last year that Kummacon struggled with last-minute worker cancellations and I have plenty con worker experience under my belt by now so I didn't need to think twice before applying for round two. Except this year I ended up at the Kumma Kahvila (cafeteria) and not as a general con worker.

Entrance viewed from inside.

As I mentioned above Kummacon has been in the international school before and I felt instantly familiar when I stepped in. I think most of the layout were used similarly to 2018 – the Artist's Alley was split in two halves with one half downstairs and the other half upstairs on the second floor. There were quite a lot of artists and some I had not seen before, which is always nice! Sadly I am quite poor at the moment so the only thing I ended up buying at the whole con was a Diluc (Genshin Impact) keychain from one of the sellers upstairs for myself and two other characters as gifts.

 

Half of Artist's Alley was on the main floor.

And the other half was up the stairs. (sorry no pic)

On Saturday I worked from 13-17 local time at the cafeteria upstairs. We sold some sweet and salty treats like vegan 'härkis' burgers and sandwiches, homebaked buns and peanut butter cookies, coffee, Japanese snacks, homemade 'sima' (a traditional Finnish Easter drink similar to mead) and some few others. 

I gotta admit I was quite nervous at first when I arrived at my work station. I had slept poorly and tried to mask my growing anxiety as good as I could but luckily I was fretting for nothing as it was a pretty chill job and there were never any rushes or massive customer flows. My workmates were also friendly and there were no weird situations that cropped up, except for the obligatory technology hiccups with the card reader refusing to connect with the app and such. But we also took cash so when it did act up there was always a plan B to fall back on. And apparently the card reader hated my phone more than the other phones cuz no one else had it act up as much as I did lol.

Kumma Kahvila looked like this on Sunday.

As I spent the majority of my time at the con behind bars at the cafeteria working I gotta admit that I don't actually have so much to say about the convention itself. I saw some friends briefly but as I was the only one who worked I couldn't join them for some juicy shenanigans and thus I don't have any fun stories to share as, well, nothing out of the ordinary had a chance to happen. So I'm sorry but this summary might come across as a bit more dull than what I usually write. :')

 

Selfie with Firith! Yes I was in alt casual gear.

I did meet the lovely Firith in some Hatsune Miku inspired setup and we shared our sleeping accomodation as he and I have a mutual friend who so happens to have a study apartment in Oulu where we could crash over the weekend. Saved my ass because yeah, as I said I'm poor right now and on sick leave so the money ain't saying clinkety clink right now.

 

One of the staple vendors, Manga Cafe.

Some other geeky merch seller.

 

On Sunday my work shift were from 10-14 and it went by much the same as on Saturday, except a bit calmer still. I have no idea how much leftovers there were as I didn't stay until the closure of the con (I had to leave earlier) but I do assume that whatever were left from the cafeteria were handed out to the Green Room and to con workers to take home. 

Next year I will most likely apply to be a con worker again as I find it quite an important and delightful little side hustle and well, I do appreciate Kummacon staying as a free entrance event and for them to be able to stay that way they need volunteers to make the con happen year after year. :)

The obligatory art wall. Notice the 'poorly drawn Sasuke' meme. xD

 

I found this year's Kummacon experience to be a pleasant one. I did not attend any panels or programs or the like and spent like 90% of my time at the con working but I don't really feel like I missed out on much either as I'm a very lazy goer on any kind of activities and I'm trying to refrain from buying stuff as I feel like I own so much shit by now that I don't even know what to do with it lol. 

It doesn't take that long to traverse the building and see what the con has to offer and aside from the occasional crowding and the building being packed with people in lines waiting for popular programs to start (like the cosplay competition and cosplay date) then it was easy to navigate and move around in. I did feel some slight annoyance because upstairs there were a few cases when people would randomly sit or just stand next to the stairs for a longer time and clog up the passage, which wasn't that wide to begin with. Maybe there was a lack of chairs to sit on, I'm not sure? I didn't check every corner of the con but I know there were chairs in the same corridor where the Kumma Kirppis (second-hand store) was, although I'll admit I didn't step my foot in there.

Upstairs also had pretty crummy air flow/quality, I felt a bit nauseated several times while working and had to take breaks to go outdoors to get some fresh air; I heard that the windows upstairs couldn't be opened and that was one of the main reasons it was like that – luckily on Sunday someone brought a portable air conditioner to the cafeteria so it was a bit more manageable. Air quality was fine downstairs.

All in all Kummacon is a worthwhile con to visit if you happen to live in the north. It boasts a welcoming and safe atmosphere, a decent amount of activities to keep you entertained and it's just a breath of fun to liven up a dull week. We need to hold on tight to what few cons we have left with free entrance because yeah, I personally believe that low-threshold cons like this are a great way to get new and young hobbyists into the scene – it's a great first step to gauge if it's where you feel a sense of belonging. 

Thanks for reading and stay fresh out there!

~ Shiro Samurai out.

RE4 Leon Kennedy costest update

 Hello!

What is this, a cosplay post? You bet! :'D No but really, I know it's been literal years since I last made any cosplay progress post or anything that's not a circle lens review lol but I promise I'm getting back on track! The past weeks I've been really getting back into the cosplay groove and I actually have regained motivation to do stuff, wow! I have some moderately ambitious plans for the future and I should start cranking out more costuming content towards the summer, if everything goes as planned.

But anygays, back to the topic at hand. So yeah, a part of this reignited cosplay hype transferred over to me wanting to fix some almost-completed cosplays so that I can debut them at future conventions. I have quite a bunch of undebuted cosplays that need some small fixing before they're show-worthy. My Leon cosplay is one of them – I'm only missing props. That, and that I've wanted to slightly modify the wig a bit more as it started to bother me over the years. 

So what do I do? Well, last weekend I headed over to spend some quality time with Sallukka and their boyfriend. Sallukka slightly tinted the wig by using brown markers to color some fibers by hand and after that was done I put it on my head and we trimmed it a bit shorter on the sides and thinned down the front because it was quite front-heavy (although it didn't look like it!). The wig felt so much nicer and breezier to wear after shedding some excess fibers! It feels like it sits better on my head now and doesn't look as bulky on the front as before.

I was a derp and forgot to take any wig styling photos (sorry!) but how the wig looked before can be seen on this post from... half a decade ago, omegayikes. Jesus Christ time flies. 

 

But what I did do was a quick makeup test late yesterday just for fun and to test out the updated wig. I'm quite excited for this costume not gonna lie, it's fun to finally get around to do a bit more video game characters as I've been a major gamer all my life!

I intend to debut Leon somewhere this year but I'm just gonna make sure I have some kind of props to use before then as I find it kinda awkward to pose if I don't have anything to pose with lol. I'd prefer to make the rocket launcher if I get a chance to do that, but if not I'll try to make at least a knife, grenades or any other small props that he uses in the game. I want to fill my pouches with stuff. :D I actually scouted Ikea for fake flowers that I could paint red for a Red Herb prop to carry around but of course with my luck there wasn't anything that fit the bill in terms of leaf shapes etc ffuu ffuu. Oh well, the search continues!

I think that's about all I had to say for this round. Stay nerdy out there!